Oak Park Mall pays its delinquent taxes
Published 9:41 am Friday, June 28, 2013
AUSTIN — The owners of Oak Park Mall have paid their delinquent property taxes.
Officials with the Mower County Auditor-Treasurer’s Office confirmed they received a cashier’s check shortly before 5 p.m. Wednesday paying off the more than $378,000 in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties.
The previously unpaid taxes dated to 2009 and were on lots 1 and 11 of the mall, which included Younkers, the CineMagic 7 movie theater and all other tenants except Shopko, which is owned by the retailer. The county’s assessed property tax value of lots 1 and 11 is more than $2.5 million as of this year.
Oak Park Mall Ltd. Partnership — which comprises Martin Graff of M H Graff & Associates Inc., and Martin Goldman of M J Goldman & Co. Ltd., both north of Chicago — had until the end of the month to pay the taxes, or the county was prepared to take over the property.
Mower County officials prepared temporary leases and took other steps in recent weeks to keep the mall open in case a forfeiture occurred.
The mall also owed about $117,000 to Austin Utilities for its common areas, according to Mower County Coordinator Craig Oscarson. But it is unclear if that has also been paid off. An Austin Utilities official recently declined to comment on the Oak Park Mall’s billing status, stating it’s confidential information.