{"id":112779,"date":"2026-02-13T05:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T05:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/112779\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T05:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T05:45:07","slug":"small-businesses-in-limbo-as-berkshire-mall-faces-deadline-reading-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/112779\/","title":{"rendered":"Small businesses in limbo as Berkshire Mall faces deadline | Reading Area"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WYOMISSING, Pa. \u2013 Jonathan Mashburn and Javon Phillips were trying to focus on customers Thursday night, but in the back of their minds, they had one question: Will they even be open Friday?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe communication came from Kraft (Municipal Group), the code enforcement of Wyomissing,\u201d said Jonathan Mashburn, co-owner of Lounge Around Games. \u201cSo we had no prior knowledge until Kraft came in 4 o&#8217;clock yesterday afternoon with the notices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mashburn and Phillips run Lounge Around Games inside the Berkshire Mall. They say this is just the latest problem in months of uncertainty surrounding the mall\u2019s future.<\/p>\n<p>This time, it\u2019s heat. The borough issued a notice ordering repairs to broken HVAC systems and damage caused by frozen pipes. Officials say without proper heat, the sprinkler system becomes a safety concern.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have a deadline of tomorrow, Friday, to make those repairs, or the mall will be what\u2019s called placarded because it&#8217;s not heated properly and the sprinkler system isn&#8217;t working,\u201d said Wyomissing Mayor Fred Levering.<\/p>\n<p>If that happens, the borough could move forward with legal action, potentially leading to a shutdown.<\/p>\n<p>Namdar, the mall\u2019s owner, told 69 News most of the pipe breaks have been isolated or repaired, and they are currently obtaining quotes for the HVAC system to avoid a shutdown.<\/p>\n<p>But tenants say the hardest part isn\u2019t just the repairs \u2014 it\u2019s the uncertainty.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;re just stuck in purgatory. We&#8217;re just stuck in the middle,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cWe don&#8217;t know exactly what&#8217;s going on. We&#8217;re asking the community to probably come out more and kind of demand answers, like what exactly is going on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Levering says Boscov\u2019s is not affected because it maintains its own HVAC system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WYOMISSING, Pa. \u2013 Jonathan Mashburn and Javon Phillips were trying to focus on customers Thursday night, but in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[131,53899,53900,128,130,129,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-112779","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-berkshire-mall","9":"tag-lounge-around-games","10":"tag-namdar","11":"tag-reading-city","12":"tag-reading-city-headlines","13":"tag-reading-city-news","14":"tag-wyomissing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}