Is Amazon coming to Midway Mall?

Shell companies, similar tactics raise residents’ suspicions of the company’s possible purchase

The question that seems to have been on the lips of Lorain County residents for about a decade, is what will become of the Midway Mall in Elyria that has seen a reduction in businesses.

With the recent acquisition of the former Dillard’s in the mall by developer Industrial Commercial Properties LLC, which is known for revitalizing abandoned retail spaces and transforming them into industrial sites, that question seems to ring louder than usual.

A deeper question, though, may be who exactly owns the mall, 4000 Midway Mall.

Lorain County Auditor Craig Snodgrass said his staff has been trying to nail that down.

“We’re working on something now to try to get all of the last three or four years of transfers over there,” Snodgrass said. “One thing I’ve noticed is that they seem to all be different owners, at least in name.”

The different names and shell companies commonly used by big organizations is an impediment to tracking down specifically what can be coming to a particular parcel of land, officials said.

Oftentimes, companies will use the shell organizations to specifically hide it.

One example is when Disney was purchasing land in Florida that eventually became Walt Disney World.

A Florida reporter named Emily Bavar noticed that someone was purchasing thousands of acres of swampland in the panhandle.

In 1965, Bavar broke the story that it was Disney after questioning Walt Disney directly in Anaheim, according to her obituary in the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

More recently, Amazon, the online shopping juggernaut, appears

to have pulled a similar maneuver in the western part of the state where an Indianapolis-based real estate firm is building a 2.8 million-square-foot warehouse in Rossford, a suburb of Toledo, which will serve as a

fulfillment center for the marketplace.

Industrial Commercial Properties could not be reached for comment Aug. 2.

Could it be?

Something similar may be happening in Elyria.

In the news release announcing the purchase,

Elyria Mayor Holly C. Brinda highlighted the Industrial Commercial Properties’ history with the digital bazaar.

Industrial Commercial Properties was behind the 960,000-square-foot Amazon Fulfillment Center, which now occupies the former home of the Randall Park Mall.

This also isn’t their first

foray into Midway Mall either.

Industrial Commercial Properties purchased the former Sears and Sears Auto Center also on the mall’s property in March for $2.55 million under the name Midway Mall LLC, a company set up last October.

What’s interesting about this latest purchase is, despite it being acquired by the same company, the former Dillard’s now is owned by Elyria 4000 Midway Mall LLC, a company set up on July 10.

The Ohio Secretary of State’s office shows that both LLCs have the same statutory agent, a Cleveland attorney.

Snodgrass said big, deep pocketed companies like Amazon or Disney use this sort of shell game to keep prices low.

While he doesn’t have

firsthand knowledge of what Industrial Commercial Properties has in store for the space, Snodgrass said turning it into an Amazon Fulfillment Center would make sense.

“It makes sense with the accessibility there to the turnpike and Interstate 90 and everything else,” he said.

That’s what led Snodgrass to start looking into what is happening with the properties, but he says he hasn’t been able to find the “common thread.”

“Who knows what really goes on behind the scenes there,” he said.

The changes

One person looking forward to something changing with the large, mostly empty mall is Kiran Shahp, a clerk at the Sun News stand at the mall.

When the Morning Journal spoke with him at noon Aug. 2, the stand had been open for about two hours.

Shahp said only four people had come to the store and they mostly wanted to buy lottery tickets.

He said he had read in the newspaper that the Dillard’s property had been sold.

This isn’t the first part of the mall that had been sold since he’s worked at the stand, but the purchases aren’t resulting in increased traffic to the stand.

However, Shahp said he’s hopeful if Amazon comes to town, it will lead to more traffic.

“We need more traffic,” he said.

Shahp said the stand’s owners are looking monthto-month as to whether they will stay at the mall.

“Right now, we lose too much money,” he said.