Boulevard Mall tenant battles mold in store

One photo shows patches of black mold. In the next, the mold's surface area is larger, about the size of a long beard.

As Angie Morelli flips through pictures of her store, she becomes frustrated in recounting her tale. Today is supposed to be a joyous occasion -- she has survived four years in a tough Las Vegas retail market. Instead, she's consumed with mold and a possible eviction.

Her store, a brightly lit royal blue-and-vivid orange space in The Boulevard Mall, is filled with neon-colored T-shirts, hats and stickers. Her custom-print business survives on repeat customers who place an order, shop around the mall, then pick up their merchandise 20 minutes later.

Since she moved into the retail center four years ago, Morelli has had to relocate three times at the request of mall managers who said they wanted to maintain a diverse tenant mix. Each time she moves her shop, Customistic Decals Shirts and Stuff, Morelli she loses customers.

"It's bad for us to be closed, because we are a service store," she said.

Morelli said her revenue is down 40 percent since her latest move, in March. And while she again lost clients, this time she gained mold.

"It has just been a nightmare," Morelli said.

Her battle with mold started in February, when she signed a lease on what was to be her final stop -- a 1,300-square-foot former pet shop. A contractor hired to remodel the shop found mold in wallboard in the back office. After a short chat with the mall's management, he said he fixed the problem.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of it.

Lacking confidence in the contractor, Morelli decided to inspect the work herself. In late February she ripped an unused sink away from the wall, exposing a large amount of mold.

"I actually ended up getting black-mold poisoning from it," Morelli said.

Morelli said she went back and forth with mall managers, and documented every interaction with General Growth Properties, the mall's owners. General Growth's lawyer visited the shop, looked over her documentation and told mall managers they needed to rectify the situation, she said.

The outcome? The space was inspected, and five walls were found to need mold remediation.

A new contractor was sent in May 5, but Morelli wasn't satisfied. When the contractor declined to show her the repairs, she grabbed a saw and tore open a wall herself -- and found more mold.

"They refuse to fix it, so I stopped paying rent" on Aug. 1, Morelli said. "I'm probably about to get evicted."

Morelli isn't sure exactly why mold has infiltrated her store, but suspects it's related to the space's former use as a pet shop. Mold is commonplace in Las Vegas, even though the city is dry as a bone.

Craig Herrmann, owner of Las Vegas-based Mold Eliminators, said he receives about four calls every day about possible mold issues from homeowners and business owners.

"You don't want to disturb it," he said, adding that it's best to have a professional mold remediation specialist evaluate the area, which many will do for free.

Mold can spread like wildfire if it's exposed and handled improperly, Herrmann said.

Morelli still wants a specialist to come and remediate her store once and for all. For now, the only telltale sign of a problem are two holes she Morelli made with the saw.

The holes aren't visible to customers, but Morelli knows they're there -- and it worries her.

"All I want to do is make T-shirts," Morelli said. "I don't want to know about mold remediation."

And, she said she wants to be healthy and keep her staff healthy.

"This is where we work," Morelli said. "I want them to open that wall and tell me there's no mold in there."

Ric Jimenez, general manager of the Boulevard Mall, said Wednesday that he couldn't comment.

Melissa Warren, a partner with Faiss Foley Warren Public Relations & Government Affairs, General Growth's public relations agency, said Jimenez isn't able to comment because of pending litigation, but did not specify the nature of the litigation.

Contact reporter Laura Emerson at
lemerson@lvbusinesspress.com or 702-380-4588.