HAMBURG, N.Y. – With a new Buffalo News report that says real estate and financial watchdogs believe the owners of McKinley Mall are now delinquent on a major loan, 2 On Your Side wanted to check in on what Hamburg is doing to address the mall’s bleak future.
"The conversation about turning the mall into a combined use facility...sports complex, multiplex and retail is pretty much stagnant,” Supervisor Jim Shaw said on Thursday.
Shaw has high hopes that the McKinley Mall will one day be reinvented into a mixed-use facility that offers both indoor sports as well as some retail and maybe a place to eat.
But the mall's owner, Stoltz Management, doesn't quite seem ready to sell.
"We've been on the phone with mall ownership. We've sent three or four letters. We've talked to a developer that already owns some space inside the mall, so we're trying to be as proactive as we can be,” Shaw said.
Meanwhile, anchor stores continue to leave. Macy’s left first, and Ulta followed. Bon-Ton will be closed by the end of the summer, leaving only Sears and J.C. Penny on either end of the mall. While the Sears at McKinley remains open, many stores have closed across the county.
And with less sales revenue coming into the mall, debt researchers and real estate advisors believed Stoltz Management would inevitably default on mortgage loan payments back in April.
Shaw doesn't want to lose the mall, which is appraised at over $50 million market value and assessed at more than $26 million when it comes to property taxes.
Still, he's optimistic.
"We're very resilient. We got through the collapse of Bethlehem Steel and Donner Hanna Coke and Republic Steel, and we not only survived, but we thrived eventually. And we'll get through this as well,” Shaw said.