The owners of the Bangor Mall will fight two lawsuits brought by the city of Bangor in court next week.
Two lawsuits accuse the owner of code violations including a leaking roof, large potholes, a dilapidated sign and failing to fix sinkholes that caused a sewer line to break, spilling sewage into nearby ponds.
Representatives for the Bangor Mall owner, New York-based Namdar Realty Group, publicly addressed the issues for the first time during a short hearing Friday afternoon in Bangor District Court.
The city of Bangor requested a preliminary injunction to have Namdar repair the sinkhole around a 54-inch stormwater pipe that, if it breaks, may take out more sewer lines and cause major disruptions for the mall and surrounding properties.
Judge Amy Faircloth scheduled a hearing for Thursday to hear from five to six witnesses, with the possibility of it extending it to Friday if needed. Witnesses will include an out-of-state person from the mall’s property management company, said Jana Kenney, a lawyer from Bergen & Parkinson representing Namdar.
Four people will testify on behalf of the city, City Solicitor David Szewczyk said.
The city is happy to have the court hearing scheduled so soon, Szewczyk said. A court order to fix the 54-inch pipe is the ideal outcome for next week’s hearing, he said.
When the sinkhole opened and caused a break in a 10-inch sewer line and 18-inch stormwater pipe, the city told the mall to fix it, but Namdar did not respond, he said. Contractors for the owner were briefly on-site and had set up a bypass, which captures the sewage and then deposits it back into the pipes after the break, but were told to “disconnect it,” Szewczyk said.
The city then fixed the pipes. They were fixed five days after the city learned of the leak, Water Quality Management Amanda Smith said previously. It cost the city $17,651 to fix them, not including the cost of staff time.
The mall has addressed some of the parking lot potholes, but not all of them, Szewczyk said. Namdar has started site preparation work to fix the roof, said an unsigned statement provided by the law firm Bergen & Parkinson.
The mall ownership is open to redevelopment that turns it into a mixed use space with housing, a hotel, entertainment or office space, the statement said. Namdar is also open to selling the mall property to the city, as well as the potential of a joint venture.
