The Kanawha County Commission voted Tuesday to begin the process of filing a lawsuit against the owners of the Crossings Mall in Elkview, months after the shopping center remains inaccessible because the June floods washed out a bridge.
The decision comes after months of inaction by the Crossings Mall owners, a company called Tara Retail Group, headed by Bill Abruzzino.
Commissioners must first send the owners a notice of violation of the county's public nuisance ordinance.If the owners don't respond within 10 days, the county will likely move forward with a lawsuit in Kanawha Circuit Court.
Security and public service personnel can't access the property, which not only violates the county's property maintenance ordinance, but also creates a public risk in the event of a fire at Crossings Mall, commissioners said. At least two large gas tanks are located on the property, they said.
The Gazette-Mail reported Monday that a federal suit was filed against the owners in September by U.S. Bank National Association, which owns a $13.6 million loan the owners have defaulted on.
Commissioners also voted to hire an outside lawyer, Melissa Foster Bird, to handle the case.
"The landowner has reached out to get building permits from the Army Corps of Engineers, but then simply just never took action to do anything," Bird said Tuesday. "Because of that inaction, although it's on private property, it's creating a safety issue for the commission and citizens, in case something happened there."
Bird is looking into whether the county has the authority to intervene in the federal lawsuit. That decision would ultimately be made by U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnston, who's assigned to the case, to determine if the county's intervention would put the suit at risk of being removed to state court.
The advantage of the federal suit, Commission President Kent Carper said Tuesday, is that a receiver could be appointed to take over a new bridge's construction.
Carper said one reason he's been reluctant to bring litigation against the owners was because the larger tenants at Crossings Mall, such as Kroger and Kmart, haven't taken legal action either.
"I think the reason is ... this gentleman is very litigious," he said of Abruzzino.
Carper also said he was concerned that if the county took legal action, "the next thing you know, you'll be hearing, 'We were just in the process of fixing the bridge until this happened, and now we can't.'"
Reach Elaina Sauber at elaina.sauber@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-3051 or follow @ElainaSauber on Twitter.