Air conditioning provider speaks out on Neonopolis

The company that cut off air conditioning to the now-sweltering Neonopolis mall is speaking out.

On Friday afternoon a representative from climate control provider Ameresco says turning the air back on is as simple as paying the bill.

"They actually owe us $300,000 so we turned off the cooling," said Jeanette Coleman-Hall, of Framingham, Mass.,-based Ameresco.

Coleman-Hall called in response to an article about sweltering conditions in the mall.

Neonopolis developer Rohit Joshi admitted he was in a dispute with the air conditioning provider.

Coleman-Hall said the dispute is only a matter of paying the bill.

"He hasn't paid us in months," she said.

Heat and air conditioning for Neonopolis comes from an off-site physical plant owned by Ameresco.

The $11 million plant supplies several buildings with hot and cold water that can be used to heat or cool the air.

Since the weather turned warm, Joshi has been providing portable air conditioning units to tenants. But the units are no subsititute for central air.

The portable units don't distribute cool air evenly throughout the property nor do they keep the spaces as cool as central air. They also produce warm exhaust, which needs to be directed outdoors.

Many of the units in Neonopolis are attached to exhaust hoses similar to those on a typical clothes dryer, except larger.

Several tenants have complained and inconsistent climate control is one of the reasons officials from Galaxy Theaters cited for vacating the mall. Several tenants in second-floor art studios have also complained, departed or are making plans to depart.

Joshi says he plans to replace the portable units with a larger, building-wide system.

Coleman-Hall said he may as well just pay the Ameresco bill.

"Sometimes to just put the equipment in is more expensive than to just pay the bill and put it back on," she said.