BY JEFF CHUDZINSKINorth Country This Week

MASSENA -- Following an initial code inspection that cited dozens of violations, the owners of the former St. Lawrence Centre mall have made "significant progress" in addressing concerns of town officials.

According to Town Code Officer Pat O'Brien, the location was rife with issues ranging from broken exit signs, safety doors, fire extinguishers and various other safety violations that were so numerous he "quit counting after several dozen" were discovered.

But in the time since the last inspection, O'Brien said many of the issues have been remedied.

“I previously reported on numerous issues with the mall, so I did a follow-up visit two weeks ago,” O'Brien told town board members.

He said of the issues cited, mall ownership moved forward with replacing the majority of exterior lighting, moving away from parking lot lights since the space is now an industrial complex with relatively no foot traffic.

"The building is pretty well lit up," O'Brien said.

Efforts have also been made to address paving and potholes on the back access road, with a contractor secured to complete the work.

O'Brien said that fell under a property maintenance code violation he wrote up.

In total, he said the mall owners had fixed roughly "70% of what we flagged" during the initial inspection, including numerous building-wide violations he wrote up.0

In many cases, inoperative fire doors were secured due to a change in the scope of code that was required when reviewing the property.

O'Brien said with the property now a commercial industrial complex that does not have foot traffic and storefronts as it once did, the number of safety exits and other code regulations did not necessarily apply to the former mall.

"They have a different set of standards, so in a way it will make it easier to work with moving forward," he said.

When O'Brien first addressed the issues at the complex during summer 2024, he said he would give ownership six months to correct the issues. That deadline was not met, at which time he gave them an additional month to begin work and come up with a plan to meet the code requirements.

He said they have now made great strides on the issues.

“When the building is designed, it’s designed for a certain occupancy, class and load. So, it’s designed for a certain number of people coming in and coming out. That’s where your emergency exits are planned for. That’s where you drive a lot of the design to the building,” O’Brien said.

O'Brien also addressed the one remaining retail store, JC Penney, and the requirements with the property.

He commented the store has an exterior entrance and exit, but no need for an interior ingress or egress with the former mall changing the scope of operations.

"“Without the public entering the building and it just being workers, what happens is they’re working with an engineer right now to redesign some of the areas because you no longer need the number of emergency exits you once had," he said.

He went on further, saying the number of fire doors required is now much lower. A compliance plan has also been submitted to O'Brien to outline how the former mall will be redesigned to meet town code requirements.

"We're going to work with them on the other 30%," O'Brien said.

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