Owners of abandoned Century III Mall criminally charged

WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. (KDKA) -- The owners of the abandoned Century III Mall are facing charges. 

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala filed a criminal complaint against mall ownership on Tuesday, calling the empty building in West Mifflin a "criminal nuisance." The owners failed to pay a $150,000 fine imposed for three code violations of unsafe structures, sanitation problems and rampant weed growth on the property. 

"For the last 10 years, the people of West Mifflin have had to deal with this, but also the people of Pleasant Hills, the people of Jefferson and the people of Baldwin," Zappala said in a news conference. 

The district attorney filed a temporary restraining order against the owners, and he said if it's signed by a judge, he'll start the process of demolishing the building. 

"What is striking to me is when Mayor Kelly asked me to get involved in this and take a look at it, he said, 'Steve, I can't in good faith continue to send people into this building. It's dangerous, it makes no sense, there's no reason to be there. Why is the building still up?' And so we looked at it and we looked at what possible upside there could be to keeping the building, and I can find none," Zappala said. 

Once the third biggest mall in the world and a retail wonder when it opened in 1979, the Century III Mall was sold to Moonbeam Capital Investments in 2013. The company promised to revitalize it, but in 2019, the borough determined the building to be out of compliance. 

According to the criminal complaint, after the property was purchased, a company representative met with officials to outline a plan to rehabilitate the mall and bring in new tenants. However, court documents claim that didn't happen.  

"For 10 years, we've been hunting for an ear that would listen to reason over how this has affected our community. The tax base is affected in the immediate area, driving real estate taxes down, driving budgets down -- the people that have been injured there."

West Mifflin Borough Council unanimously voted to condemn the property in July. Just last year, a handful of people were charged with breaking in and filming videos for social media. 

A YouTuber from Ohio and two other people he was with were charged with breaking into the mall in May. In June, a teenager fell through the roof of the mall while filming a TikTok. He was hospitalized and charged with trespassing. Several months later, another YouTuber was charged with criminal and defiant trespassing after police said he traveled all the way from Oklahoma to break into the mall. 

"We're only taking property temporarily and that's to remediate a problem that creates a public risk of death. When people start falling through the roof, that got our attention," Zappala said.