The owners of the Pittsburgh Mills mall in Frazer owe more than $19 million in fines on the property, but it’s doubtful the township will ever collect that much money.
Experts say that’s because most of the fines are tied up in court appeals and such code violations typically are negotiated away or significantly reduced in the event the property is sold.
“Code violations, those can be negotiated,” said Pittsburgh attorney Steve Townsend of PGH Law.
Fines owed and appealed
More than 300 code violations at the mall, handed out by Frazer building inspector Bill Payne, are being debated in court, with the lion’s share of more than $17 million already appealed to Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court.
Nearly $1.5 million in fines were added to the mounting pile of civil fines Monday by District Judge Michael Girardi during a hearing that addressed 28 continued citations stemming from the condition of the Mills mall’s sidewalks, walkways, stairs, the driveway that loops around the mall and parking spaces.
In November, the Mills property owners — Pitt Galleria Realty, Pitt Realty, Pitt Galleria CH and Pitt Galleria Nassim, all part of Namdar Realty Group — appealed $11.2 million in fines handed down in August 2025 by Girardi.
At that time, the owners were found guilty of 364 code violations for lack of attention to mall maintenance, including cratered roads, overgrown weeds and building code violations cited by Payne.
The appeal hearing ended with Allegheny County Judge Thomas Flaherty handing down more than $17.6 million worth of fines. All of those fines then were appealed in Commonwealth Court.
Only if the unpaid fines are unable to be resolved through appeals or negotiated during a sale of the property could they be turned into liens against the property.
Negotiation is key
Townsend, who represents the mall companies in the criminal case filed by the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office, said a hypothetical buyer interested in the property could negotiate with Frazer officials to lower the fine amounts they’re owed in order to help the sale go through. At the close of the sale, Namdar would pay those reduced fines.
“That happens a lot,” Townsend said. “Ultimately, it’s up to the township.”
There’s a common order in which claims against a property are paid.
“As a general matter, secured claims, such as liens of record against a property, will get paid first,” said Jon Altman, real estate practice group leader at the law firm Metz Lewis Brodman Must O’Keefe. “Unsecured claims, such as claims that have not been reduced to liens of record against a property, will get paid only after the secured claims have been resolved.”
Limited Liability Companies, like the companies that own Pittsburgh Mills, and other real estate-owning entities are often “single-purpose entities” created to own nothing more than one property or group of related properties, making their worth entirely dependent upon the value of the property they own.
If someone wants to go after a real estate-owning company with an unsecured claim such as a citation fine that has not been reduced to a lien against the property, and the company owes as much or more in secured debt or claims than its property is worth, the company likely will not have any money left to pay the unsecured claims.
In this scenario, parties with unsecured claims may end up not getting paid, Altman said.
Negotiating the amount of the fines is beneficial, the lawyers say, to both the property owner and, in this case, to Frazer because it speeds up the sale of the property to another owner. A sale keeps the property on Frazer’s tax rolls and could result in increased tax revenues through redevelopment of the property.
Allowing the fines to become liens could restrict Namdar’s ability to sell or refinance because they cloud the title, and can lead to foreclosure or forced auction if not resolved.
“If a property owner fails to pay a third-party money it owes, but that outstanding payable is not reduced to a lien of record against the property, then following a sale of that property those claims will typically stay with the seller — not be conveyed to the buyer along with title to the property,” Altman said. “This is particularly relevant when these unsecured claims stay with a seller entity that may not be worth anything after short-selling the only property it owned.”
Criminal case to be heard Monday
While the civil citations can be appealed or negotiated away, the same can’t be said for any fines resulting from the criminal charge against the mall owners.
Townsend, who represents the mall companies in the ongoing criminal charge filed by the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office in April 2025, said the companies are charged with one misdemeanor count of creating a public nuisance.
Currently, Namdar and the DA’s office has an agreement to not take the charges to trial as long as Namdar remediates the damages on the property, Townsend previously told TribLive.
The owners’ March status conference, or nonjury trial, was continued to Monday due to the progress made through paving various roads.
In general, Townsend said, if a criminal public nuisance charge against a commercial property were to go to trial and receive a guilty judgement, it could significantly hinder a sale.
“A criminal judgement is not as easily negotiated away as a civil violation,” Townsend said.
He said, if the companies are found guilty, a judge can put a lien on a commercial property title in an effort to speed up abatement efforts.
“Once a criminal judgement is out there, no one’s going to touch that property,” Townsend said.
Altman said one of the first things a buyer does in the process of acquiring a property is run title searches to gain an understanding of what may encumber the property it wants to acquire.
“Most buyers will base their offer price on the assumption that they are going to get clean title to the property,” Altman said. “If the buyer’s title search shows that there are liens of record affecting title to the property it wants to buy, most buyers will tell the seller they have to clear those liens before the buyer will close on the acquisition.”
If a buyer acquires a property with a lien still on record, the buyer becomes responsible for the lien and clearing all associated costs.
What it means for the mall: If found guilty on the criminal charge, Namdar likely will have to pay the full amount of any fine before sale of the property would proceed.