COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A metro Atlanta mall that shut down for a day over unpaid power bills turned the lights back on Wednesday.
A store owner confirmed to Channel 2′s Michele Newell that the Town Center at Cobb allowed business owners back inside just before 11 a.m.
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Channel 2 Action News first told you Tuesday about the Town Center at Cobb posting signs on the main entrances that it would be closed.
The mall’s owner claimed a maintenance issue resulted in the closure and that it would be resolved in two hours. However, Channel 2 Action News learned that the mall had “highly delinquent” Georgia Power bills.
Georgia Power officials told Newell that they have been working with Town Center for several months to resolve the payments and disconnecting service at the mall was a “last resort.”
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The anchor stores, Belk, Macy’s and JCPenney, were able to stay open since they paid their own bills and have separate entrances. Meanwhile, store owners inside the mall told Newell that they were blindsided.
“We showed up this morning, everything was shuttered,” Starrcade owner Shane Star said. “Without telling any of the tenants, myself included, they just pulled the plug and locked everything up and now we can’t get in.”
“This is your livelihood. Yeah, I got bills, I got mortgage, I got car notes, all this stuff,” store owner Frantz Baptiste said.
Georgia Power leaders said mall management and tenants received letters and onsite signage alerting them to the upcoming closure.
Town Center at Cobb’s website shows that the mall opens at 11 a.m. Wednesdays.
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