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Have you guys been up there lately? I saw 2 new shopping centers going in. How are there chain stores/restaurants that aren't already represented that could possibly still be viable there?
Columbus Underground Messageboard » General Columbus Discussion
161 and sawmill
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Columbusite
Minneapolis
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Plenty of room for clones. Quantity, not quality.
Posted 4 years ago # -
ChrisD28
Short North
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Tigertree wrote Have you guys been up there lately? I saw 2 new shopping centers going in. How are there chain stores/restaurants that aren't already represented that could possibly still be viable there?
I don't know. But I will say that I avoid Sawmill Rd. like the plague. To me, a street like Sawmill sums up most of what sucks about America.
Posted 4 years ago # -
kessler
Georgian Heights
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I work not far from there and i've been watching them build both of them.
The stores i'm seeing are one's that have escaped from the kroger mall over by Frantz/ 161 and sawmill/161 and have relocated here.
Some stores that are in worthington mall and easton area have also opening locations here as well.
That my two cents
Posted 4 years ago # -
twistofreality
Northwest
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You're basically talking about where I live. Fortunately, I've been here for long enough that I know my way around well enough that I rarely have to venture out onto Sawmill proper. Regardless, traffic is a problem, especially if you have to cross the outerbelt, but you shouldn't write this area off as being clone-only. We have Trader Joe's for instance (which I frequent for quality food and cheap wine), New Asia Supermarket, Whole Foods, and The Andersons, all within a couple of miles of one another. The plazas around here all have a bunch of local shops, and we have a ton of great restaurants: InChin's Bamboo Garden, El Vaquero, Greek Corner Genji's, and, just a few miles north, Thai Orchid, King's Garden, and Amul India (Thai, Chinese, and Indian, local and reasonably authentic, all in one plaza!). A few miles south are Chile Verde and Taste of Bali in the same plaza as a cheapie movie theatre and a Half Price Books.
I can't say that I prefer living here to a more culturally sound area of Columbus-- I live here primarily because it's close to my office-- but it's not as bad as it seems from a passerby or someone stuck in Sawmill traffic.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Andrew Hall
Dennison Place (The Circles)
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twistofreality wrote You're basically talking about where I live. Fortunately, I've been here for long enough that I know my way around well enough that I rarely have to venture out onto Sawmill proper.
That is thanks to the people at MORPC who were allowed to design the road up there N of 161 (and the SPUI of Sawmill/I-270). There is always another, off of Sawmill way to navigate. Contrast this to Polaris Parkway where you have to get on it to move linearly and the parcels were allowed to block themselves off around their parking lots.
When those roads at Sawmill were set up, there was nothing up there. I mean nothing. Everyone has stories of getting lost in a field trying to get to the theatre at that time. Twenty years later, the area is still suprisingly navigable with 100 fold growth. Shows what can happen when you let professionals do their jobs.
in the same plaza as a cheapie movie theatre
I loathe that theatre so much. 1$ is still too much for a chopped up copy of a movie (if it lasted more than 1 week in first run), the smells and the fact that most patrons treat the experience relative to the cost and are worse than any other place.
A.
Posted 4 years ago # -
CbusIslander
Cbus Islander
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I use to live in this area for about three years and my wife and I loved all of the stores within blocks of one another. 3 grocery stores within a 1/4 mile? We saw nearly every movie during those three years at that dollar theater and miss it now that we are on the east side. For the "locals" there are easy back routes to take to get to the same places without traveling on sawmill. I just hope that Dublin has great plans to rebuild the Sawmill Center where Lowes and the AMC theater is. That place is vacant and was certain to fail due to lack of visibility from sawmill. Overall though the area isn't that bad at all.
Posted 4 years ago # -
twistofreality
Northwest
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Andrew Hall wrote
in the same plaza as a cheapie movie theatre
I loathe that theatre so much. 1$ is still too much for a chopped up copy of a movie (if it lasted more than 1 week in first run), the smells and the fact that most patrons treat the experience relative to the cost and are worse than any other place.
