Dec. 24—GRAND FORKS — As January closes in, so does the auction for a portion of the Columbia Mall. Some employees wonder what the future holds for the Grand Forks shopping center.

Erin Romuld, a keyholder at Claire’s, said she hasn’t heard anything at all from the mall’s management about the situation.

“I haven’t been told anything about it, actually,” Romuld said. “I just read about it in the paper.”

In September, First International Bank and Trust filed a foreclosure case against Columbia Grand Forks LLC, Jamieson Capex LLC, Oregon Trail Corporation, Jeremy Lynn Carlson and Michael Ray Kuntz. The case alleged those parties are over $1,270,000 behind on rent. The case was settled in November.

As a result, a portion of Columbia Mall — the area that used to be the Macy’s department store, including eight acres of parking — has been foreclosed and will be sold as a single parcel at a public auction, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 23, at the Grand Forks County Courthouse.

Kuntz said this particular portion of the mall has been on contract to be sold to another private group, though the date of that purchase is currently not aligning with the date of the auction.

Employees at stores in the mall have varying knowledge about the case and auction. Multiple workers said they had very little knowledge about what has been going on, but wanted to see some kind of positive change come to the mall. A number of employees at stores in the mall said they could not comment.

Romuld, who has been working at Claire’s since January, said she hopes there’s something done to bring in more customers. She remembers coming to the mall as a child, but since Target left and COVID swept in, things haven’t been the same.

“I think Scheels is the only thing kind of keeping everything going,” she said.

DuWayne Johnson, store manager of Tradehome Shoes, said he wants to be positive, but the situation still seems uncertain to him. Johnson came to Columbia Mall from another Tradehome location in August, and since then has observed all the issues with the state of the mall — he listed the parking lot, heating, air conditioning and lighting among his concerns. He noted one light bulb out near Tradehome Shoes that hasn’t been dealt with by mall management, leaving a dark spot in the mall.

To him, it seems like the mall’s management doesn’t care.

“A lot of malls are dying, but this is really bad,” he said. “It needs to change.”

Even with the issues, Johnson is determined to give the best service he can while he’s here, which has gained him a pool of returning customers. At his business, more traffic means more merchandise, but he says the Fargo location has gotten far more business. Johnson said it’s a trend for some Grand Forks residents to go to Fargo for their shopping, further pulling attention from Columbia Mall.

The mall has had a trend of losing stores over the past few years, which will continue with the closure of Kay Jewelers on Friday, Dec. 22. The store had two pieces of paper on the wall beside shuttered doors on Wednesday, Dec. 20, listing the scheduled openings for the last week (Monday 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Friday 11 a.m.-6 p.m.) and a message to customers.

“We regret to inform our guests that our store will be closing,” the announcement said. “We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause but please know that the Fargo store will welcome you and be happy to help with all your jewelry needs. We would like to thank our guests for many years of wonderful business.”