Article originally published on ISCS.com by Ben Johnson
A significant tenant rollover has yielded an opportunity for Easton Town Center to enhance its roster with a formal Fashion District. Retailers and restaurants will begin opening this year just as Columbus, Ohio’s population surges and the property celebrates its 25th anniversary.
Easton opened in 1999 with 773,000 square feet and added 921,000 square feet in 2001, bringing a number of fashion retailers to the center. When those leases were set to roll over in 2022 and 2023, owners Steiner + Associates, L Brands and The Georgetown Co. hatched a concept to create the formally branded Fashion District. “We looked at the upcoming expirations of both retail and food-and-beverage and even some office as almost an opportunity to redevelop the plan,” said Spencer Jordan, Steiner senior vice president of leasing for Easton Town Center.
Easton Town Center has created a Fashion District as it celebrates its 25th anniversary. The property’s central fountain will front the new district.
The Columbus area’s growth and significance bolstered that plan. Columbus has grown exponentially since 2001, and its population led U.S. growth rates in the last half of 2023. Zillow called Columbus one of 2024’s top three national housing markets, and the area is home to many colleges and universities. “What the city looks like 25 years ago is not the city today, so we really wanted to take this as an opportunity to speak to brands that maybe wouldn’t traditionally consider the Midwest,” Jordan said. “Or if they would consider the Midwest, maybe they were looking at only Chicago.”
Thus was born Easton’s Fashion District, featuring luxury and contemporary retail and restaurant space and new-to-Ohio brands like Buck Mason, Chanel Beauty, Jo Malone, David Yurman, Golden Goose, Faherty, Boss, Breitling, Bluemercury and Tecovas. Louis Vitton and Lululemon also expanded their presences at Easton to create their largest stores in Ohio. Steiner will announce an additional 40,000 square feet worth of first-in-state names soon to round out the 100,000-square-foot district. “These are really powerful brands that are now boosting their existing flagships or entering the state for the first time, and it was a very collaborative effort where we had to collect a lot of space and play musical chairs a little bit with the existing retailers,” said Jordan.
