If you were downtown Columbus in August 1989, you might have thought the city had just landed a blockbuster. Columbus City Center, the shiny new mall on the block, swung open its doors with the kind of fanfare usually reserved for rock stars and royal weddings.
Official estimates say 60,000 shoppers poured in by mid-afternoon, with some guesses pushing that number to 100,000 by nightfall. For a city used to big things but not this big, it was a tidal wave of retail excitement.
City Center wasn’t just any mall.
Clocking in at over 1.2 million square feet across three levels, it was Columbus’s largest, most upscale shopping mecca — a sprawling palace of over 100 stores, anchored by heavy hitters like Marshall Field’s, Jacobson’s, Brooks Brothers, and a skyway connection to the flagship Lazarus store.
The tiered seating area smack in the middle quickly became a downtown hangout spot — a place where you could catch a local high school choir perform or just ride those iconic glass elevators up and down while people-watching.
But here’s the thing: while the opening felt like the dawn of a new retail era, the City Center dream quickly hit some speed bumps.
By December of that very year, the Capitol South project, the massive downtown development behind City Center, owed the city $42.4 million — plus a pile of lawsuits from unpaid contractors. The glittering mall was already carrying some serious financial baggage.
Still, things looked bright in the early ‘90s. City Center expanded to 150 stores, many exclusive to downtown, and was the go-to spot for locals craving a slice of the big-city mall vibe without leaving Columbus. Limited Brands, a local powerhouse, made sure its flagship brands were all represented, keeping shoppers coming back.
But the retail world changes fast.
By 2002, Jacobson’s filed for bankruptcy, pulling the first anchor out from under City Center’s feet. Then in 2004, after a staggering 153 years, Lazarus shuttered its doors downtown, leaving just Kaufmann’s — which had replaced Marshall Field’s — as the mall’s lone anchor. Even Kaufmann’s eventually bowed out, closing in late 2007 as suburban malls like Easton Town Center and Polaris Fashion Place stole the spotlight (and the shoppers).
The mall lingered on, a shadow of its former self, until it finally closed in November 2007.
The city tussled with Simon Property Group over control and neglect, and after a few years of legal wrangling, demolition began in October 2009. By March 2010, the once-bustling retail hub was reduced to rubble.
But every ending needs a fresh start. Out of the ashes rose Columbus Commons, a sprawling 9-acre downtown park with gardens, a performance stage, a carousel, and even a reading room — the city’s new public living room. It opened in May 2011, offering a green, vibrant heart for downtown where once stood rows of store windows and glass elevators.
It’s a reminder that downtown Columbus is always evolving, even if the shopping malls of the past aren’t around anymore.
If you want to get a real sense of what it was like to visit City Center back in the day, I highly recommend you stick around and watch this incredible video of the mall’s opening day.
