MONTICELLO, NY — The Apollo Plaza has hosted no shops or shoppers since the Monticello Village officials ordered it closed in 2003. Since then, plans to use it for other purposes have waxed and waned, and ultimately all have fizzled.

At one time, the Apollo Plaza was going to be home to a big box store, but the box stores weren’t interested.

One developer wanted to turn it into an upscale truck stop. Then, part of it was going to be the site of an aquaponics operation that would raise fish and produce in a symbiotic relationship.

At another point, there was a plan to move the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Road Patrol into one building on a portion of the property to get them out of their dilapidated headquarters next to the county jail.

The abandoned shopping mall was also featured in a horror movie shot in 2013 called “Jamie Marks is Dead.”

Most recently, in January 2015, developer Butch Resnick bought the property from the county for $600,000 and planned to open a grocery store and other retail outlets on the property. He also has an option to purchase 75 acres adjacent to the property, which the county purchased more than a decade ago for $3.7 million; it was going to be used for the proposed expansion of the Sullivan County Landfill.

Resnick has spent money on engineering work on the site, but visible progress on the project has not been seen. Now, new energy may be breathed into the project by Jeffrey Wu, a developer from Long Island. Wu has signed a contract with Resnik to buy the crumbling eyesore.

In order to move forward, though, Wu and Resnick would need the blessing of the Sullivan County Funding Corporation (SCFC) whose membership is identical to the Sullivan County Industrial Development Agency (IDA). Wu and Resnick got the ball rolling at the IDA meeting on April 10 by introducing the proposition.

Wu owns a chain of grocery stores called Hong Kong Supermarket which is geared toward Chinese and Asian immigrants and Chinese-American markets, with a strong presence in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New York City. His plan would be to open a Super Hong Kong Supermarket on one end of the plaza.

In 2009, Sullivan County took possession of the property after a lengthy legal battle with the former owners, who owed more than $1 million in property taxes on it.

At the time, county officials decided the property, with existing water and sewer, and located next to an interchange with Route 17, was simply too good to simply toss away in the auction process. Legislator Jonathan Rouis said at the time, “This is a unique property in that it is already zoned for commercial purposes... Rather than simply selling this property, I’d like to see the county develop it, with the assistance of our economic development agencies, into a mixed-use property that increases our tax base, brings additional sales tax revenues and provides affordable housing alternatives as well.”

Ultimately, though, they decided to sell it, and it appears the Apollo Plaza may be flipped again in the near future.