Audio Tape Shows Denver Shopping Mall Wanting To Weed Out Blacks

Statements captured on tape appear to show a major corporation wanting to weed out young black customers from one of Colorado's biggest and busiest shopping malls -- the Aurora Mall. In the 4-minute telephone conversation captured on audiotape, the leasing agentfor the mall  lays out the Aurora Mall's future marketing direction to a mall tenant.

• "You're saying that they want to bring in more white clientele," an Aurora mall tenant asked on the tape. "Or just more clientele, period. But we're not getting the white customer," Aurora Mall's top leasing agent responded. "Is the mall going to, like, plan on just marketing primarily to white customers to get them into the mall or ...?" the tenant asked "I would say our marketing is going to be more white-focused, yes," said the leasing agent.

• "We never marketed to the ethnic customer, that's just what we got," the leasing agent said on the audio tape."What you guys want to do is reduce the, ah, you know, the uh..." the tenant asked. "We want to reduce the negative, um, aspects of the Center -- one of them is the young, black customer," the leasing agent said on the tape
  

To many, it sounds like these statements are more than just the leasing agent's opinion, especially when she uses words like "we" and "our." In fact, it appears she is providing the new direction of the mall's management, Kovaleski said.
In April of 2003 the mall's owners unveiled a $100 million renovation plan including more than $15 million in tax breaks from the city of Aurora. Simon Compari, who recorded the conversation, said he heard similar comments a day earlier when he talked with the same agent about extending his lease at the mall. "She told me that she didn't know if the food that I was having or prepared would cater to the new type of clientele that the mall was trying to (attract)," Compari said. Compari sells ribs, hot wings and barbecue. "It's pretty much soul food," he said. [more]

• Listen to auido tape [more]