Elyria renews push for remediation of former Days Inn

Although an appeals court ruled earlier this year against Elyria over control of the former Days Inn hotel, the city is still working to see the rapidly deteriorating building remediated or entirely demolished. Meanwhile the owner of the property, Suite Living LLC, claims to have found a buyer for the property who will rehabilitate the hotel if only the company is allowed to sell it. While the Midway Mall appears to have a new direction for redevelopment after its sale to Industrial Realty Group was approved by the Lorain County Port Authority on Wednesday, the abandoned hotel nearby remains in legal limbo. The former hotel has been in poor condition for years and continues to deteriorate. It has been the site of frequent break-ins, vandalism and squatting. Curtains from one of the rooms on a lower floor could be seen poking out a broken window and blowing in the wind on Friday. In January 2025, the city finally reached an agreement with Suite Living that declared the building a public nuisance and laid out a timeline for required security and remediation work by Suite Living. When various deadlines for that remediation came and went without work satisfactory to the city, Elyria asked Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Giovanna Bremke to place the building under control of a receiver – a court-appointed property manager – who would also take over the responsibility of eliminating the nuisance The receiver, Avon Lake attorney Christopher Mulvaney, agreed in December to sell the property to the Lorain County Port Authority. Director Jim Miller said his organization would eventually demolish the hotel as a part of the wider plan to redevelop the Midway Mall area. The sale became impossible when the Ninth District Court of Appeals overturned Bremke's ruling and returned control of the property to Suite Living. The appeals court ruled the receiver had not provided financial and construction plans as required by law. Elyria Law Director Amanda Deery said that on March 27 – less than a month after the appellate court's ruling – the city resubmitted its request for Bremke to place the building under receivership, this time with Mulvaney also submitting the required plans. Deery said that the case is still in Bremke's hands and the city is awaiting her ruling. Suite Living's attorney Logan Trombley filed a motion in opposition to the appointment of the receiver, arguing that Suite Living had already found a buyer for the property who had plans to undertake the necessary remediations to eliminate the public nuisance. This, he argued, made the receivership unnecessary. "The city of Elyria continues to be obstinate," Trombley said. "I am trying to work with them to offer solutions to this nuisance, and they continue to decline to work with me." He said that once the buyer completes their due diligence period, he would likely be able to share more details about the plan and possible timeline for remediation. Until that question of control is worked out in the courts, Miller said that the sale of the property to the Port Authority would remain in legal limbo. Alternatively, Deery said that the city is also pursuing a separate strategy that she said could also result in the demolition of the property, which city officials have made clear is their ultimate hope. Before the city and Suite Living had reached their agreement last year, the city's Building Department had begun proceedings to place a demolition order against the building, ordering the owner to tear it down for violations of safety and health codes. After the agreement was reached, Deery said that the city stayed that order and kept it on pause after the receiver took over. Now that Suite Living is the legal controller of the property once more, she said that the city had already reinitiated those proceedings. "(The stay) was agreed to by both sides because of the other processes going on, but now that Suite Living is back in control, essentially they (the Building Department) thought there was really no need to delay it any further," Deery said. Deery said that she expects Trombley to challenge the demolition order in court. Deery said that the city had dealt with the eyesore and public hazard of the once-popular hotel for long enough, and it would continue to use whatever legal means it has at its disposal to pursue the remediation. "Something has to be resolved with this property," she said. "Them continuing to go on their merry way or allowing them to sell it to someone who will go on their merry way and let it continue to rot or stay in limbo indefinitely is just not acceptable." Reporter Dave O'Brien contributed to this story. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.omacmillan@chroniclet.com