Onondaga County begins foreclosure proceeding on Great Northern Mall, seeks sale

CLAY, N.Y. — Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon says the current owner of the Great Northern Mall in Clay has two options to solve its issue of owing the county more than $5.2 million in back taxes.

“They offered to make a large payment on the $5.2 [million] to us to set up another tax deal but that’s just not something we were interested in,” the county executive said. “We’ve been down this road before, so the story needs to come to a conclusion and there either needs to be a sale or we need to get paid in full.”

McMahon spoke in a Zoom call with local reporters on Thursday morning.

Onondaga County on Wednesday filed a foreclosure action in Onondaga County Supreme Court against Kohan Retail Investment Group, of Great Neck on Long Island. The lawsuit should not have any immediate impact on any current tenants of the mall, per a county news release.

CNYBJ emailed Kohan Retail Investment Group seeking comment on the situation but didn’t get an immediate response.

Onondaga County contended that it filed the foreclosure action against the company after it failed “to honor [its] repayment plan along with constant code violations and [unpredictability] for the remaining tenants.”

“We’ve put forward good developers who want to do something with the property. We put them in touch with the ownership group,” McMahon said in the Zoom call. “They have opportunities to do the right thing and execute a sale. If they don’t want to execute a sale, then certainly they’re going to have to risk us being in the position where we can foreclose.”

Onondaga County has referred a couple local developers to speak with Kohan, McMahon added.

In Onondaga County’s release, he said, “The days of out-of-town landlords failing to pay their taxes while simultaneously depreciating their properties are over. We held Moonbeam responsible when it came to ShoppingTown Mall and today, we are doing the same with the owners of Great Northern Mall.”

He explained that with this action, Onondaga County has now begun the process of taking over ownership of the mall and will work to quickly get the property redeveloped.

If Onondaga County forecloses on the property, then it would issue a request-for-proposal, similar to the way it handled the situation with ShoppingTown Mall in DeWitt.

“We know there’s interest in the property and also there could be strategic value for us having at least some ownership control of the property related to [the] White Pine [Business Park]. But, overall, this is something that the private sector is going to have to work through and redevelop,” McMahon said.

Housing is a “big deal right now,” he added, noting that many of the people the county has spoken to see part of the property as being a potential solution to some of the area’s housing shortage

“I think you’ll see some commercial town center-type development, similar to what [is proposed for ShoppingTown Mall in DeWitt]. Makes sense. The northern suburbs are our fastest-growing suburbs and that will likely be the trend moving forward as well,” the county executive noted.