On Wednesday, This Week News reported that both the BW3s and Panera locations have recently closed at Crosswoods. This dining, hotel, and shopping center was one of the most thriving commercial developments in Central Ohio just 10-15 years ago. But after Polaris opened just a few miles north in 2001, activity at Crosswoods has slowly been in decline. Business First reported two years ago that many other restaurants and businesses were struggling in that area.
Similar stories can be told about The Contenent, the Morse Road Corridor, the Brice Road Corridor, Westland Mall, Eastland Mall, Northland Mall, and of course… City Center. Columbus continues to grow outward, but often times at the expense of the inner city. New developments cannibalize the old, and we’re left with slow-burning wake of boarded up buildings and abandoned parking lots.
This really isn’t new information, nor is it anything unique to Columbus. There’s no easy solution to these types of problems, nor is there much that one individual person can do on their own to change things.
It might not fee like much of a silver lining, but I do feel like more people today are aware of these issues than they were 10 years ago. And it seems like more and more people want to do something about it. While Crosswoods might be doomed to extinction in the next 5 years, I am optimistic that we’re going to continue to see smart growth and smart development emerging both from the public and private sector. We’re going to eventually get this big old ship turned in the right direction one day. Just going to take time and patience and an optimistic outlook.
This area has always been considered a potential transit stop for a north corridor light rail line. That would be a great opportunity to re-build the area as a walkable TOD.
Crosswoods has been tough as far back as I can remember and I remember when Crosswoods was the end of civilization. Or seemed like it. The Crosswoods area is not like all the other areas you mention, “The Continent, the Morse Road Corridor, the Brice Road Corridor, Westland Mall, Eastland Mall, Northland Mall” are / were retail with restaurants.
Crosswoods has no retailing by design, it is offices, hotels, a movie theater and restaurants. New restaurants open then close. Obviously the traffic from the offices and hotels is not enough to keep the restaurants open.
There are no dry cleaners, no drug stores, no convenience stores, no book stores, no shops (except maybe the building on the s.e. corner of Campusview and High St. may have a salon, and it had a camera shop and there was a travel agent there at one point.)
Other than specifically going to a movie or to a restaurant there is no reason for people who live near Crosswoods to go to Crosswoods. The people who live north of 270 can go north and drop off their dry cleaning and grab a bite at Panera or BW3 or they could make a trip to the same restaurants at Crosswoods.
There are some great restaurants at Crosswoods which are not at Polaris.
Other than a couple of good restaurants (Sushi Ko comes to mind), there’s nothing at Crosswoods that can’t be found elsewhere in the city – you’ve got movie theaters at Lennox and Polaris, so once you take that away, all that’s left are a few so-so restaurants and/or chains that have other locations in more convenient sections of the city. While I can see what’s there catering to a corporate lunch crowd, I don’t know of anyone who goes to there to play or socialize. Most just travel northward to Polaris.
But you’re talking to someone who can remember when Polaris was just a bunch of farms with the Ampitheatre in the center of it all. Sooner (rather than later), Delaware will be the next Polaris and Polaris will be what Tuttle Crossing is now – dated, still useful, but no longer a novelty.
John: I agree that a rail stop could be a great catalyst for redevelopment there.
Maureen: Yeah, I really think the lack of retail there was what has spell somewhat of an early death for Crosswoods. Perhaps if it did have retail it could have survived a bit longer. But that ultimately did not help places like Northland or City Center last forever. Each has their unique design or execution flaws, but once something newer and shinier opens it really doesn’t matter in the end… the old place is still less-new and less-shiny. Out with the old and in with the new.
Becke: I think you’re correct that when the next north-side development comes along (I’m going to guess it’s going to be on 33 somewhere between Dublin & Marysville) that Polaris will suffer and look more like a present day Tuttle… and sadly Tuttle will look more like a present-day Westland Mall. When does this sort of thing end? Developers will continue to churn through land and make a lot of money in the process, but after 20-25 years, those developments turn into an abandoned eyesore for the neighborhood. There’s got to be a better way to go about this.
“those developments turn into an abandoned eyesore for the neighborhood”
What neighborhood? There is no there there.
Well, not in a traditional sense of the word… but you know what I mean. Empty, abandoned buildings are eyesores, no matter where they sit.
They’re only eyesores if there’s someone there to look at them. It’s like the tree in the woods.
I know what you mean though. I was just feeling snarky.