Target to close its West Side store
In another blow to the West Side, Target is closing its store about a mile from Hollywood Casino Columbus. It’s at least the third major retailer to leave the West Side despite hopes that the casino would help revive the area.
“I think a lot of misleading promises were made that (Hollywood Casino Columbus) was going to revitalize the West Side,” said Chris Boring, a retail analyst with Boulevard Strategies of Dublin. “It really does nothing for retail.
“People are going to gamble, not shop.”
Target is closing the store at 3720 Soldano Blvd. after Nov.?1, when its lease expires. The chain also is closing a store in Louisville, Ky.
Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said it’s not an easy decision to close stores. “When you make a decision to close, it’s not a short-term thing. You’re looking at long-term profitability.”
At the same time, the casino reported that its July revenue was $18.2 million — the best of the state’s four casinos and up 3.4?percent from July 2014.
The West Side casino opened in 2012.
Hobby Lobby closed its W.?Broad Street store in August 2011. The next month, Kohl’s Department Store closed its W.?Broad Street store. Both opened stores in Grove City.
In the meantime, plans for Westland Mall remain unclear. Sears still has a store there, but JC Penney and Macy’s closed years ago, and the mall’s interior closed in 2012.
Before the casino opened, a market study by Robert Charles Lesser & Co. of Bethesda, Md., projected that each casino patron would spend an average of $45 per visit outside the casino on food, beverages, gasoline, hotel stays and other retail visits.
That was based on a 10,000-visitors-a-day projection, which casino spokesman Bob Tenenbaum said has been accurate.
That should mean casino patrons are spending $164 million a year outside the casino.
Chris Haydocy, a West Side auto dealer, is frustrated that Target didn’t do enough to promote the store, which opened in 1991.
“I would challenge finding an ad mentioning the (West Side) Target,” said Haydocy, president of Weston Vision, an economic-development organization.
Lane Newcome, who leads the Greater Hilltop Area Commission, said the community is “obviously upset” that Target is leaving. “It is still a blow to lose something,” he said.
There have been positives in the area.
For example, the owners of the Great Western Commerce Center off Wilson Road are spending $2 million to renovate the center to attract a diverse mix of tenants that now includes Restaurant Depot, a charter school and Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore, as well as a neighborhood service center operated by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Steve Torsell, executive director of the nonprofit Homes on the Hill, said he hopes the owner of the Target site will work with the community to find another use for the spot.
“We don’t want to have that sit there for some period of time,” he said. “It’s going to be very critical to the neighborhood.”
Boring said it’s likely that other retailers will wonder whether they could make it there if Target could not.
