Judge orders Great Northern Mall owners to pay Conifer Housing $1.5 million

A judge has ordered the owners of Great Northern Mall to pay Rochester-based Conifer Housing $1.5 million, a ruling that adds a fresh financial hit to a redevelopment effort already stuck in planning and legal friction.

State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Lamendola ruled that Guy Hart and Seamus Lyman owed Conifer the money under a 2025 agreement that ended their business relationship. The payment follows the collapse of a partnership that was supposed to turn the empty Clay mall into a major mixed-use project, but instead left one of the most visible vacant properties in northern Onondaga County tied up in court.

The dispute matters because Great Northern sits along Route 31, where the unfinished redevelopment has implications far beyond the mall’s former storefronts. Every new round of compensation claims, ownership conflict or legal expense pushes the property farther from becoming the housing, retail and office destination local officials once hoped would help meet regional demand.

Hart Lyman Companies and Conifer Realty unveiled their plan on March 14, 2024, for the 215-acre site, describing more than $1 billion in investment. The concept called for more than 600,000 square feet of retail and community space, more than 790,000 square feet of medical and office space, over 750 hotel rooms and several housing clusters of 300 to 500 units each. Backers framed it as a town center that could support growth tied to Micron and help ease the area’s housing shortage.

Clay’s town board approved the conceptual plan in September 2024, but the proposal still needed more planning-board review and environmental work before any construction could begin. By March 2025, the project was still in the planning process, and traffic studies were said to involve more than 50 intersections. That meant the project was never close to breaking ground even before the partnership unraveled.

Great Northern Mall closed for good on November 20, 2022, after 34 years. Hart Lyman bought the property in July 2023 for about $9 million from Kohan Retail. Demolition had begun by March 2026, while the developer continued looking for a new partner, a sign that the redevelopment effort was still alive but far from settled.

The ruling does not revive the mall or settle its future. It does, however, show how quickly a promised redevelopment can become a fight over money, obligations and control, leaving a key site in Clay further from delivering jobs, housing or a stronger tax base.