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Let me start off by saying that here at Columbus Underground, we are all about supporting our wonderful local, independent businesses. We encourage people to dine locally, shop locally, and invest money in the local economy. With that being said, we’re fully aware that it’s unrealistic to buy everything from a local business. There is a time and a place for everything, and many specific types of larger chain stores and restaurants can be a vibrant and essential part of our diverse urban experience.
Last year, the “Mile on High” effort was established to combat the 80,000 square feet of vacant retail space along High Street, but it’s off to a slow start. A study from last June revealed that while we have 280 stores and restaurants downtown, there is an estimated spending power to currently support 450 establishments.
We would love to see the majority of that gap filled in with local businesses, but we feel that there is room for a handful of chains as well. Below is our top 10 list of potential chain stores and restaurants that we would like to see fill in some of this empty retail space on or near the High Street corridor.
#10 – Room & Board
Room & Board is a fashionable furniture store that focuses heavily on American-made craftsmanship and social responsibility. They sell all types of home furnishings from sofas to bedding to light fixtures. And with their nearest stores in Illinois, this would make a Downtown Columbus location one-of-a-kind in the state of Ohio.
#9 – Nordstrom Rack
Nordstrom Rack is the discounted counterpart to Nordstrom. Originally operating as a clearance department, it has grown into its own brand for bargain-seeking shoppers and has over 50 locations around the US. The only Nordstrom location in Columbus is out at Easton, and the only Nordstrom rack in Ohio is just east of Cleveland. Placing this shop downtown would be a regional draw, and could also make the surrounding retail units more attractive for independent boutique shops to set up.
#8 – Apple Store
The Apple Store is very obviously a place to purchase Apple products including computers, laptops, iPhones, iPods, software, and accessories. With Apple’s consumer products surging in popularity, the Easton location is constantly overcrowded, and a secondary location would be more than welcome downtown where there is currently no place to purchase computer or electronic accessories.
#7 – CB2
CB2 is an offshoot brand from Crate and Barrel that focuses more on modern and urban style with their product range. CB2 sells all types of home decor and accessories from couches and beds to forks and spoons. Currently, CB2 only has 5 locations, all of which are in urban centers, making downtown the obvious choice for a Columbus store.
#6 – H&M
H&M is an affordable yet fashionable men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing store with locaitons all over the world. A nearby store exists at the Tuttle Mall, but it only sells the women’s clothing line.
#5 – DSW / Filene’s Basement
DSW is actually a local company, with their first store having opened in Dublin in 1991. Their parent company Retail Ventures, owns the Filene’s Basement brand as well. DSW’s large stores feature thousands of name brand shoes available at a discounted price. Similarly, Filene’s offers thousands of name brand men’s and women’s clothing items at a discounted price. Several successful DSW stores operate near Easton, Polaris, and Dublin, with the Dublin location being a joint store with Filene’s Basement. Adding a new downtown location would serve not only the central city, but also would be a closer location for the entire south side of Columbus.
#4 – In-N-Out Burger
If it’s possible for a fast food chain to have a cult following, then In-N-Out Burger has achieved just that. Founded in California 60 years ago, no locations exist outside of the west and south-western states. In-N-Out has often been praised for their use of fresh, local ingredients as well as their employee-centric business practices. If a Downtown Columbus location were to open, we predict that they’d have a lunch line wrapping around the block every day for at least the first year.
#3 – Target
Somehow, Target has mostly managed to avoid the negative connotations that typically plague the big-box corporate concept. Perhaps it’s the fact that they aim to sell slightly more upscale merchandise than competitors like Wal-Mart or K-Mart. Perhaps it’s their brighter stores and hipper advertising image. Perhaps it’s their continuous philanthropic efforts. Whatever it is, it seems to be working, and the idea of bringing multi-story urban Target store (similar to their flagship store in downtown Minneapolis) into downtown Columbus has constantly made appearances on nearly everyone’s wishlist.
#2 – Trader Joe’s
Downtown has got a bit of a grocery problem, and Trader Joe’s is often cited as the solution to those woes. While the residential population Downtown has not quite reached the critical mass needed for a full-sized Kroger or Giant Eagle, Trader Joe’s offers the option of bringing a smaller store into our urban center. Trader Joe’s is often praised for their environmental-minded business practices, and their health-concious store-brand products.
#1 – IKEA
It’s not going to happen anytime soon, but it doesn’t mean that we still can’t hope that someday IKEA will need a second Ohio store, and that it might somehow wind up in Downtown Columbus. When the news broke nearly three years ago that IKEA was considering an Ohio store, many on CU who were tired of driving all the way to Pittsburgh for their fix were quick to cross their fingers that it would wind up in Columbus. In the end, West Chester (a Cincinnati suburb) was chosen as the site for the first Ohio IKEA, but every once in awhile you can still hear someone mentioning how much they would have loved to have it in our own back yard.
What other stores and restaurants would you like to see open up Downtown?
I’d kill for a room and board.
A lot of my furniture is from there.
When I lived in Philly I used to drive to the Room and Board in New York.
Pass on CB2. The literal offspring of Crate and Barrel, just hasn’t defined itself yet.
Just to let everyone know how old I am; I remember the original Crate and Barrel store on wells street in Chicago. It was in a horse barn and they sold dinnerware and kitchen stuff out of……., you guessed it, crates and barrels.
