On Monday, May 8, a severe hail storm hit the Denver metro area and the Colorado Mills mall in Lakewood suffered greatly in damages. The mall will remain closed until November.
After being on the brute end of the massive hail storm that hit the Denver metro area on May 8, the Colorado Mills shopping mall will be closed indefinitely due to damages sustained in the storm. The mall could be closed until November, or even later. According to a letter written to mall tenants obtained by CBS4, the Lakewood mall stated,At this time, we are not able to estimate, with precision, how long it will take until the complex is ready to be open to the public; however, we do not believe it will be before November ... the common areas and tenant spaces, suffered substantial water damage. Power has been restored but, due to the continued rain and damage to electrical systems, mechanical systems, including HVAC and lighting, are not at full capacity."
Colorado Mills posted the following tweets on their Twitter page just a few days after the storm:
https://twitter.com/ColoradoMills/status/862316576191676418
https://twitter.com/ColoradoMills/status/862731241585594368
Now, as a result of the water damage, city officials are worried about the fate of the thousands of workers at the mall and how this will affect sales tax collections. Finance director of Lakewood, Larry Dorr, spoke with The Denver Post, "the city gets an average of $350,000 per month in sales tax" from Colorado Mills and that does not include "proceeds from the Super Target and several other adjacent businesses that are still operating at the site."
This means that Lakewood could "see a loss of $2.1 million over the next half-year." Luckily, according to Dorr, Lakewood has over $20 million in reserves that are saved for instances like this. In turn, however, that means some services could end up getting shortchanged, like park bench replacement.
The Mayor of Lakewood, Adam Paul, said that their first priority is, "how do we get these folks back online and working again? What about all the lost jobs, and where do all the people go?"
Those are questions many people are asking, especially those who work at the shopping mall and are now unable to work due to the damage.
Morgan McCoy, the store manage for Aldo Shoes, told The Denver Post that she is sending her eight employees to Aldo's other stores across the Denver metro area so that they are not going without work. Meanwhile, workers are in the process of repairing the store, which had massive pools of water on the floor mere minutes after the hail storm hit.
The Colorado Mills shopping mall first opened in 2002. It has 210 stores, with 30 locally owned. The mall will keep customers updated on its Facebook page and website.
Check out some tweets below of the hail damage both inside and outside the mall, including the damage to many customers' cars:
https://twitter.com/jonoparker3/status/861705109297811456
https://twitter.com/RJSangosti/status/861732789326139392
https://twitter.com/Andersun/status/861711129306857472
https://twitter.com/jenicadalyse/status/861755731506192384
https://twitter.com/arakssis/status/861762710429589505
Were you at Colorado Mills when the storm hit? Share your story and photos with us. Also, what are your thoughts on the mall being closed until November?
Featured image courtesy of Colorado Mills: A Simon Center (simon.com/mall/colorado-mills).
