Electrocuted worker becomes part of city’s case to demolish Northridge Mall

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A worker who was electrocuted at Milwaukee’s abandoned Northridge Mall this summer was apparently unaware the mall’s owners hadn’t shut off power to the property — a tactic city attorneys argue was a cost-saving measure.

Milwaukee city officials last week argued that mall owner U.S. Black Spruce Enterprise Group had created conditions at the mall that contributed to the death of Victoriano Diaz, a worker hired as a handyman there, who was electrocuted in July. City attorneys used Diaz’s death to illustrate the Black Spruce’s disregard for the property in a counterclaim filed against the company last week.

Black Spruce, a Chinese investment firm, sued the city in August to stop a raze order that Milwaukee issued last spring in order to tear down the more than 900,000-square-foot property, which has sat unused for years. The company has defied the city’s repeated attempts to force it to clean up the property — and even held a recent event in September that drew 300 attendees, which violated state law, city attorneys argue.

Four days after the city’s Standards and Appeals Commission upheld the city’s raze order, Diaz was killed at the property after he stuck his hand into a high-voltage transformer that had been vandalized. According to the city’s counterclaim, three of Diaz’s friends, who were working with him when he was killed, told investigators that he didn’t know the property had power at all.

“Black Spruce chose to keep (the mall) energized because if it was de-energized it may have had to pay to install new lines if it chose to re-occupy the buildings,” according to the city’s counterclaim.

The city has been pushing to tear down Northridge Mall for months after officials announced their intention to clear the property last spring.

Milwaukee’s Redevelopment Commission on Thursday approved the use of $400,000 in federal grants to help pay for the demolition of the adjacent Boston Store building, which is also vacant. Milwaukee owns the land Boston Store sits on after Bill Penzey, who owns Penzey’s Spices, signed the land over to the city in 2017 after unsuccessfully trying to acquire the mall.

The city is also grappling with Black Spruce in court after the company filed a lawsuit challenging Milwaukee’s raze order in August. The company is challenging the city’s contention that it would be unreasonable to repair the property, which is the basis of the city’s raze order.

Northridge Mall has been a persistent source of vandalism, trespassing and other ills as it has sat unused, city officials argue. Milwaukee Police have been dispatched to the property 35 times since Jan. 1, 2018, for a variety of problems, according to court documents. Police have investigated fires, complaints of homeless people living at the property and an October 2018 incident where people trespassing at the property assaulted Diaz.

On the night Diaz was killed he was checking out further symptoms of vandalism at the property. He saw the door to a locked electrical box was open and went to investigate. When he touched a metal hook inside the box, he was hit with 4,800 volts, and killed from the charge. Utility We Energies had “only intermittent” contact with Black Spruce, according to court documents.

Three weeks after Diaz’s death, officials noticed that vandals had again cut off two of three locks on the fuse box — including removing a lock off the box that killed Diaz.

City attorneys also claim that Black Spruce violated Wisconsin law by renting out the condemned mall in early September for an event. An Illinois company called MiR Tactical paid Black Spruce $15,000 to use the mall for an airsoft gun demonstration, which drew about 300 people. Airsoft guns are non-lethal — like paintball guns — and shoot plastic pellets.

Attorneys cite social media posts from the event, which describe a pile of asbestos left in a stairwell, black mold covering the ceilings of abandoned storefronts and white mold covering carpets.

“If you have any type of lung disease, avoid the mall at all costs,” one person wrote on social media. Follow @natebeck9