Towne West makes extended deadline to avoid power outage, but questions remain
Evergy said Wednesday night that the electricity “disconnection process” at Towne West Square has been canceled after they received a payment of the owners’ past-due bill.
The power company would not say if it had received the entire amount due. It referred all additional questions to Kohan Retail Investment Group. The New-York based company bought the struggling mall in 2019 along with Florida-based 4th Dimension Properties.
Mike Kohan, the managing member of the investment group, has not responded to multiple requests for comment. And an email the investment group told mall vendors to direct media to did not work.
Last week, Evergy threatened to turn off power at the mall by the end of the day Tuesday. The larger stores with their own entrances wouldn’t have been affected since they have their own accounts, which are in good standing, Evergy said. The outage would have affected kiosks and businesses with mall storefronts.
Evergy said it again extended the deadline for pay after “documentation (was) provided toward making payment” on Wednesday. Mall vendors were given a letter Tuesday from the investment group saying the mall “will have no disruption of service and operate as usual.”
A manager at a store in the mall shared that letter, and another, with The Eagle. The other letter was dated Wednesday and told vendors not to speak with the media.
“All press inquiries, regardless of their (sic) nature or relevance to your business, should be promptly directed to the management office,” the letter says. “Local media has been notified of our procedure and have been given instructions on how to make contact regardless of time of day.”
No contact instructions were sent to The Eagle. Two emails sent to the email provided, mediarequest@krigproperties.com, came back as undeliverable Thursday.
The letter also says that any photography, filming or streaming without mall management’s approval is not permitted.
“These guidelines are posted in our Code of Conduct on property and on our website,” the letter says. “We require that you adhere to these guidelines, and the Towne West Square team will enforce them.”
The letter says that “adhering to these guidelines will help protect the interests of all tenants and prevent negative impact on customer base.”
In early June, The Eagle reported that the mall had bounced checks to its employees and owed more than $363,424 in past-due property taxes and penalties from 2021 and 2022. That amount went up about $4,270 to around $367,694 after an extra penalty took effect on Tuesday.
Kohan has not responded to multiple requests to comment on stories, but he did call back after the story about the checks and past-due property taxes. He said that they were appealing the appraised valuation of the mall.
A Sedgwick County spokesperson said Thursday that the appeals had been settled, and the amount agreed upon, in October.
Contributing: Casey Loving with The Eagle