A few years old, and a completely different city… but a fun read:
Downtown Costco an instant hit
Frances Bula, Vancouver Sun
Published: Saturday, November 11, 2006
The first big-box store embedded in a downtown residential tower complex opened in Vancouver Friday to big crowds and enthusiastic reviews from shoppers.
“It’s just thrilling. And I love the light. It’s easier to see stuff here,” said Dawn Knight, a post-production film worker who was shopping with friend Melissa Ruffle, a film accountant, at the city’s newest Costco.
The two had one cart piled high with packages of green beans and the store’s trademark Ling Ling chicken potstickers, among other things, as they patrolled the aisles of the high-ceilinged and brightly lit warehouse space.
READ MORE
kitty wrote:
These are great ideas! I was in Crate and Barrel last week and the woman working there said they will only open CB2 in cities with at least 3 million people…
Sounds like she may be talking out her a@@. There are only 2 cities in the U.S. with populations over 3 million, New York and L.A. Chicago is just under. Unless she meant metro population. But really? A retail location employee with the inside scoop on boardroom expansion strategy?
i feel that opening any big box stores downtown would kill the potential for any further mom & pop stores to thrive. columbus has this great potential downtown, and a lot of void to fill. many cities would kill for all the ‘blank canvas’ on which to reinvent their downtowns (i.e. all of the many surface parking lots). putting in big boxes would just be a bad idea and the wrong precedent to set. also, without much viable public transit they would require tons of parking, another thing we should be trying to move away from. a grocery store, however, would be a great start. revitalizing downtown requires getting people down there for things they can’t get anywhere else in the region. so some of these ideas are great, but the thought of a target or ikea kind of scares me!
ehh, I think a reasonable balance would work perfectly fine. We definitely don’t need another suburban style mall, but urban concepts of some of these stores would offer quite a bit to the residents in and around downtown.
I feel some of the big boxes may weather any future economic troubles a bit better than the mom and pops and in some cases, like say an Ikea, would provide a recognizable destination shopping experience that would bring greater foot traffic downtown.
rs1009 Says: i feel that opening any big box stores downtown would kill the potential for any further mom & pop stores to thrive.
I agree with you if we’re talking about suburban-style big box stores. But many stores that we only know in Columbus by their suburban big-box layouts have urban redesigned counterparts in other cities that not only thrive on their own, but can generate foottraffic for other nearby smaller shops. That’s where the smaller, independent mom&pops stand to benefit and prosper.
I will say from my families experience in traveling, we went to the Ikea just around the Ann Arbor area a few years back. During that little weekend we found a great German restaurant. Now with my little sister getting ready to start school at Eastern Michigan, my parents look forward to the trips north to stop in.
The big boxes, if done right, will bring the foot traffic as mentioned. But chances are Joe Blow won’t be returning to Columbus for those stores. They are going to look forward to a return trip to the North Market, Jeni’s, Pearl Alley, Dirty Franks etc.
“While the residential population Downtown has not quite reached the critical mass needed for a full-sized Kroger or Giant Eagle,”
Well there is already a Kroger at Brewer’s Gate.. so I imagine one closer to the living areas of the SN/broad and high to compete with North Market and the Giant Eagle @ 1st and Neil wouldn’t be out of the question…
Amen to all of the above!!! I am going to make the “Trader Joes” one my desktop background and dream of the day it becomes a reality……
i know target and some others have been known to do urban footprint stores, but i think that regardless of what format the store takes, it will still impact small businesses in a negative way. imagine the effect an “urban” home depot (if they did such a thing) would have on zettler’s. i suppose there is always grey area and one could argue that target sells ‘necessities’ that are currently lacking downtown. but a full-service grocery or a few chain drugstores like rite-aid or walgreens would carry the same necessities with a much smaller footprint and less need for parking. i just hate to see columbus open the door to big-boxing downtown when there are other ways to get the things we need and establish a great neighborhood. i think having some chains downtown would be good, but we should be careful what we wish for.
rs1009 Says: i think having some chains downtown would be good, but we should be careful what we wish for.
Sure.
But this list is a group of very specific chain stores that people have mentioned on CU from time to time. The list is completely comprised of places that sell products that currently aren’t sold downtown at all, or in a very limited capacity. Several stores in the list have no presence in Central Ohio at all, and some do not exist in the entire state.
So don’t mistake “I’d like to see this specific chain store downtown” for “I’d like to see any and every chain store downtown”. No one is asking for a Home Depot next to Zettler, so I’m not sure what that scenario has to do with this topic. I’m sure plenty here would be strongly opposed to that type of development if it were ever to be proposed.
I would say most everyone here strongly values the importance of our independent shops, boutiques, and restaurants. But I’d say it’s pretty safe to say that no one shops and dines 100% exclusively at local shops. If you want to live around downtown, but you’ve still got to drive to Easton to buy a computer or drive to Polaris to buy furniture because those stores don’t exist downtown, then I think most would rather see a specialty chain like an Apple Store or Room & Board instead of nothing at all.
is zettler hardware still downtown? i’m embarrassed to ask. i remember when someone drove their vehicle through the front of the store years ago.
Yep, Zettler is alive and well. ;)
Okay love all the stories, especially Target even though I hate box-stores. I have 2 more resturants I would like to see open a chain in Downtown.
~ Raising Cane’s
~ Five Guys: Burgers and Fries
Both are delicious…