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Macy’s to Pull out of Downtown Columbus’ City Center
September 19th, 2007 categories: Downtown
“I have many, many ideas, I want to see some retail back in it, offices as well. We have thousands of people moving downtown and there’s a great need for retail activity.Our downtown is on the move. This is the only thing holding us back.” – Michael Coleman Jul 31 2007
The Dispatch reported today that Macy’s will pull their anchor store out of City Center. No doubt any store of substance may be forced to follow suit. It’s a sad state of affairs for the 1.3 million sq ft mall in the middle of downtown Columbus.
On the cup is half full side, I guess the good news is that it’ll be that much easier for Nationwide Realty and Mayor Mike to put a road through the middle of it and open it up to the outside or tear it down and build a casino/hotel or a Sea World or whatever will save our fair city’s downtown retail.
The mall’s web site is now non-existent and redirects to the current owners who’ve erased any mention of it from their site. If a mall falls in the middle of the forest. . . .
From Today’s Dispatch:
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- Size: 1.3 million square feet (including three department stores)
- Original anchors: Lazarus, Jacobson’s and Marshall Field’s.
- Number of stores when opened: approximately 100
- Cost to build: $116 million
- Cinder blocks: 80,928
- Limestone: 60,724 sq. ft.
- Concrete: 8,184 cubic yards
- Skylights: more than 9,200 sq. ft.
- Light fixtures: 11,400
- Air conditioning units: 26
- Plants: 2,000 plants
- Parking garage: 4,700 parking spaces
On July 31, 2007 the city of Columbus filed a lawsuit to evict the management company, Simon Property Group, which holds the lease on the property and gain control of the mall. The city alleges that mall management grossly neglected the property, allowed it to fall into disrepair, did not pay real estate taxes for some time, and just recently failed to make a rent payment for the land in excess of $200,000.
