The Farmers Market's Winter Home Just Went Up for Sale

Last January, with snow on the way, Biscuit Boss put a message in the Worthington Partnership's weekly market roundup. The forecast had snow starting Saturday night, so the vendor asked shoppers to come out that morning and stock up on biscuits and gravy before Sunday and Monday kept everyone home. "We need to sell some biscuits this winter," the post said, "and there are dozens of other small businesses that could use your support too."

Biscuit Boss was at Booth #70, in what the market calls the Market Emporium, inside The Shops at Worthington Place at 7227 N. High St. From November through April, that mall is where the Worthington Farmers Market lives. In late September, Columbus Business First reported that owner Direct Retail Partners had put the property on the market for $25 million, "putting the mall's long-planned redevelopment into question."

So the indoor season opens on schedule Saturday, Nov. 7. But for the first time, the building it depends on is formally up for sale.

The handoff from High Street to the mall

The outdoor season ends Saturday, Oct. 31. The Worthington Partnership's events calendar lists the last outdoor market on Oct. 31 at 649 High St., 8 a.m. to noon. The next Saturday, the market moves north.

The indoor season dates come from the Experience Columbus event listing. The closed Saturdays and hours are posted on the market's own page. Indoor hours start an hour later than summer hours, so a Saturday that begins at 8 a.m. sharp out of habit will mean a short wait in the parking lot.

A market that grew into a building

Going indoors started out as a practical fix. Market manager Chelsea Kayse told Spectrum News 1 in April: "We still have farmers that have fresh food in wintertime. We still have bakers bringing fresh bread, and consumers want it. So 15 years ago we started coming indoors."

The market has gotten much bigger since then. The same Spectrum report says it started in 1987 with eight vendors, now has 120, and averages 9,500 visitors on summer Saturdays. USA Today named it the best farmers market in America in 2024. The Partnership's own page puts the count at nearly 100 vendors, so the number shifts depending on who is counting and when. Either way, a market that size needs a lot of indoor floor space. A mall's corridors are among the few places in Worthington that can hold it under one roof.

Last winter's roundups show how fully the market spreads through the building. Booths were numbered and assigned by corridor:

• Booth #3, East Corridor: a community table near the First Watch entrance, next to the market information booth
• Booth #11, West Corridor: The Little Dot, posting a weekly menu
• Booth #41, North Corridor, West: Mud Run Farm, which renamed its all-purpose flours "Bolted"
• Booth #49, North East Corridor: Silver Bridge Coffee, which launched a Snickerdoodle flavor that snowy weekend
• Booth #52, Northeast Corridor: Rock Dove Farm, taking CSA sign-ups
• Booth #64, North West Corridor: Honeyrun Farm, with its alpine forest shaving soap
• Booth #70, Market Emporium: Biscuit Boss

The same post sent visitors to a kitten rescue "behind the fireplace at the north end of the mall." That is the vendor mix from January 2026. The 2026–27 lineup is the market's to announce. The layout is the point here. The winter market only works because the building still has open corridors, entrances, a fireplace and a restaurant door that people use as a meeting spot.

The plan that would have changed the building

That layout has been at risk on paper for about six years.

Direct Retail Partners bought the center at the turn of 2020. NBC4 reported in January 2020 that the price was $19.8 million for 139,283 square feet on 15 acres, and that the center was 92% leased at the time. The neighboring Kroger and nearby apartments and outlots were not part of the sale. The redevelopment plan came out that September, and it was approved but never built:

1. September 2020. Columbus Underground reported the "High North" concept, with up to 250,000 square feet of offices built in phases. The first piece was an 8- to 10-story office and parking structure with a plaza and new streets. A later phase could add a 120-room hotel or a 100-unit apartment building. The plan kept a 55,000-square-foot eastern wing of the mall, and the owner's filing described about 45% of the 138,000 leasable square feet as economically vacant.
2. April 19, 2021. Worthington City Council approved the High North planned-unit-development zoning, as ThisWeek News reported.
3. October 2022. DRP managing principal David Watson told the Worthington Spotlight that a committed office tenant had been hard to find while employers were unsure how much office space they needed after the pandemic.
4. December 2022. City boards approved the northern office building, which completed the project's approvals, NBC4 reported. It still needed an anchor tenant to move forward.
5. February 2024. DRP told the Worthington Spotlight that tenants were still hard to land, citing uncertainty over corporate return-to-office plans and much higher borrowing costs. Watson said construction would have to wait.
6. September 2026. The property is listed for $25 million, and Business First says the redevelopment is now in question.

For five winters after the 2021 approval, the market kept setting up in a building that had city permission to change a great deal. The office towers never came, so the corridors stayed open. With the property now listed, the next owner will decide what happens to those corridors. That owner could keep the approved plan, change it, or start over. No plan for any of those has been made public.

What is operating there now

Several businesses confirm the address on their own websites as of this fall. First Watch lists its Worthington restaurant at 7227 N. High St., Suite 116. Its entrance is the East Corridor door where the market's information booth sits. Aladdin's Eatery lists its Worthington location at the same address. Orvis's store locator lists 7227 N. High Street with store hours. Anthony Vincé Nail Spa takes appointments at Suite 108. Jade Yoga & Wellness is listed inside the center on studio-booking directories.

That gives a market Saturday a lot to do under one roof. You can have breakfast at First Watch, shop the corridors from 9 to noon and have lunch at Aladdin's without going back out into the cold.

The rest of the season around it

The market's move indoors falls in the middle of Worthington's holiday calendar, and most of that calendar is in Old Worthington, a few minutes south of the mall:

• Saturday, Oct. 31: Last outdoor market on High Street, 8 a.m. to noon. Citywide trick-or-treat runs 6 to 8 p.m., according to the City of Worthington calendar.
• Thursday, Nov. 5: Holidays on High, 6 to 9 p.m., with merchants open late and extra sidewalk vendors.
• Saturday, Nov. 7: The indoor market opens at The Shops at Worthington Place, 9 a.m. to noon.
• Sunday, