CLEVELAND -- A deteriorating strip mall is stirring anger in a Lorain County community, and residents took their cause to the streets of downtown Cleveland Friday.

People who live near the Shoreway Shopping Center in Sheffield Lake said the owners won't fix it up, but they won't sell it, either, reported NewsChannel5 news partner ONN's Brian McIntyre.

Resident Debbie Belasko said she and her neighbors are hostages.

"It's terrible. It's a disgrace. It's an eyesore," Belasko said.

Sheffield Lake City Hall said the owners of Shoreway have let the place get so run down that even the anchor store, Giant Eagle, is leaving in November.

"We want Giant Eagle to stay, but if they've got to go, they've got to go. But we want somebody else to invest, but we want a decent store that is as good as Giant Eagle," Belasko said.

But Shoreway is not likely to attract anything new, so 20 people who want to save it came to Cleveland to protest in front of Tower City, because the landlord, James Ratner, is also a minority owner of Shoreway.

"The structure of the whole shopping center is decaying. I mean, it's crippling our community," Belasko said.

Sheffield Lake officials said at least 75 percent of the Shoreway store fronts are empty, making it a breeding ground for blight and crime.

In fact, one of the empty store fronts is at the center of a police investigation.

"In the course of an arrest the police made with some vandalism that was happening there, they did stumble upon a pretty large volume of medical waste, including dirty needles, biohazards," said Mayor John Piskura.

The city is willing to buy Shoreway for $2 million. Belasko said you can't put a dollar value on doing what's right for a community.

"No one should have to look in their back yards to see this kind of catastrophe," Belasko said.

Shoreway's owners, one of whom is based in Virginia, haven't returned request for comment, but are scheduled to appear in Sheffield Lake mayor's court Monday to face charges of building code violations.