Medley Centre - History

History

In 1990, Wilmorite Properties. opened the Irondequoit Mall, a two floor shopping mall with three anchors: Sears, JC Penney, and Kaufmann's. In 1993, McCurdy's was added, which later became Bon-Ton. The mall did very well at first, with a variety of smaller, specialty stores unavailable elsewhere in the area. It started to decline in 1995, when 2 malls nearby, Greece Towne Mall and Long Ridge Mall, joined to become The Mall at Greece Ridge, and another area mall, Eastview Mall, expanded.

The JC Penney store closed in 2003, by which time approximately 80 percent of the mall's non-anchor retail space was vacant. In 2005, Wilmorite sold the mall to Bersin Properties LLC, headed by Adam Bersin, and the name of the mall changed to Medley Centre. Also in 2005, the mall got a new anchor, Steve & Barry's. In 2006 the mall got 2 new anchors: Macy's (replaced Kaufmanns), and Target (in an exterior location).

In 2007, Beresin Properties was purchased by Scott R. Congel, a former principal with The Pyramid Companies of Syracuse. The sale triggered speculation that the half-empty mall may be developed into a mixed use property.

In 2008, Steve & Barry's announced that they would close their Medley Centre store by May 25 to move it to a new location at the West Gates Shopping Center; shortly thereafter the entire Steve & Barry's chain went out of business.

On March 17, 2009, Bersin Properties received final approval from COMIDA (County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency) of a PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) agreement that, in the previous week, received the required consent form both the Town of Irondequoit and the East Irondequoit Central School District (the school district in which the property is located).

Congel announced plans to redevelop the property into a mixed-use facility including a large hotel, condominiums, a movie theater, and office space, in addition to retail and restaurant space. All of the stores remaining in the mall, except for Sears and Macy's, closed in early January 2009.

In April, 2010, a local newspaper reported that Scott Congel had met with Irondequoit's new Supervisor, Mary Joyce D’Aurizio. "The developer is just repositioning some of the tenants in an effort to reduce remodeling costs," said D'Aurizio in the news article. "“The project has not been reduced in scope...he left no doubt that he’s definitely moving forward with his plans.”

But that talk failed to prompt any action. A 2011 report found that Congel owed more than $200,000 in taxes on the property, had failed to make a scheduled $500,000 payment to the town of Irondequoit, and was the defendant in a number of civil suits, including one by a local engineering firm which claimed it was owed more than $400,000 for work performed.

An article in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle in November 2012 noted: "no apparent work has been done since he (Congel) bought the property in 2007."