Matteson sues to close Lincoln Mall over ignored safety concerns

Lincoln Mall as it looked last year while emerging from bankruptcy.

By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy

The Village of Matteson filed a lawsuit Wednesday asking a Cook County judge to order the failing Lincoln Mall to be closed immediately because its new owner has failed to correct a slew of building and fire violations.

The village also asked the judge to appoint an independent receiver to oversee needed rehab work at the mall at U.S. 30 and Cicero Avenue.

“We want to get the mall back to what we all know how it used to be many years ago,” Matteson village administrator Brian Mitchell said Wednesday at a news conference after the lawsuit was filed.

Attorneys for the village said Lincoln Mall has failed several building and fire inspections over the past two years.

“If there was a fire, and people were trying to get out, there are situations in which exits lead to dead ends, or barricaded doors,” village attorney Tony Licata said.

The mall has been on the decline for the better part of two decades and huge chunks of the mall have been demolished or are in the process of being torn down.

The mall was purchased out of bankruptcy last summer by Michael Kohan, of New York, for the paltry sum of $154,500. Village officials said he has done nothing to correct the safety violations and has been stringing them along with vague promises of redeveloping the indoor mall.

The lawsuit specifically excluded the Carson’s store, which village officials said was the only safe part of the mall.

Two dozen violations were cited in the lawsuit included crumbling façade, exposed wiring, a padlocked emergency exit, dismantled fire sprinkler pipes, unfinished demolition of the former Montgomery Ward store, which closed in 1999.

Last year, the Sears store closed leaving Carson’s as its only anchor.

The mall’s Facebook page, which has been talking for months about its coming redevelopment was silent Wednesday and posted nothing about the lawsuit.

Its last word on the redevelopment was posted on July 27: “Possibly you saw me walking Friday with the Village and the Re-developer. The Village did go over the proposal for the door; the Village wants a new Proposal which will also have ALL Safety and Building codes up to standard. I talked to Mike (The Owner) and the Re-Developer. Mike said he would give his approval to have all work done. The Village wants the Proposal as soon as possible. So they can approve all plans, they want this project done as soon as possible. I told Mike I would like to have approval of an Occupancy date so I can have Tenants in the Mall before Christmas. I will talk to the Re-developer on Monday possibly I will be able to get a estimate date if he is done with the Proposal. It takes a new Tenant time to set up a new Business as I’m sure you all know.”