Commercial Groundbreaking and Anchor Realignment (2000–2002)
Polaris Fashion Place broke ground in June 2000. The developer, Glimcher Realty Trust, selected the site in northern Columbus, Ohio, just off Interstate 71 on Polaris Parkway.
At the time, the area was already slated for expansion under the 1,200-acre Polaris Centers of Commerce plan.
The mall began operations in November 2001, launching with 146 interior retail spaces.
Its layout spanned two levels and was arranged to support both interior corridors and future outdoor retail expansion.
The anchor strategy was more calculated than typical malls of its era.
Four of the seven initial anchors—Kaufmann’s, Lord & Taylor, The Great Indoors, and Saks Fifth Avenue—had no previous locations in the local retail market.
That was deliberate. The remaining three—JCPenney, Sears, and Lazarus—moved from Northland Mall, about 10 miles away.
According to retail site histories, those relocations dealt a final blow to Northland, which had already lost most of its inline tenants.
Northland closed on October 31, 2002.
Polaris Fashion Place filled gaps in Columbus retail in the early 2000s.
It offered a more modern mall configuration than its predecessors, with easier freeway access and updated retail brands.
It was designed to attract shoppers from Delaware and Franklin counties.
The timing also coincided with nearby office expansions—Polaris Parkway had seen new commercial developments leading up to the mall’s opening.
This overlap helped feed initial foot traffic.
Glimcher’s early tenant mix leaned toward department stores and mid-to-upscale soft goods.
Saks Fifth Avenue anchored the southern end of the mall, while JCPenney held the north.
Kaufmann’s and Lazarus occupied prominent interior corners.
While many malls nationwide were beginning to pivot toward lifestyle formats, Polaris started with a conventional layout and retrofitted outdoor space later.
The intent was straightforward: absorb anchor traffic from the decline of nearby malls and redirect it into a centralized location.
By the end of 2002, it had secured most of its targeted occupancy.
At the time, it was one of the most visible retail investments in the Columbus metro—offering retail space, dining, and anchor shopping in one corridor.
It also became one of the early answers to people searching for things to do in Columbus, Ohio, especially in the northern suburbs.
Anchor Closures and Outdoor Redevelopment (2003–2008)
The first structural shift at Polaris Fashion Place started quietly.
In 2003, the Lazarus store took on dual signage as Lazarus–Macy’s.
That name only held for two years.
By 2005, it became simply Macy’s, reflecting Federated Department Stores’ consolidation strategy after absorbing May Company.
Around the same time, Kaufmann’s also disappeared from the lineup.
Federated acquired its parent company in 2006. That acquisition led to multiple duplicate storefronts in markets like Columbus.
Rather than keep both, the Kaufmann’s location was shut down and later sold back to Glimcher for redevelopment.
By 2007, the original Kaufmann’s structure had been torn down.
In its place, developers pushed forward with a street-facing expansion.
That space—anchored by Barnes & Noble and Forever 21—also brought in restaurant tenants such as Benihana and The Cheesecake Factory.
Construction wrapped in 2008. Compared to the main concourse, the new promenade changed the dynamic.
It wasn’t part of the original enclosed footprint. And it served a slightly different purpose.
Tenants like Dave & Buster’s, which opened nearby, didn’t depend on retail traffic in the same way that apparel stores did.
This phase also marked the end of Lord & Taylor at Polaris.
The store closed in 2004, part of a broader drawdown across multiple properties.
That anchor wasn’t rebuilt. Instead, its space went to Von Maur, which opened the first of its Ohio locations there.
Unlike its predecessor, Von Maur entered the market with a longer-term plan.
Its stores leaned toward mid-tier pricing with less promotional churn than Macy’s or JCPenney.
Retail Consolidation and Tenant Reshuffling (2012–2021)
The decade after the outdoor expansion brought more anchor rotation.
In February 2012, Sears Holdings announced it would shut down all nine remaining Great Indoors stores.
The Polaris location had been one of the earliest additions after opening—part of the original 2001 plan.
The chain had struggled with format confusion and uneven sales performance.
When the closure became official, the building stood empty for nearly three years.
By 2015, Glimcher had made a different move.
Instead of looking for a single department store replacement, the former Great Indoors space was redeveloped into two brands under one roof: Dick’s Sporting Goods and Field & Stream.
Both operated as separate storefronts but were controlled by the same parent company.
The reconfiguration wrapped in time for fall retail in October 2015.
It was one of the earliest examples of dual-branding under the Dick’s umbrella.
Sears closed its Polaris Fashion Place location in 2019.
What replaced it, though, wasn’t a store.
In 2021, that space reopened as Fieldhouse USA—a sports facility focused on indoor athletics and youth events.
It was part of a slow national shift toward mixed-use redevelopment inside malls.
Operational Shifts and Property Management Response (2021–2023)
Between 2021 and 2023, Polaris Fashion Place operated under quieter conditions, though earlier events had changed parts of its internal procedures.
After the two separate March 2021 corridor incidents, Washington Prime Group—still the property manager—coordinated with local law enforcement on revised protocols.
These included changes in patrol coverage and updates to surveillance equipment in select areas.
Washington Prime Group had issues managing itself in parallel.
In June 2021, the company filed for Chapter 11 reorganization.
At the time, it controlled over 100 retail properties, with Polaris Fashion Place being one of the larger assets.
The filing cited public health crisis-era rent losses and tenant reductions.
By November of that same year, the company had emerged from bankruptcy with revised capital terms and a smaller corporate footprint. Some tenant categories shifted.
Direct-to-consumer and digitally native brands started leasing short-term pop-ups inside the main mall, a model tested at other WPG centers.
This wasn’t marketed widely, but mall directories during that period showed an uptick in smaller apparel and cosmetics tenants using flexible leases.
From a visitor’s standpoint, 2022 and 2023 looked relatively stable.
Seasonal traffic returned to pre-2020 levels. Food and beverage tenants added curbside pickup to retain customers who’d become used to that model.
The combination of enclosed and outdoor space allowed Polaris Fashion Place to adjust with fewer layout changes than older, single-format centers.
Ownership Transition and Retail Positioning (2024–2025)
In April 2025, Washington Prime Group confirmed the possibility of selling Polaris Fashion Place as part of a broader exit from its enclosed mall portfolio.
The decision came with internal restructuring and eliminating over 100 corporate roles.
As of April 2025, no buyer had been announced.
Inside the mall, retailers continued normal operations.
In March 2025, Cincinnati Distilling announced it would open its first Columbus-area bottle shop at Polaris.
The store, scheduled for spring, planned to stock spirits and branded merchandise, with some products specific to the central Ohio market.
According to its release, the location would also partner with local designers for event merchandise.
Dick’s Sporting Goods and Public Lands, run by the same parent company, closed in early 2025.
Their shared space—originally built out from the old Great Indoors location in 2015—will be converted into Dick’s House of Sport.
Construction is planned to continue through late 2025, though no official reopening date has been announced.
Despite uncertainty at the ownership level, Polaris Fashion Place remained one of the larger enclosed malls in Ohio.
It still retained over 160 retail tenants, five anchors, and an outdoor promenade.
