West Mifflin Council unanimously condemns former Century III Mall

West Mifflin Council voted unanimously Tuesday to condemn the former Century III Mall.

The vote was 6-0 with Councilman Anthony Topolnak absent.

Attorney Nicole Nino, filling in for borough Solicitor Phil DiLucente, said the property owner, Moonbeam Capital Investments, has 30 days to appeal.

She said she could not comment on the litigation.

The 1.3-million-square-foot mall opened in 1979. Moonbeam obtained the property in 2013 and is current on its taxes.

The Las Vegas-based company previously pledged to revitalize the site. Instead, the mall closed in 2019 and now sits dilapidated, structurally unsound and covered in graffiti.

Councilman Dan Davis said the borough will be able to determine its next steps after the appeal process plays out.

He conceded that the borough cannot afford a multimillion-dollar demolition of the property without state or federal funding. Razing the property is estimated to cost about $15 million.

“We’re going to talk with the county,” Davis said. “We’re going to talk to our state representatives (and) our senators of PA, RIDC of Allegheny County and even (John) Fetterman and Summer Lee. … We can’t, in West Mifflin, take this on as a full demolition project. We’re not looking to do that. We want the building razed, but we don’t want to foot the bill for this.”

Davis suggested that Moonbeam also has about three options for the mall; sell it, demolish it or fix it.

“They can do it themselves,” Davis said. “We’re saying the building is uninhabitable right now. They can still try to bring it up to code if they wanted to. They still can sell it, but by this vote tonight, we have adjudicated the property for them.”

A demolition hearing took place in June.

A teenage boy was hospitalized after falling 20 feet at the former Macy’s store at the mall early that month.

Numerous “Keep Out” signs are posted throughout the site.

Davis said the borough is following all the necessary steps to address the dilapidated property.

“People think we weren’t doing anything,” Davis said. “It is a process that you have to go through. You have to have an open forum like we had last month. We got the meeting minutes. We reviewed them. We voted on it tonight. They have 30 days to appeal.

“It’s not as quick as everyone thinks like after this vote tonight we can go demo it. It’s still going to take a couple months for us to figure out where we go (from here) and figure out the situation. After 30 days, I probably can give you a better idea where we’re going to be with this. Would we like it down this year? Most definitely.”

District Judge Richard D. Olasz Jr. fined Moonbeam about $240,000 for violating borough ordinances on sanitation, unsafe structures, and weeds and high growth.

The ruling came down at a hearing July 5.

Borough officials said Moonbeam has 30 days to appeal the fine and that, so far, no notifications that an appeal was filed have been received.

Other council members declined to comment after the meeting.

Resident Diane Stanesic commended council’s demolition vote.

She called the property “an eyesore” and “a huge mess.”

Resident Jim Jasinski talked about the decline of the mall and its impact on many people.

“It really hurts to see that,” Jasinski said. “The amount of people that were employed there, the amount of businesses that were there, the offspring of businesses on Route 51 (and) Century Square — all those businesses grew because of Century III Mall.

“Even to ride on the streets around there, you need an Army tank. It’s terrible to see so much decay. You look at the area around Hazelwood, and you see all the development as far as technology and things like that. Then you come home to look at West Mifflin, and you see the deterioration of that building. It’s so demoralizing.”

He said he is anxious to see the borough’s next move.

“We would like to have heard a vote saying, ‘Bring in the bulldozers. We’re going to start tearing it down tomorrow,’” Jasinski said. “Obviously, Moonbeam has their hands still in the cookie jar.

“We know they’re going to appeal and the borough’s going to get stuck for a couple more years. As a lifelong resident, I’ve been coming to these meetings for 30 years. When the mall started going downhill, residents would come up here and complain all the time. … Now you see there may be a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. There is some hope for the residents. It’s a shame it took so long.”

Messages seeking comment from Moonbeam officials Tuesday evening were not immediately returned.