The City and Mall Association have seemingly been on the verge of a settlement in the drawn-out legal fight over the future of the downtown mall, but maybe this time the case can finally come to a close.
According to Mall Association President and Operating Committee Chairman Robert Chiarmonte, the mall board has been updated on details of the latest draft of the deal.
"There's a current supposed agreement that's pretty recent but it's not ... approved by either side yet," Chiarmonte told WBTA. "Each merchant has to approve and sign off. It's not it hasn't gotten to that point yet. The meeting that we had last night was mostly informational. There was no voting actually took place."
It's not certain the owners of all the mall parcels will agree to the settlement.
"Both sides have to agree before we can bring it to a vote," Chiarmonte said. "There are some things in that agreement that we do agree on but I can't discuss most of that. ... It's probably closer than it's been but there are still a few hurdles we need to get passed before we can call it an agreement. I don't think I can discuss details of the agreement at this point because it's still considered an act of litigation. I am hoping that we can come to an agreement soon because it's been going on for a very long time."
City officials have been waiting since most of the year for the mall owners to agree to a settlement they thought attorneys for both sides had accepted in February.
