Century III Mall site demolition wrapping up soon

The Allegheny County DA said criminal charges against the company that owns the property are still pending.

By MEGAN SWIFT
TribLive

Approximately 90% of the former Century III Mall site has been demolished, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said this week.

“We’ve got one building that I’m familiar with (at) Century III that is not down,” he said. “The other structures have been taken down, so that aspect of it has been taken care of.”

Zappala began pursuing criminal charges against the company that owns the mall in 2024 — after West Mifflin officials deemed the structure a nuisance and condemned it.

The charges are still pending as of Friday.

The 1.3 million-square-foot structure opened in 1979 and had decades of successful operation. However, it sold at sheriff’s sale in 2013 for $10.5 million and continued to fall into disrepair.

Attorney Steve Townsend, who represents the property owners, Century III Mall PA LLC, a Las Vegas-based firm formed in Pennsylvania in 2013, did not respond immediately to TribLive’s request for comment on the future of the property.

The former Century III Mall property in West Mifflin, a 100-acre site, borders Route 51 — a central artery in Pittsburgh’s South Hills and what Zappala called a “very dangerous stretch of road.”

Zappala has previously pressed the owners to spend about $1.9 million to reconstruct an access road on the sprawling property.

“West Mifflin should not be paying for that,” Zappala told reporters in January. “I intend to make sure (Century III Mall PA LLC) lives up to that obligation.”

Elected leaders in Harrisburg previously earmarked a $1 million grant for the Century III Mall project, which was initially identified for demolition.

But Zappala said that money will instead be used to remediate Route 51 to old Clairton Boulevard.

“We’re going to lien the property, and at the closing, we’re going to get that money back,” he said, if the Senate approves it. “And we’re go- ing to redo the intersection down on 51.

“Hopefully we can get a lot done with the Senate’s help.”

There’s also a 70-inch storm sewer that comes through the heart of the property, according to Zappala.

“That infrastructure is critical to controlling water and controlling flooding on 51, but it affects three different communities,” he said.

Those neighboring communities include West Mifflin, Pleasant Hills and Jefferson Hills.

“So between the three of them, we’re having discussions with two school districts about what they would prefer to see on that site,” Zappala said.

He didn’t elaborate on what has been discussed.

The Century III Mall property is located within the West Mifflin Area School District, and the neighboring school district is West Jefferson Hills School District.

A potential buyer has voiced interest in

developing the West Mifflin site, he said during a January news conference.

Zappala confirmed on Wednesday that the developer is from Chicago, and though he’s not a local guy, Zappala said he’s “decent” and “capable.”

“We’ve done some background on him. He’s a legitimate guy,” he said. “He wants to talk, and he wants to be friends with the municipalities. “

But Zappala is confident that there will be a partnership with local governments moving forward for the Century III Mall site.

“We’ve made a lot of progress in about a year and a half,” he said. “We got one more building to take down, and then we’re basically flat.”

The company filed for bankruptcy in 2018, court records show. A year later, West Mifflin and the West Mifflin Area School District sought more than $1 million from the company in unpaid property taxes.