What input Target will retain on the future of a vacant shopping mall in Irondequoit will come no sooner than next month.
Lawyers for the retail giant and for the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency made their arguments Thursday in the regional appellate court. The next scheduled date for the court to issue decisions is June 5.
The issue is an agreement that owners of the former Irondequoit Mall had with Target that prohibits most non-retail uses and gives the anchor store a say in any changes. But the owners enlisted COMIDA last year to use eminent domain, commonly referred to as condemnation. Typically that government authority is used to take ownership of private property for some public purpose. In this case, it was used to cancel the agreement. Target later sued.
That the retailer did not attend the condemnation hearing last year undercuts their ability to challenge the outcome today, COMIDA’s lawyer argued. Target’s lawyer countered that COMIDA took action without a clear project in mind, muddying any claim of an underlying public purpose or benefit.
“They're asking this court to just give them unfettered discretion to just take any right that they think they need,” said Target’s lawyer Michael Fogel. “But the problem with that is that there's no project against which to measure that exercise of taking authority.”
Allison Fiut, arguing for COMIDA, said the public purpose is reuse and occupancy of the mall property — now called Skyview on the Ridge — not defining what the specific business or user would be.
“As a practical matter, it is very difficult to engage with potential end users when there (are) restrictions that would prohibit that use,” she said. “There's uncertainty.”
Associate Justice Stephen Lindley with the Fourth Department, Appellate Division of the New York state Supreme Court interjected: “It didn't seem like the developer ever went to Target and say, ‘Hey, can we work something out? You have these restrictions and these easements. Can we work something out?’ They instead went to the IDA and said, ‘Hey, can you go condemn their property rights for us?’”
“The statute does not require a specific threshold of negotiations in order to proceed,” Fiut said in response, adding it is “not easy to get the attention of a company like Target Corporation.”
But, she added, mall developer Angelo Ingrassia and Target are talking now, “and of course, everyone would prefer that there's a negotiated resolution. But that might not be the case.”
So far, a community center and senior apartments have been built and opened. Target contends the apartments were “unlawful.”
Ingrassia also is in negotiations for a storage facility to fill some of the space, Fiut said. And Finger Lakes Goodwill announced plans in November to open a new retail center, assisted by $1.3 million in state funding.
Fiut, though, said Goodwill’s lease "is contingent on this condemnation proceeding.” Goodwill did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment Thursday.
