ANSONIA – The company which owns the River Plaza on Maple Street asked a court to cancel a planned tax auction of the shopping plaza and throw out $100,000 in blight fines.

According to an April 11 lawsuit from Maple Street Plaza, LLC, the city wanted to sell the commercial plaza at 27 Maple St. in a public tax auction after the property accrued $100,838 in blight violations over three years.

However, the lawsuit says the city never properly informed the company of those violations.

In its court filing, the company asked for the sale, which was scheduled for April 17, to be delayed until the matter is resolved. Judge Kevin Russo granted that request and placed a temporary injunction on the sale.

Maple Street Plaza, LLC is owned by Eshagh Malekan, a Mineola, N.Y.-based businessman whose signature appears on the complaint. Malekan was criminally charged in connection to building code violations at the plaza in January.

The mostly empty plaza sits near the bridge leading to Main Street. It’s currently home to the China Sea restaurant, Riverside Package Store and Smoker’s Variety convenience store.

The city hit the plaza with a notice of blight violations in July 2022. An inspection found extreme overgrowth on the side of the building, boarded-up and painted-over windows, trash scattered across the property, a soot-encrusted facade, and a metal pipe poking out from the parking lot, according to court filings.

The city’s notice said that Maple Street Plaza, LLC would accrue fines of $100 per day until the violations are resolved, beginning the day the notice was issued.

The company’s lawsuit argues that the notice wasn’t clear on the penalties. It says the notice was defective “in that it did not inform Maple Plaza of the amount of fines, penalties, costs or fees due to the City by it.”

It also says that the city did not properly inform Maple Plaza of its rights to appeal the blight violations. The fines stemming from the blight violations amounted to $100,838 in January 2025, when the auction was scheduled.

The complaint asks for the fines to be thrown out, for the blight notice to be canceled, and for Malekan’s company to be allowed to keep the property.

Company Previously Attempted To Negotiate Fines

Multiple letters between the company and the city’s land use department were attached as exhibits.

In March 2023, the city sent a letter saying that a lien had been imposed because the company never appealed the violation. It said that most of the blight issues had been fixed, but that some windows were still painted over and the metal pipe was still sticking out of the parking lot.

“We have received complaints from the Mayor’s Office on a regular basis of issues with the property,” states the letter, which was signed by land use administrator Ronda Porrini.

At the time of Porrini’s letter, the fines had reached $27,300. Malekan’s company responded in April 2023, asking for the fines to be kicked down to $1,000. It said Maple Street Plaza, LLC couldn’t afford to pay the full amount.

“All repairs, maintenance etc. have been cured and we have been in court to evict the Tenants who we feel are contributing to the problems. Most disturbing, these violations continue daily,” the company’s reply letter states.

In June 2023, Connecticut State Marshal Arthur J. Davies issued a warning to the company. The warning said that if the company doesn’t pay off all of its fines within ten days, he could take the property to a public auction.

In January 2025, Davies scheduled the public auction for April 17. Maple Street Plaza, LLC filed the lawsuit six days before the auction.

Sale’s Off, Then It’s On, Then It’s Off Again

Judge Russo’s injunction ordered that the public auction be called off “until further order of the Court.”

After that injunction, however, Davies rescheduled the sale for May 15, according to court documents.

Malekan’s lawyer said in a court filing that the new sale date was a direct violation of the injunction. Judge Barry Stevens agreed, telling Davies in a separate order to hold off until the court says otherwise.

“There shall be no auction of this property absent further court order. Any auction in violation of this order shall be null and void,” Judge Stevens’ order, dated May 10, states.

What’s Next?

At a status conference, the city and company agreed to schedule an evidentiary hearing for sometime after May 30. A more precise date has not yet been scheduled.

Maple Street Plaza, LLC is represented in the lawsuit by attorneys Kenneth R. Slater, Jr. and Trent R. Kaizen, of Hartford-based law firm Halloran & Sage LLP. The Valley Indy sent an email to Slater May 13 requesting comment.

Ansonia Corporation Counsel John Marini represents the city in the lawsuit. The Valley Indy left a voicemail for Marini requesting comment.