Really? I've never had any problems with the place. It definitely doesn't compare with the newer theatres, but it's basically what almost all theatres used to be like, and I think that its cleanliness/atmosphere is similar to the AMC theatre off of Sawmill.
I've also had fewer problems with the projection there than I have had at larger, more expensive theatres. Granted, the quality of the picture and sound aren't as good as, say, the Arena Grand, but I think it's satisfactory given the technology they're probably using. $1.50 (I think that's standard pricing now-- maybe it's $2.00) is still cheaper than a video rental, and seeing a movie on the big screen at all, regardless of the technology, is often better than watching it on my TV at home.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Manatee
The eternal present
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I just can't imagine living in an area where my only possible activity would be buying things. :?
Not to mention I actually get lost in the parking lots... was it this one... or this one? Where is the sun and where was it when I went in this store....
I used to work at Trader Joe's and driving to D/S everyday was my reason for quitting.
Posted 4 years ago # -
MikeReed
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twistofreality wrote You're basically talking about where I live. Fortunately, I've been here for long enough that I know my way around well enough that I rarely have to venture out onto Sawmill proper. Regardless, traffic is a problem, especially if you have to cross the outerbelt, but you shouldn't write this area off as being clone-only. We have Trader Joe's for instance (which I frequent for quality food and cheap wine), New Asia Supermarket, Whole Foods, and The Andersons, all within a couple of miles of one another. The plazas around here all have a bunch of local shops, and we have a ton of great restaurants: InChin's Bamboo Garden, El Vaquero, Greek Corner Genji's, and, just a few miles north, Thai Orchid, King's Garden, and Amul India (Thai, Chinese, and Indian, local and reasonably authentic, all in one plaza!). A few miles south are Chile Verde and Taste of Bali in the same plaza as a cheapie movie theatre and a Half Price Books.
I can't say that I prefer living here to a more culturally sound area of Columbus-- I live here primarily because it's close to my office-- but it's not as bad as it seems from a passerby or someone stuck in Sawmill traffic.
I'm not dissing the area or people's choice to live there. The traffic just kills me. It's funny what happens to you when you stop driving a lot and then you get into a car. A) You freak out when someone else is driving more, and b) traffic drives you absolutely crazy.
You are not the first person to tell me that there are better ways around up there than, say, driving north straight up Sawmill.
Posted 4 years ago # -
dKilla
Dublin
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I live out that way. Sawmill can definitely be a pain. I avoid it during afternoon rush hour during the week and all day on weekends. Other than that it's pretty much pain-free. In fact, I just went from Bethel to 270 on Sawmill in 5 minutes. Even the Saturday afternoon traffic is NOTHING compared to what I used to deal with on a similar strip outside of Atlanta.
Posted 4 years ago # -
shroud
Polaris
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Andrew Hall wrote
twistofreality wrote You're basically talking about where I live. Fortunately, I've been here for long enough that I know my way around well enough that I rarely have to venture out onto Sawmill proper.
That is thanks to the people at MORPC who were allowed to design the road up there N of 161 (and the SPUI of Sawmill/I-270). There is always another, off of Sawmill way to navigate. Contrast this to Polaris Parkway where you have to get on it to move linearly and the parcels were allowed to block themselves off around their parking lots.
When those roads at Sawmill were set up, there was nothing up there. I mean nothing. Everyone has stories of getting lost in a field trying to get to the theatre at that time. Twenty years later, the area is still suprisingly navigable with 100 fold growth. Shows what can happen when you let professionals do their jobs.
It depends on where you're trying to go specifically - I'm assuming east-west, as that's the direction Polaris runs, but there are several non-Polaris options for that as well - Lazelle, Powell Rd, Gemini, and Park Rd being the main options, again depending on where specifically you're trying to get.
The roads up there were all laid out well in advance of the development as well - going to the amphitheater when it first opened was like driving out into the wilderness...
Posted 4 years ago #
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