About Columbus' Polaris Area

There are lots of restaurants in the Polaris area... more opening everyday... competitive.

I've been aware of some odd comments about Polaris area restaurants that have been left on my blogs for a long time. Well since the beginning of 2008. There's an odd pattern. I wrote about it.... on DiscoverColumbusOH.com mixing in some other commercial comment oddities in Hilliard and Italian Village. Commercials for pizza and a band?

Curious Comments - Is YOUR blog ever used commercially?

Looking at Columbus food blogs and review websites you can't help but see a pattern but possibly the pattern is not what it seems at first. It may be about boosting traffic on a food blog... more than one restaurant leaving nasty comments anonymously, semi anonymously about another restaurant.

A few Polaris area restaurants have not made it...in this relatively new area of Columbus, there are restaurants that have opened and shut. The Atlanta Bread Company (?) was where Rude Dog Bar & Grill is now... The Polaris El Vaquero was...? A place that was in Powell. White? White House? Baja Fresh bit the dust...at Polaris. There's a Bob Evans sitting there empty just west of Interstate 71 isn't there?

The restaurant business is competitive. There's fast food, fine restaurants and everything in between in the Polaris area. There's a new McDonald's going in on Gemini Parkway. The "old" McDonald's is blocks away...and we are talking blocks in a car ... Our Polaris is not a walkable 'hood. :- (

Many of the streets in the Polaris area have are named after stars.... It does not help me keep the names of the streets straight.

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Image credit Wikipedia

"The position of Alpha Canis Maioris (Sirius, Dog Star)" from Zwergelstern

The sky is gray... it is cooler... It felt more like fall this morning in Central Ohio...

Rain?

Are those blue and green roofs? Driving through the intersection of Lazelle and Sancus a friend pointed out the colorful patchwork of roof tarps on the Polaris Crossing apartments, just south-west of the intersection. Every building of the rental complex seemed to have a tarp...the remains of the September 14, 2008 storm that hit Central Ohio.

Bad shingles? Shoddy roofing? Are "dimensional shingles" that much heavier... the roofs on the businesses on the northwest corner really all have flat roofs with the dimensional shingles on the front for show... The roofs on Polaris Crossing are not "dimensional" roofing shingles, they are "3 tab shingles" as they say in the business... The roofs on the Carriage Oaks Condominiums just south of Polaris Crossing are "3 tab shingles" too. We saw a tarp in Carriage Oaks from Sancus Blvd. Many of the homes in Worthington Highlands have "dimensional shingles" driving around there are tarps there too. There's a house in Worthington Highlands you can see from Sancus Road that needs a tarp in the worst way...

It's not like the Easter hail storm that hit Central Ohio one year... as far as being a boon to the roofing business in Central Ohio and an opportunity for "storm chasers" from outside of Central Ohio (even from other states.) Many roofs in Central Ohio just need some repair work...some shingles after the September 2008 windstorm. The roofers signs are popping up on front lawns of homes but here's one big job for some roofing contractor.

This corner of the world is just south of the Delaware County border (Polaris is in Delaware County) in Franklin County.

Designer Shoe Warehouse is based in Central Ohio.   There are three stores in Columbus, Northwest (Filene's Basement and DSW combined) Easton and Polaris. 

I have heard the Polaris DSW store is the largest DSW store in the country.  Truth or fiction?  Who cares! It's minutes away from me. Not that I am a big shoe buyer. I can appreciate a large selection of shoes though.

Polaris
DSW - Polaris Fashion Square
1200 Polaris Parkway
Columbus, OH 43240
614-854-0994
Sun 11am-6pm, Mon-Sat 10am-9pm

Map - 1200 Polaris Fashion Square

The real reason I did a double take when I noticed the United States Post Office on the corner of Lyra Drive and Polaris Parkway is that I have never before seen a United States Post Office with a beer drive through.

Polaris Area - Columbus Ohio 43240

See for yourself... Parked behind the Post Office a matching Beer Drive - Thru. How is that for progressive? Postage stamps and a 6 Pack of PBR?

I blogged about the new section of Polaris which is opening this fall last week: Polaris Outdoor Lifestyle Center

Today's Columbus Dispatch has "Polaris WIth THE TOP DOWN" by Maria Matzer Rose has lots more about the new section of the mall which will be an open this fall...

"Outdoor addition, opening this fall lures big retailers".... I knew there had to be more stores going in on the south east corner where the Kaufmann's used to sit .... here than what I could remember from walking around and searching on the Internet for who was going to go into those store fronts...

I know I had read or heard that some of the Limited Stores were going into Polaris soon... they are going into the "lifestyle center."   Of course... her article mentions others I missed too.  The Pub, a restaurant out of the Cinci area, Godfrey's (formerly of the Worthington Mall? men's store...) but none of those seem like "big retailers" to me.

The Columbus Dipatch reporter Ms. Matzer Rose has some great quotes from Polaris developer Michael Glimcher of Glimcher Realty Trust about the fact that opening a "lifestyle center" is not mimicking Easton. Of course there were open air malls before Easton...  The Continent.  Lane Ave.  Downtown Worthington... isn't that what the "lifestyle centers" are mimicking?

Was the Worthington Mall built as an open air maill and then enclosed?

Is there a rivalry between Easton and Polaris? I guess I knew there were not Victoria's Secret or Bath and Body at Polaris.  And I had read or heard that they were going into Polaris this year... Ah ha!  Of course they're going into the new open sections... Easton and Polaris opened within two years of one another... 2001 for Polaris.   Does that mean 2003 or 1999 for Easton?  I remember the year Easton opened but short of researching it I could not tell you which opened first.  Rivalry? 

OK..

What was I reading where they referred to Easton as Columbus most popular mall or best mall?  Was it in the Columbus Dipatch? Or was it in Columbus Business First?  I wondered if that was true.  More profit?  More traffic?  More volume?

According to the Columbus Dispatch article today Polaris is not going to become a bar destination.  A swipe at Easton?   Night life is big at Easton?

I should garnish this post with another photo of Polaris... but I don't have one... I could run to Polaris which is minutes away... NAH. Instead a poll which do you prefer the Polaris area or the Easton area would work for me here.  I am voting for Polaris... not necessarily Polaris Fashion Place (have I confessed on DiscoverColumbusOH.com that I have not been in the mall many times?  If not I will. Someday. Maybe.)  I am not trying to influence the vote.  I live near Polaris.  Easton is a trip for me.  It is more of a trip for me with gas over $3.50 a gallon than it was back when Easton opened.