Enfield Square Tenants, Town Officials Discuss Improving Communication

ENFIELD, CT — An open meeting arranged to help open the lines of communication between tenants of the Enfield Square shopping mall and town officials drew more than two dozen interested parties Monday, to discuss subjects ranging from issues with mall ownership to improving the perception of the facility as put forth by local leaders.

The impetus for the gathering, co-hosted by SSUPhoto Designs and Galaxy Pops and Beyond, was a recent notification to Namdar Realty Group, owner of the mall since 2018, that town officials could shut down the facility if major safety violations, particularly in the fire protection system, were not corrected.

In mid-July, Town Manager Ellen Zoppo-Sassu and chief building official Ray Steadward hand-delivered a letter to mall tenants, informing them of "issues with getting mall ownership/management to maintain parts of the mall in compliance with minimum building and fire codes."

"We're not getting any real response from building ownership, certainly not in the timeframe they should have been in," Steadward said Monday.

A number of store owners believe Zoppo-Sassu and other officials have publicly stated the problems with Namdar, but their lack of positivity about what is happening at the shopping center has created public perception that the mall is about to close.

"We need positive words from the town," Dwayne Thomas, owner of SSUPhoto Designs, told the audience. "There hasn't been anything positive from the town manager's office about the good things here."

Jonathan Metcalf of Integrity Martial Arts recently relocated to the Square after many years in a small strip plaza in the Scitico section of town. He said he was basically laughed at by a town official when he told them of his imminent move to the mall.

Last summer, a portion of the second story of the long-vacant Macy's store on the western end of the mall collapsed, causing a safety hazard to which the ownership did not respond. After four and a half weeks, the town ended up taking measures to fix the problem, costing more than $100,000 and resulting in a lien being placed on the property.

The lack of response in that instance, coupled with the recent fire code violations not being corrected in a timely fashion, prompted a recent email from Zoppo-Sassu to Namdar management indicating "the relationship is too far gone to be salvaged."

"The narrative has been the mall is closing, and you guys aren't talking, so the public doesn't want to come in," Galaxy Pops owner Rob Merrill said. "The stigma in Enfield has always been the town is difficult to work with."

Since December, when the mall had an occupancy rate of 25 percent, several new businesses have moved in. There are now about three dozen tenants, with an occupancy rate approaching 60 percent.

Zoppo-Sassu said she would like Namdar to sell the property outright, indicating she has been in contact with several companies she feels would be the right fit to revitalize the mall.

"They are people I'd want to do business with," she told the merchants. "There is an entrepreneurial burst happening here with small businesses coming in to use this space, because it's affordable and growing their business and growing their customer base. That is not going to continue if Namdar continues to be the person all of you are paying your rent to. They are dismantlers, not investors."

Arturo Gonzalez of Calm Panda Smartshop recently signed a three-year lease in Enfield after announcement that his previous location, Eastfield Mall in Springfield, Mass., is slated for demolition.

"I consider Namdar to be like Richard Gere in 'Pretty Woman,'" Gonzalez said. "What did he do in that movie? He'd buy companies and sell them out piece by piece."

Zoppo-Sassu said there are numerous possibilities, including a mixed-use development including medical, commercial and residential.

"This is a very interesting commercial piece because it's sandwiched between two very robust commercial corridors," she said.

Other concerns raised by the tenants included signage regulations, installation of a store directory and security issues. Zoppo-Sassu promised "better communication to the public about what's here."