Northland Mall

Northland Mall, formerly Northland Center was a one-level shopping mall 8.5 miles (13.7 km) southwest of downtown Columbus, Ohio, between Morse Road, Karl Road and Interstate 71 in the city of Columbus. It had three anchor spaces which once housed JCPenney, Lazarus and Sears.
== Power Center ==
Northland Mall originally opened up as a power center named Northland Center which opened on August 13, 1964. It originally opened up with three anchors which was a three-level Lazarus, a two-level Sears, and a one-level Woolworth. Original tenants included Gray Drug, Albers Markets, Rogers Jewelers, Lerner Shops and Madison's Ladies' Wear. In August 1964, a one-screen movie theater opened in Northland Center, it was expanded to two-screens in 1975.
== Enclosed Mall ==
In 1975, the Northland Center was enclosed and the mall was renamed to Northland Mall, adding a fourth anchor which was a two-level JCPenney store. The original two-screen cinema was closed in April 1985, and replaced by a new eight-screen General Cinema theater in December 1985. In 1995, Woolworth had closed and was replaced with a 9-bay Food Court.
== Decline ==
Northland Mall's decline started in the late 1980s when the Columbus City Center opened in downtown Columbus in 1989, then in 1997, another new bigger mall opened in the Columbus area, The Mall at Tuttle Crossing in Dublin. In 1999, Easton Town Center opened in Columbus. Many of the tenants at Northland began relocating to the new malls and other shopping centers in the Columbus area. The final blow came to Northland when another mall came to Columbus in 2001 which was Polaris Fashion Place, this new upscale mall snatched JCPenney, Sears and Lazarus from Northland, which led to Northland begin to become vacant. On October 9, 2002, Northland Mall shut down for good and was left abandoned for two years before being demolished in February 2004.
After redevelopment as what is now known as Northland Village, the only parts of Northland Mall that remain are two of its anchor stores: the former Lazarus, which was converted to offices for the Ohio Department of Taxation; and the former JCPenney, which was extensively rebuilt to contain the headquarters of the Franklin County Department of Job and Family Services as well as the Northland Performing Arts Center, home to a local theater group (Vaud-Villities) and other events and activities. A Menards home improvement store now lies on the site of the former Sears, and the Franklin County Dog Shelter and Adoption Center moved to the former location of a multiplex movie theater on the site. A new 102,000 square foot (9,500 m2) Kroger grocery store was built in the area that was formerly the central concourse of the mall; it was completed in late 2016.
Category:Columbus Area Malls
Category:Richard E. Jacobs
Category:Malls that opened in 1975
Category:Malls in Ohio
Category:Malls in the United States
Category:Former JCPenney-anchored Malls
Category:Former Sears-anchored Malls
Category:Former Woolworth's-anchored Malls
Category:Former Lazarus-anchored Malls
Category:Dead Malls
Category:Former Malls
Category:Franklin County, Ohio
Category:Defunct malls