Kanawha County commissioners said Monday they would file a claim against the owner of the Crossings Mall in Elkview, which has been closed for several months after the only bridge to the shopping center washed out in last June's floods.
The mall was supposed to be sold on the Kanawha courthouse steps last week, but a last-minute bankruptcy filing by the mall's owners, Tara Retail Group, canceled that sale. Tara Retail is owned by Bill Abruzzino.
"There have been far too many delays in the process to rebuild the bridge at the Crossings Mall," County Commission President Kent Carper said in a news release. "The lack of safe access to the mall creates a public nuisance that must be rectified as soon as possible."
In a letter to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John Flatley of the Northern District of West Virginia, Carper called the bankruptcy filing "simply the latest dilatory practice aimed at slowing construction of the bridge at the Crossing Mall property."
Carper noted that as many as 500 people work at the shopping center, and urged the bankruptcy judge to move as quickly as possible to let the bridge be built.
Martin Perry, who was appointed as receiver of the Crossings Mall property in December, said last week that the threat of a bankruptcy filing from the mall's owners had slowed down progress on replacing the bridge.
Tara Retail has between one and 50 creditors, according to bankruptcy court filings. The largest is U.S. Bank Association, which said the mall owner defaulted on a $13.6 million loan after the bridge was wiped out and the businesses at the Crossings Mall had to close and could no longer pay rent.
Carper and Hoppy Shores are the only two Kanawha County commissioners in office; they are working to fill a vacancy left when Dave Hardy resigned to become secretary of the state Department of Revenue.