Five things you might not know about Easton Town Center's opening

Calling all shopaholics — Columbus’ famous mall is marking a milestone this week.

This week marks the 24th anniversary of the opening of Easton Town Center, the shopping center located on the northeast side of the city. Easton attracts some 30 million visitors from central Ohio and beyond each year, and has won several awards.

When the center first opened in 1999, owners and designers envisioned it providing a unique retail, dining and entertainment experience for visitors. Its open-air design, meant to evoke a nostalgic small-town feel, continues to attract shoppers today. It’s also still home to Ohio’s largest movie theater, and now features hotels and an apartment complex.

As the center celebrates another anniversary, we took a look through the Dispatch archives to find a few facts you might not have known about Easton’s opening weekend.

A star-studded opening

Sylvester Stallone, Shaquille O’Neal and longtime Columbus enthusiast Arnold Schwarzenegger were just a few celebrities in attendance at the June 1999 grand opening of Planet Movies — Easton’s 30-screen movie theater, owned today by AMC.

Actors Tom Arnold, Kelsey Grammer, James Caan and Luke Perry also came to show their support for Columbus’ newest landmark. So did then-Gov. Bob Taft, along with several other top political officials and local sports stars.

Crowds of fans showed up to the grand opening event, hoping to catch a glimpse of some household names and hometown heroes. The event kicked off Easton’s opening weekend.

Columbus' first Starbucks

The 1999 grand opening welcomed 70 shopping, dining and entertainment locations to Easton. At the time, 27 of these stores were new to the area — including Columbus’ first Starbucks Coffee location.

Today, Easton is home to about 300 storefronts and entertainment venues, 37 of which are the retailers’ only locations in Ohio.

And while the metro area is now home to dozens and dozens of Starbucks locations, the original Starbucks in Easton is still open, making it one of 32 “Easton Original” stores that have remained open for the center’s entire 24-year lifespan.

Helping hands

While Easton’s Change for Charity project donates some of its parking and ticket revenue to local community organizations today, giving back was also a big part of the center’s opening.

The grand opening of Planet Movies raised $150,000 for the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Association of Greater Columbus. At the time, Easton also donated proceeds from its storefront parking meters to Adventures for Wish Kids, a local charity for children suffering from life-threatening illnesses. All other parking was free.

Blast from the past

While the center saw great success, a few of its most anticipated stores closed after just a few years.

The Dispatch’s 1999 coverage touted Easton's Virgin Megastore as a “first-in-the-country innovation.” The store helped customers download “out-of-print or hard-to-find music from a controlled-access Internet site” to make personalized DVDs. The store closed within a few years of Easton’s opening.

Despite attracting many familiar faces to its grand premiere, Planet Movies, and the accompanying restaurant Planet Hollywood, were also early casualties, shuttering less than two years after Easton’s opening.

Concerts at the center

The summer of 1999 also saw Easton’s first summer concert series. From July to September, the center hosted seven free evening concerts on its town square, featuring artists like Suzanne Vega and the Smithereens.

The center still hosts outdoor concert events throughout the summer. This year, keep an eye out for its Sounds of Summer Concert Series with shows on July 19 and August 9. Easton Unplugged, the center’s acoustic concert series, will also feature local musicians on Thursday evenings now through September.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Five fun facts about Easton Town Center for its 24th anniversary