Polaris Fashion Place
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Polaris Fashion Place, opened on October 25, 2001, is a two level shopping mall on the Northern edge of Columbus, Ohio. The mall is located just off Interstate 71, on Polaris Parkway. The mall's six anchor stores are: Saks Fifth Avenue, Von Maur, Macy's, JCPenney, Sears, and The Great Indoors, along with more than 150 specialty stores, and a food hall located on the upper level. There are also three full-size restaurants: California Pizza Kitchen, Lindey's and Molly Woo's. Other shops include: Adrienne Vittadini, bebe, and Coldwater Creek for fashion and accessories; Sephora for beauty products; Proactiv Solution for beauty and skin care products; menswear purveyor Brooks Brothers for shirts, ties and suits, and Cole Haan for leather items.
The mall was snubbed, however, by local company Limited Brands, which operates stores such as Express, Bath & Body Works, and Victoria's Secret. Not a single Limited store is found at Polaris. This shows the company's strong opposition to the creation of the mall which quickly followed Limited-sponsored Easton Town Center. Polaris, as the mall is referred to locally, is also shunned by many Columbus city residents as an obvious "sprawl" development, placed as far away from the city as possible but is still within the city limits.
Traffic in the Polaris area is notoriously congested. Construction continues around Polaris as of summer 2006, as a new interchange is built on adjacent I-71. The worst situations for potential "road rage" occur when weeknight concerts are scheduled at nearby Germain Amphitheatre, to which concertgoers are flocking just as hundreds of area offices are emptying out during the afternoon rush hour. The combination of construction, concert traffic, commuter traffic and mall traffic generates an overall harrowing experience for many Polaris Fashion Place shoppers.
The mall itself is owned by Glimcher Realty Trust, and is staffed 24 hours by its own housekeeping and security staff. The mall also has its own maintenance department.
Polaris Fashion Place is considered by many to be one of central Ohio's most lavish shopping destinations, competing mainly with Easton Town Center, Columbus City Center, and The Mall at Tuttle Crossing.
Another interesting note about Polaris Fashion Place is that the mall is "pet tolerant." This means you may bring your pet with you while you shop. It is, however, up to the descretion of each tenant weather or not to allow a pet into their store. Furthermore, due to City of Columbus health guidelines, you may not enter the mall's Food Hall with your pet or dine with it. Seeing Eye dogs or Service animals are not applicable to this guideline as they are necessary to the function of their owner. However, should the animal unrinate, deficate, or otherwise cause a disturbance in the mall, the owner will be asked to remove the animal from the mall for the day due to the animals behavior.
Security is very efficient in enforcing the rules mentioned above to provide a safe, secure, and pleasant enrvironment for all.
