Meaghan M. McDermott

Staff writer

IRONDEQUOIT — Burst water pipes inside the vacant Medley Centre mall flooded a portion of the building and sent water rushing outside to fill a loading dock on Sunday afternoon.

Crews from the Ridge Culver Fire Department and the Irondequoit Fire Marshal responded to the scene and shut off the water.

Irondequoit Town Supervisor Adam Bello said part of the building's fire suppression system apparently froze and burst during recent frigid weather, and as temperatures warmed up, began leaking. He said the interior of the former mall is not being heated.

"I fear what we are seeing is the continued deterioration of this building," he said. Last week, the town stepped in to shore up a deteriorating pump house at the site which had cracked and could have exposed 8-inch diameter water mains to sub-zero temperatures.

Initial problems in the interior of the mall showed up on Wednesday, when employees of Macy's reported noting water inside a portion of the building, Bello said. At that time, a portion of the fire suppression system was disabled to prevent further leakage. Additional leaks became apparent with the continued warm weather, he said.

In a statement released Sunday night, Jim Giuliano, partner of Bersin Properties, LLC, said the following:

This afternoon, we became aware of a water leak in the Medley Centre, yet again. We have had repairmen on the site frequently during this cold weather and were surprised by this problem. We are asking the Irondequoit police department to immediately begin investigating whether the problems in the mall are being caused by people entering the mall to create media events to the detriment of the project moving forward. We are concerned that may be the case.

Bello said he would meet with Irondequoit's Code Enforcement Officer on Monday to determine what the town's next steps would be.

Macy's, one of the two remaining stores in the mall, announced this week that it would close in April as part of a chain-wide restructuring. Neither the Macy's store or Sears, the other remaining anchor, were affected by Sunday's leaks.

MCDERMOT@DemocratandChronicle.com

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