ELYRIA — New bathrooms and better lighting are little things, but small touches Midway Mall’s owner hopes will show shoppers its commitment to the shopping center.

Since taking over the mall in May 2006, Centro Properties Group has not spoken much about its plans for Midway Mall. However, behind the scenes, it seems a steady stream of capital improvement projects has been completed.

All of the mall’s public bathrooms have been renovated, the interior lighting was retrofitted, a portion of the roof over the food court was replaced, and an energy management system that will make heating, cooling and lighting more energy efficient was installed.

The projects illustrate an investment of about $500,000 by Centro Properties Group, the Australian-based investment group that owns and operates Midway Mall.

The renovations were touted as positives by mall management early Wednesday morning when they met with about 50 managers of the malls’ retail stores.

But more importantly, they should be seen as signs of good things to come, said Susan Godorov, vice-president of marketing, who was not at the meeting.

While Godorov didn’t make any major announcements when contacted Wednesday, she did say that Centro is committed to Midway Mall and would continue to pump money into improving the mall as well as look for new tenants.

“We are busy talking with a number of retailers right now,” she said.

Any announcement from normally quiet Centro could be seen as a ray of hope for the mall that has weathered a cloudy 18 months. Midway has lost a number of stores because of an economic downturn for large retailers such as Foot Locker and Dillard’s. In addition, Centro has launched several lawsuits against tenants for failing to make rent.

Mayor Bill Grace spoke at length about Midway Mall during his annual state of the city address in both 2007 and 2008.

In 2007, he said the mall was in need of revitalization and a year later he said it was “somewhere between challenged and struggling.”

Yet, Grace said he remains hopeful that the works of Centro will bode well for the mall.

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.

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