Judge urges speed for Northridge Mall demolition

From the Article:

A judge who has been presiding over the Northridge Mall demolition order lawsuit since early 2022 again asked for more urgency from the city and the property's owner toward tearing down the vacant building.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge William Sosnay during a Wednesday hearing asked for the process to move “quickly, efficiently and effectively.” That was after city attorneys presented their strategy to take the property through tax foreclosure by the end of this month, and begin the process of demolishing it by this summer. Milwaukee officials announced that effort this month after receiving a $15 million grant from the state to pay for the mall’s demolition.

“It seems more things have transpired over the last three months than have occurred over the last 15 years,” Sosnay said.

Under an estimated timeline shown to aldermen this month, the mall’s demolition would be complete in fall 2025.

“You’re not on the same schedule I am,” Sosnay said Wednesday.

Sosnay in October 2022 upheld the city’s demolition order against Northridge, and since then has been pushing both the city and its private owner to prepare demolition plans for the building. The mall has been vacant for 20 years and has belonged to Chinese investor U.S. Black Spruce Enterprise Group Inc. since 2008.

An appeal by U.S. Black Spruce has stymied the effort to enforce the demolition order.

That could change as early as Jan. 25 when a different Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge could act upon the city’s request to take ownership of Northridge Mall through a tax foreclosure. The city filings tally $649,426 in unpaid property taxes from 2018 through 2021 on the U.S. Black Spruce properties.

U.S. Black Spruce attorney Christopher Kloth on Wednesday said he had “nothing to inform the court” regarding the company’s future plans. He is not involved in the appeal of the demolition order, or the foreclosure case.

The demolition would take more than a year to complete because of the utilities on the site, and the need to abate hazardous materials from the building structure, according to a Jan. 10 letter from assistant city attorney Theresa Montag to Sosnay. The city will create a website updating the public on those efforts, according to the letter.

By the end of the project, the city would have a cleared, graded site serving as a blank slate for a new use. The city of Milwaukee owns the vacant Boston Store building connected to Northridge Mall, and plans to start its demolition by early February.

According to Montag’s letter, U.S. Black Spruce has not put security measures in place at Northridge, and there is evidence of break-ins and guns being fired in the building. A report by city building inspectors for the week leading up to Dec. 24 said half of the property is not fenced, and that a contractor hired by the city is securing open entrances into the mall itself.

U.S. Black Spruce is tallying a $2,000 daily fine for not security the property under a 2022 order by Sosnay.

The city is prepared to secure the building “immediately” if it is given ownership to the property this month, according to Milwaukee assistant city attorney Michael Radavich.