Raising the Bar Since 1974
Mid-American Elevator started as a maintenance and repair contractor in Chicago in 1974. Over the last 50+ years, the business focus has broadened from standard elevator installation, maintenance and repair to highly custom elevator installation, maintenance and repair, although the company maintains a robust standard elevator installation and maintenance services business.
A Brief History of Our Company
Mid-American Elevator is led by President Cullen Bailey who has spent 30 years with the company, starting out as an elevator helper and advancing through the ranks to the president’s office. His father, Rob Bailey, serves as the company’s board president. Rob earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University in 1974 and joined Mid-American in 1980 as a salesman and construction project manager. In 1985, he partnered with his own father, Bob Bailey, to complete a leveraged management buyout of Mid-American Elevator Company, Inc. from its previous owner, Paschen Contractors, Inc. The company has posted steady annual growth in revenue and profit ever since.
In the early 1990s, Mid-American opened an office in Washington, D.C. Our Washington office primarily provides elevator and escalator maintenance, repair and installation services to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). That office continues to successfully undertake large projects 25 years later.
In the mid-1990s, the Baileys purchased a sister company to Mid-American Elevator called USA Hoist. USA Hoist provides rack and pinion elevator rentals, repairs, maintenance, modernization and construction. The President of USA Hoist is Robby Bailey.
Today, Tomorrow and Beyond
In a significant move, Mid-American has expanded into the New York City market during the last ten years, primarily in the transit elevator installation market. In 2018, Mid-American also opened an office in Seattle to support a growing transit elevator installation business there.
In 2016, Engineering News Record named Rob Bailey III a “Top 25 Newsmaker” for his work designing the Dezervator, a car-elevator designed for the Porsche Design Tower in Miami, FL. The car-elevators at Porshe Tower are arguably the largest, most complicated elevators ever built.