HUNTLEY – Seven months ago, the Sun Day wrote about the Huntley Outlet Center, the deteriorating condition of its infrastructure, the vacancies in most of its spaces, and the declining interest among Sun City residents in shopping at the facility. We reported on uneven and cracked sidewalks and the potholed and cracked, mostly empty parking lot.
We talked to residents, shoppers, store owners, and village officials. We didn’t talk with Simon Property Group, owners of the facility, because they did not return any of our phone calls and emails requesting information about the current situation at the 20-year-old factory outlet mall and their future plans for it.
The cracked and uneven sidewalk conditions shown here accounted for Maggie’s fall last year. (Photo provided)
That story focused on the potential danger of accidents or falls to shoppers or store employees.
We were unaware at that time of an incident last summer that turned that potential into reality.
On Aug. 14, 2014, Rosa Elise Maggi, 76, a 10-year resident of Sun City, tripped and fell on an uneven section of sidewalk at the mall. The weather was clear, warm, and dry. She sustained severe head, face, and shoulder injuries and was hospitalized for a period of time. She is an employee of a cosmetics company and works out of her home. She was unable to work for about 30 days.
She incurred about $28,000 in medical bills and has hired an attorney, Mike Mulligan of Rosemont, to deal with these bills and a $7,500 settlement offer that Mulligan says she received from Simon late last year.
Maggi has lived in Sun City for 10 years. She told the story of the incident this way: “I finished my shopping and was walking to my car. I was carrying several packages and bags that I received from the stores. I wasn’t looking down at the sidewalk, I was looking at the parking lot to locate where I had parked my car. Suddenly, I was on the ground. I heard somebody say that they had called an ambulance, and I was taken to the hospital. I was bleeding heavily.”
She received therapy treatment for her shoulder and has recovered from her face and head injuries, which were not life-threatening.
She hired Mulligan because her fall involved potential third party liability. Mulligan said Medicare has paid her bills but is seeking reimbursement.
“I hired Mr. Mulligan because I couldn’t work for about a month, and I had a lot of bills and lost wages, and this was not my fault,” she said.
Mulligan contacted the Sun Day because he read our story about the conditions at the center and is disappointed over the center’s treatment of Maggi since the accident.
“First of all, the owners are not maintaining the property very well and now they aren’t properly compensating her for injuries suffered because of the bad maintenance,” he said. “Medicare has paid her bills, but they want a reimbursement for at least some of it, and the mall has offered only a 25-percent settlement. That’s not only way too low, but it is illegal in the State of Illinois in incidents like this.”
He said Simon initially referred him to their insurance company.
“But recently I have been advised that the center is self-insured for cases like this, and they have a line item in their budget that is used to pay compensation. They have admitted liability and fault, and I have informed Simon that their offer is unacceptable, and we are still negotiating.”
Simon has not returned any of the Sun Day’s phone calls or emails regarding the Maggi incident.
The Huntley Outlet Center was built in 1994 by The Prime Group, the company that has developed several properties in the southern portion of the Village of Huntley. The center was later purchased by the Simon Property Group, a large commercial real estate management company that owns malls and factory outlet centers throughout the nation. In the late 1990s, there were nearly 60 stores at the center, offering men’s and women’s fashions, clothing accessories, cosmetics, shoes, housewares, electronic products, specialty products, and a nine-space food court. The center was also the site of the original Del Webb Sun City sales center when the community opened in 1999.
Today, only about 26 of the 72 total store spaces are occupied.
Simon also owns Gurnee Mills Mall in Lake County and the Premium Outlet Center in Aurora, along with other shopping sites in the Chicago area.
