The city of Bangor wants a judge to order the Bangor Mall to pay roughly $2.1 million in fees and fines for failing to take care of the property.
Bangor filed two lawsuits against the mall, owned by Namdar Realty Group, for various code violations, including failing to fix a broken sewer pipe, a leaking roof, large potholes and a dilapidated sign.
A Bangor District Court judge heard two days of witnesses testimony last month that outlined the issues, including sewage flowing out of a broken pipe on mall property into the Penjajawoc Stream. A sinkhole opened around a 54-inch stormwater pipe, causing a break in a 10-inch sewer line and 18-inch stormwater pipe that the city repaired after the mall failed to do so.
The judge, Bruce Mallonee, ordered the city and mall owner to file written briefs after the hearing ended Jan. 10.
The city filed a 42-page response Jan. 23, which proposed fines of at least $2,069,460.
If a judge orders Namdar to pay those fines, it would cost the company a sixth of what it paid for the property in 2019. In the years since Namdar’s purchase, the mall has hemorrhaged tenants, leaving less than half of storefronts occupied.
Namdar owns 376 properties across 37 states, according to its website. Fines are not the right path, Namdar representative Daniel Giannini said after the Jan. 10 hearing. Instead, the mall and city should reach an agreement.
Bangor’s residents are “best served” by Namdar putting money into fixing the mall instead of paying civil penalties, the company’s lawyers said in a response filed Friday.
“This is not a case of a property owner evading responsibility, but instead a case that requires understanding the context surrounding the issues … and the unavoidable and uncontrollable constraints that have prevented immediate solutions,” the mall’s response said.
The city has until this upcoming Friday to file a response.
When the sewer line broke last August, a contractor for the mall set up a bypass — which captures the sewage and then deposits it back into the pipes after the break — that was operational by the second day of the broken pipe.
Namdar then told the contractor to stop the bypass and that it would not pay the contractor because there was no traditional bidding process and there was not enough time for Namdar to find a different contractor.
“This intentional egregious act of pollution was a calculated business decision of Namdar designed to save money on the sewer and stormwater line repairs,” the city said in the filing.
Bangor hired a contractor to set up a bypass and then fix the broken sewer line at a cost of $38,967, Director of Water Quality Management Amanda Smith testified. Namdar has not reimbursed the city.
Namdar disputes the city’s assertion that there were two different violations, before and after the bypass was removed. The number of violations change how much the mall can be fined per day under the city’s ordinances.
The mall’s failure to maintain the stormwater system was an “intentional” and “egregious” decision, the city said. It asked the judge to fine the mall $2,500 per day from June 15 until repairs are completed. It would be a fine of $560,000 from that date to Jan. 24, the day the city’s response was due.
It took Namdar “a couple of months” to determine if the stormwater pipes that led to the issue were in fact owned by Namdar, the response said.
The mall also violated the city’s sign ordinance, as the Bangor Mall sign is missing letters and contains rotted out pieces, the city said. For that violation, the city wants a judge to charge the mall $60 per day starting April 3. It would be a cost of $17,460 from that date to Jan. 24.
Other fines include $287,000 for the roof violations, $290,000 for failing to address deficiencies in the stormwater structure and $168,000 for the parking lot violations, among others.
The city asked the judge to force the mall to repair or replace a 54-inch stormwater pipe. If another sinkhole forms or another sewer pipe breaks, it would be “an environmental disaster for the land, the detention ponds, and the waters of the Penjajawoc Stream,” the city said.
Namdar should also be ordered to hire a “qualified stormwater engineer” to oversee the lines, the city’s filing said. The company has worked to find a contractor to fix the stormwater pipe and has not been able to find someone who is qualified and willing to take on the large project, the mall’s filing said.
Retention ponds connected to the 54-inch stormwater pipe have standing sewage. Namdar needs to remediate the ponds, but they are frozen. The mall asked for a deadline of June 20 to hire a contractor and have the remediation scheduled.
Namdar asked the judge to give the company until June 20 to fix the issues with the parking lot, roof and stormwater pipe because those repairs need to happen seasonally.
