ELYRIA, Ohio — The Midway Mall in Elyria has long stood as one of Northeast Ohio's oldest remaining enclosed shopping malls.
After opening in 1966, it enjoyed decades of success before falling victim to a changing retail landscape that has seen the decline of the American shopping mall.
As the city and land the mall stands on looks towards redevelopment, two proposals submitted to the Lorain Port Authority remain to reimagine the once popular shopping location.
Industrial Commercial Properties
The first finalist, Mayfield Heights' Industrial Commercial Properties, submitted two options within their proposal.
The first option, which they call "Business Park Redevelopment," would use many of the existing buildings in the Midway Mall area and repurpose the use of those buildings into a mixed-use business park.
They say many of the "viable retail/restaurant" spaces outside of the main mall structure would continue to exist as they do currently with major structural and layout changes made to the main mall building.
The second option outlined in their proposal would see the total demolition of the mall building and parking areas for a brand new building.
The plan is for that building to be a "state-of-the-art industrial building that would be built to specific-tenant standards to maximize productivity and efficiency for the tenant."
Industrial Commercial Properties said this options would be a significantly larger investment at over $100 million.
Center for Food Innovation
The Oberlin based non-profit, Center for Food Innovation, submitted a 73-page, $320 million proposal that would see the current mall location leveled to turn into a mixed-use facility featuring indoor vertical farms, outdoor greenhouse farms, cold storage, food processing and distribution business.
If chosen, the former mall location would help make Northeast Ohio region "one of the largest year-round agriculture center in the country."
An artist rendering of their finished project can be seen below.
