BILLINGS — Rimrock Mall's owner, Kohan Retail Investment Group, missed a critical deadline on Friday to pay nearly $600,000 in delinquent property taxes to Yellowstone County. With the deadline now passed, the property is eligible for third-party investors to purchase the debt.
Learn about the uncertainty of Rimrock Mall after nearly $600,000 in taxes remain unpaid:
According to Yellowstone County Treasurer Hank Peters, the ownership group failed to pay both the first and second half of its 2024 property taxes, which were due in November 2024 and May 2025. With penalties and interest, the total amount owed currently exceeds $580,000.
"To give perspective, it's more than 25% of our outstanding 2024 real estate property taxes,” said Peters.
Related: County: Rimrock Mall is behind $600K on property taxes
Peters said the amount is shocking and significant. The last delinquency he recalls coming anywhere close resulted from a mansion in the Ironwood subdivison in northwest Billings from several years ago. There are over 800 active tax liens in the county as of August.
"We do have a couple hotels that are also delinquent and have tax liens attached, but this size of a business, we don't see this,” said Peters. “Rare enough to the point where I don't know the last time this happened on this big of a dollar scale.”
The mall was sold in November of last year, but the new owners did not pay off the debt. Peters did not expect the company to make a payment by the deadline, but he has communicated with the owners. MTN has reached out to Kohan Retail Investment Group for a comment, but the company has not responded.
“We have been in contact with them. They thanked us for sending the payoff information, but they are not ready to pay right now,” said Peters.
The county attached a tax lien to the property on Aug. 1. Friday, Aug. 29 was the first day a third-party investor could attempt to purchase the liens, but none did.
"We just ran the lottery," said Peters. "We had six different investment groups in it, or entities or people, and none of them purchased Rimrock Mall's tax lien, so it's still out there available."
If a third-party investor purchases the tax lien, it would begin collecting interest on that amount from the property owner. That investor would not take ownership of the mall itself.
If the debt remains unpaid by early 2028, the county could direct Peters to take a tax deed on the property, and it could then be auctioned off to recover the amount if the taxes remain unpaid by August.
“Somebody's going to have to have a lot of capital because we're coming up on $600,000 here that they'd have to pay,” said Peters.
For now, mall tenants such as artist Jonathan Johnson, who owns White Horse Fine Art Gallery, said he is not worried about the uncertainty.
"I'm sure some of the people in the mall might have a little bit of a concern, but as far as I'm concerned, I've dealt with a far more difficult challenge than just having to leave a location,” said Johnson. “I went to talk to (management) yesterday, and I'm hoping that they can kind of get things worked out, at least up in the ownership department, because, you know, it has nothing really to do with anything here. It's all about them, upper management.”
Johnson said his experience at Rimrock has been overwhelmingly positive since moving in just three months ago, and he remains optimistic as malls across the country face challenges.
"It's been really great. Truly. I've never been in a place where I got to meet so many amazing people just because I worked there," said Johnson. "We all have our challenges, and it's best just to support each other and try to help each other through it rather than talk.”
While the county said the property will remain open, the missed deadline raises questions about the mall’s long-term viability and the financial health of its ownership. As reported by WLUC in Michigan earlier this year, the same group, owned by Mike Kohan, was three years late on owed property taxes for the Westwood Mall in Marquette Township. It caused the mall to lose power for several days. The group is still delinquent on taxes from 2023 and 2024 for the building.
It's an uncertain future for the longtime Billings staple, but for now, it will remain business as usual.
