The Pines shopping mall in Pine Bluff, which was last sold for $4.2 million in 2015, is at risk of being put up for auction later this month because of an $18,000 bill that went unpaid.
Jefferson County Circuit Clerk Lafayette Woods Sr. on Tuesday signed a "notice of commissioner's sale" of the 700,000-square-foot mall for noon April 30 at the Jefferson County Courthouse. The Pine Bluff Commercial first reported Woods' notice.
The sale, though, can be averted if owners of the mall come up with a payment of $28,788.96.
Circuit Judge Robert Wyatt Jr. of Pine Bluff on Feb. 13 issued a foreclosure decree against the mall's owners, ruling in favor of Carrington Electric Co. The company had filed a lawsuit against the mall owners for failing to pay an $18,759 bill for lighting and electrical work on the mall's parking lot in 2016.
Wyatt awarded Carrington $28,788, including about $2,710 in interest and about $7,300 in attorney's fees.
Judy Vu, one of the mall's three owners, said Wednesday that she was working on the matter and would call a reporter back next week. She declined further comment.
Vu, for a time, had a lawyer to contest the Carrington lawsuit. The two other defendants, John Vu and James Vu, who both live in Wichita Falls, Texas, never filed answers to the lawsuit, according to court records.
The Pines was bought by Judy, Jack and John Vu in January 2015 for $4,219,500 and has an actual value today of $2,069,650, a worker in the Jefferson County assessor's office said Wednesday.
Terry Wynne, the Pine Bluff attorney for Judy Vu, said in a filing in September 2017 that "jurisdiction is proper only in federal court." Wynne asked to withdraw from the case last July, saying Judy Vu "has failed to cooperate ... on several occasions, making it impossible to properly represent her." Wyatt granted Wynne's request about a month later.
Jack Talbot, the lawyer for Carrington, didn't return telephone calls for comment.
After receiving no payment from the mall's owners in the weeks since Wynne's ruling, Talbot on Tuesday filed paperwork for the auction date to be set.
The Pines opened in 1986 to great fanfare in Pine Bluff, offering 700,000 square feet of space to some 110 retailers.
J.C. Penney and Dillard's department stores still anchor the mall, which at one time also had a Walmart, a Sears, a four-screen theater, more than a dozen restaurants, including a 250-seat Wyatt's Cafeteria, and a food court.
Penney's, however, announced last month that it will close its store in The Pines on July 5.
The mall has had trouble retaining -- and attracting -- tenants for years.
Another lawsuit, filed in 2017, alleged that the mall owners had violated an operating agreement by failing to keep common areas clean, resulting in fewer tenants and bringing down the value of retails space inside and around the mall.
Claiming that only about a third of the mall's retail space was filled, the lawsuit said mall owners "have shown little interest in operating a well-functioning mall."
Tramlaw PLC, an Illinois firm that owns the rights to the site that once housed the Walmart, said the mall's conditions had made the site less valuable and asked to be excused from the remainder of the contract. Wyatt granted Tramlaw's request, relieving it of nearly $160,000 in back rent, but denied its request for about $46,000 in legal fees.
Business on 04/11/2019