The owner of the Berkshire Mall has two weeks to pay nearly $1 million in back taxes or the town will seize control of the county's largest shopping complex. The Berkshire Eagle reports that Michael Kohan, principal of Berkshire Mall Realty Holdings LLC, has vowed not to lose control of the 720,000-square-foot building on the 89-acre site.

Kohan has until 1 pm June 18th to pay in full the $422,000 in fiscal 2018 property taxes it owes to Lanesborough, and the $520,000 it owes to the Baker Hill Road District, according to legal notices.

The other part of the Berkshire Mall story, could this be just a little too late?

With all stores that have already left the mall, the former J.C. Penney store at the Berkshire Mall is poised to return to life. The Berkshire Eagle reports that the Berkshire Mall Emporium will open June 23 in the 60,000-square-foot space once occupied by the retail chain, until it closed last summer.

The emporium is billed as "New England's largest multi-dealer co-op," according to the promotional material posted at the mall and on Facebook. Despite the Berkshire Mall's decline in recent years, Gonzalez seemed confident the consignment concept will work.

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