One year later, not much new at Medley Centre

Sunday's arrest of two people who were allegedly trespassing inside the former Medley Centre highlights one of the many issues that vacant structure still poses for the town of Irondequoit.

Sure, developer Angelo Ingrassia offered the community a new hope last January when he bid $100,000 at a Monroe County sheriff's sale to secure the former mall and nine adjacent parcels. But, a dozen months later, development plans at the site still seem far off and there seems to be little more movement there than there had been under former owners, Bersin Properties LLC.

►Medley Centre timeline

Unless, of course, you count the closure last year of what was surely the loneliest Sears in the retail chain. Sears had long outlasted each and every retailer — McCurdy's Macy's, Bon-Ton, JCPenney, Steve & Barry's and dozens more — that fled Medley Centre (also known as the Irondequoit Mall) until the Illinois-based Sears Holding Corp. threw in the towel last July, closing that store along with a tired Kmart in Greece.

►Sears closing at Medley Centre; Greece Kmart, too

Irondequoit Town Supervisor David Seeley said that despite no visible signs of activity at the mall, he's certain Ingrassia is still working to push forward some kind of redevelopment there. He wouldn't divulge details, but reiterated that it's nearly certain the site will never again be a full-scale retail center. Seeley said he's in frequent contact with Ingrassia, and is sympathetic to the difficulty in marketing out a long-vacant mall, but that he's been making it clear that the community is a little itchy to hear some good news.

I don't know if this counts, but Monroe County records show Ingrassia's 1733 Ridge Road LLC paid $1.3 million in late December to purchase the former Sears. Now, his company owns the entirety of the mall save for the former Macy's, which was purchased by developer David Flaum back in early 2015.

On Monday, Ingrassia did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

►Flaum officially buys Irondequoit Macy's

Meanwhile, the mall remains vacant. The power's off and there's no water. Even the fire sprinkler system had to be turned off a couple years ago after pipes inside burst, sending a flood of water through parts of the structure significant enough that it was flowing out of the first-floor entry doors. I've heard from sources that it's to the point now where the roof may be leaking. The parking lot is full of potholes and there's an abundance of trash piling up on the sidewalks and in all the little nooks and crannies around the mall's exterior.

And it's certain that the empty mall remains an attractive nuisance, given Sunday's arrests of Christopher Bill of Henrietta and Jennifer Temelkovski of Rush, who face charges of third-degree criminal trespass for allegedly traipsing about inside without permission from the mall's owners.

MCDERMOT@Gannett.com