COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Eastland Mall in Columbus is permanently shutting its doors by the end of the year, a city official confirmed.
The 54-year-old Columbus mall at 2740 S. Hamilton Rd. is closing after a court order marked Eastland as a public nuisance in June, citing outstanding health and safety code violations. Mall representatives told the office of Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein that they plan to close by the end of the year, which would be Saturday at the latest.
City officials filed a case in Franklin County Municipal Court against Eastland Mall Holdings, LLC, in April 2021, calling the property owners out for violations including inadequate lighting, potholes, a sinkhole developing in the parking lot and structural issues. The court order gave Eastland’s owners a deadline of July 13 to fix all code violations.
“Immediate action must be taken to bring the property into compliance, and that begins with property owners stepping up to make improvements,” Klein said.
The court held a contempt hearing in September to see if the owners had followed orders to clean up the property, and found they did not, handing the mall owners a $3,500 fine for failing to meet the deadline. Klein said in September if the owners did not address the flagged health and safety violations, the court will tack on an additional $250 fine daily.
As the city’s attorney has fought with the owners, the City of Columbus announced in November 2021 that it planned to turn 78 acres of land near Eastland Mall into a new park, and had acquired the acreage for about $1.5 million.
Take a virtual tour from 2017 of the Eastland Mall through Google Maps below:
