Midway Mall

Midway Mall
Midway Mall logo
Entrance to Midway Mall, July 2013
LocationElyria, Ohio, U.S.
OpenedSeptember 29, 1966
Previous names
Westfield Shoppingtown Midway
DeveloperRichard E. Jacobs Company
ManagementLorain County Port Authority
OwnerLorain County Port Authority
Stores120 at peak
0 (6 at peak)
Floor area940,174 sq ft (87,345 m2)
Floors1 (2 in former Dillard’s, former JCPenney and former Sears)

Midway Mall is a 940,174 sq ft (87,345 m2) square foot regional shopping mall in Elyria, Ohio, United States. Lorain County's only enclosed regional mall, it is located on Ohio State Route 57 near Interstate 80 (the Ohio Turnpike) and Interstate 90.

History

Visconsi-Mead-Jacobs (later known as Jacobs Visconsi Jacobs), a retail development firm co-founded by Cleveland, Ohio developer Richard E. Jacobs, first announced plans for Midway Mall in June 1964. The company chose a site off the Ohio Turnpike in the city of Elyria, Ohio, to develop an approximately 600,000-square-foot (56,000 m2) shopping mall with two anchor stores. These stores would be Sears and Higbee's, respectively occupying about 180,000 square feet (17,000 m2) and 140,000 square feet (13,000 m2). Midway Mall opened in September 1966 and JCPenney opened the following year.

In 1982, it was the site of a mass shooting when Clifton Snowden shot and killed his wife, her mother, and their two daughters, in the parking lot before committing suicide. It was believed to be have been over a custody dispute.

The mall was renovated in 1989. When completed in 1990, there was a new wing with a new May Company Store, several stores, and a new food court. Higbee's became Dillard's after being acquired in 1992. In 1995, Best Buy replaced Woolworth, which closed in 1994. The May Company store became Kaufmann's in 1993, then Macy's in 2006.

In 2001, the Jacobs Group sold it as part of a divestment program to The Westfield Group, which renamed it Westfield Shoppingtown Midway. In spring 2006, Westfield announced that the mall did not fulfill their "strategic plan" and sold it in May 2006 to Centro Properties Group, which reverted the name to Midway Mall. Several years later, the mall was managed by The Woodmont Company.

Dillard's closed in 2007, Macy's in 2016, and Sears in 2017. In 2018, Johnny K's Power Sports moved into the former Macy's space. The mall was then owned and managed by Namdar Realty Group. JCPenney closed in 2019 as part of a plan to close 27 stores nationwide. After BestBuy closed in 2020, Dunham's Sports and Johnny K's Power Sports were the mall's remaining anchors.

In 2023, the Lorain County Port Authority voted to buy and develop the mall site, and in 2024 the port authority named Industrial Commercial Properties to redevelop the mall into an industrial park. The port authority sold the mall to Industrial Realty Group in 2026.

Legacy

The communities of Elyria, Lorain, and Oberlin commonly acknowledge an impact of the opening of the Midway Mall on the economy of their respective downtowns.

References

  1. ↑ "Sep 25, 1966, page 49 - The Plain Dealer at Newspapers.com - Newspapers.com". www.newspapers.com. The Plain Dealer. Retrieved October 10, 2025.
  2. ↑ "Major Retail Centers in the SMSA: 1967". 1967 Census of Business. Major Retail Centers in Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Ohio: 76. 1967 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ↑ Guerrieri, Vincent (February 18, 2019). "JACOBS, RICHARD". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  4. ↑ "Higbee's, Sears plan Lorain units". The Cleveland Press. June 8, 1964. pp. B9. Retrieved August 12, 2025.
  5. ↑ Barry, Dan (October 14, 2012). "New Mayor, Big To-Do List". New York Times. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  6. ↑ Klein, Richard (2014). Let's Go Shopping at the Square. Cleveland Memory. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  7. ↑ "Midway Mall Set to Open in Late August". The Amherst News-Times. Amherst, Ohio. June 16, 1966. p. 3. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
  8. ↑ "Midway Mall Grand Opening Set for Today". The Amherst News-Times. September 29, 1966. p. 3. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
  9. 1 2 Mancine, Benjamin J. (2004). Elyria in vintage postcards. Charleston, SC: Arcadia. p. 122. ISBN 0738532703. Retrieved August 14, 2025 – via Internet Archive.
  10. ↑ Ap (January 3, 1982). "Around the Nation; Five in Family Die In Shootings and Suicide". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 29, 2026.
  11. ↑ "Man kills wife, children, and mother-in-law". www.upi.com.
  12. ↑ Elyria - Lorain County. Directory of Major Malls, Inc. 2012. p. 1327. ISBN 978-1888454192. Retrieved August 14, 2025 – via Internet Archive.
  13. ↑ Crain's Cleveland Business: Midway Mall part of bigger deal
  14. ↑ "Centro Watt Enters Mall Business; US Platform Well-Positioned to Continue Growth". www.businesswire.com. May 11, 2006. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
  15. ↑ Chronicle-Telegram-Staff (February 5, 2008). "Value City no more". Chronicle-Telegram. Elyria, Ohio. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  16. ↑ Weinberger, Jodi. "Macy's at Midway Mall to close". Chronicle-Telegram. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  17. ↑ Weinberger, Jodi (June 6, 2017). "Sears officials announce closing of Midway Mall store". Chronicle-Telegram. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  18. ↑ Contreras, Briana (December 11, 2017). "Johnny K's Powersports taking over Macy's at Midway Mall". The Morning Journal. Lorain, Ohio. Archived from the original on January 15, 2018. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
  19. ↑ Peterson, Hayley (March 26, 2019). "JCPenney is closing 27 stores — see if your local store is on the list". Business Insider. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  20. ↑ O'Brien, Dave (March 1, 2019). "JCPenney closing at Midway Mall". Chronicle-Telegram. Archived from the original on March 1, 2019. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  21. ↑ Yost, Laina (January 6, 2020). "Best Buy to close in Elyria (UPDATED)". Chronicle-Telegram. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
  22. ↑ Martin, Kevin (January 12, 2023). "Lorain County Port Authority to buy Midway Mall". Chronicle-Telegram. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
  23. ↑ O'Brien, Dave (May 1, 2024). "ICP to pay $17 million for Midway Mall; part of $42 million total investment". Chronicle-Telegram. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
  24. ↑ Chapin, Heather (May 19, 2026). "Midway Mall in Elyria sold for $15.8M to development group". Morning Journal. Retrieved May 23, 2026.
  25. ↑ Vanek, Eugenia Poporad, ed. (2014). Bonnets to boardrooms: women's stories from a historic college town. Oberlin, OH: Oberlin Heritage Center. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-615-96121-7. Retrieved August 15, 2025 – via Internet Archive.
  26. ↑ Project Aurora; An Experiment in Expanding Library Awareness, July 1970 to June 1972. Final Report. Ohio Library Foundation. 1973. p. 3. Retrieved August 15, 2025 – via Internet Archive.
  27. ↑ Blodgett, Geoffrey (1985). Oberlin architecture, college and town: a guide to its social history. Oberlin, Ohio: Oberlin College. p. 187. ISBN 0873383095. Retrieved August 15, 2025 – via Internet Archive.

41°23′48″N 82°06′43″W / 41.39675°N 82.11188°W / 41.39675; -82.11188