The owner of the nearly vacant ShoppingTown Mall says it plans to file for reorganization in bankruptcy court to avoid a tax foreclosure, Syracuse.com reported. Edward Sklyaroff, CEO of Shoppingtown Mall NY LLC, said yesterday that he has directed mall officials to file for chapter 11 reorganization. ShoppingTown Mall NY LLC is an entity created by Moonbeam Capital Investments LLC, of Las Vegas. The mall’s move was not unexpected. Onondaga County is trying to seize the mall due to more than $9.7 million in unpaid property taxes dating back to 2015. It wants to turn it over to the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency for redevelopment. The mall has sued the county to try to stop the foreclosure, but a chapter 11 filing could put all foreclosure efforts on hold. ShoppingTown opened in 1954 as an open-air plaza and was converted into an enclosed mall in 1975. Since 2015, it has lost a long list of tenants, including Macy’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, J.C. Penney and Sears. Moonbeam bought the mall at auction for $14 million in 2013 and announced plans to turn it back into a shopping plaza, but those plans have gone nowhere. The company wants the mall’s tax assessment lowered from $36.7 million to $3.7 million.
