LAKEWOOD – Plans to redevelop part of the Chautauqua Mall into professional office space are on hold.

Chautauqua County PJ Wendel gave an update to Lakewood Village Board of Trustees Monday regarding the status of the mall.

“I know there’s some concern as to the county moving forward, but the county is in no position,” Wendel said.

In December 2024, county lawmakers heard a presentation by Summit Properties, mall owners, about professional space development at the mall, located at 318 E. Fairmount Ave.

Proposed departments include Temporary Assistance/Medicaid, Probation, Department of Motor Vehicles, Child Welfare, the Department of Health and Human Services Administration, Nursing and Environmental Health, and the Legal Department.

“So we’re right now, we (the county) are just looking at opportunities, looking at options. Nothing has been formatted, nothing is concrete,” Wendel said.

Wendel noted that Summit Properties presented a plan with “some pictures and renderings, (and) no details as far as numbers, cost, and finance.”

“It’s still open. We’re still looking for more to come,” Wendel said.

In November 2024, Lakewood Trustees heard a presentation by Brian Kulpa, an architect and urban planner with Imagine Solutions of Amherst.

Trustee Ellen Barnes said then, village officials wanted to see what can be done with the mall since many retailers have left. She added that officials asked Kulpa for preliminary ideas on how else the property can be utilized and how to maybe repurpose it.

“The village has lost a lot,” Barnes said at the board’s November meeting.

In 2023, the mall got a break on the property’s tax assessment. Chautauqua Mall Realty Holding LLC, filed an Article 7 case in state Supreme Court seeking a reduction in the mall’s property valuation from $6 million to $670,000. After hearing arguments in the proceeding, state Supreme Court Justice Grace Hanlon ruled that the mall’s new assessment be decreased to $4,020,000 through 2026.

The 2023 filing came after the town of Busti, village of Lakewood, Chautauqua County and the Southwestern Central School District had to reimburse the mall a percentage of taxes paid in 2020, 2021 and 2022 after the mall’s taxable assessment was decreased late in 2022. Court records show that in 2020 the mall’s assessment was $9,260,000, and that amount was reduced to $5,772,000. In 2021 the assessment was $9,260,000, and it was reduced to $5,592,000, and in 2022 the assessment was $9,260,000, and it has been reduced to $4,965,000. The 2023 tax assessment from the Busti tax assessor was $6 million — an amount mall officials said was too high even though the mall was purchased for $6 million in September 2022.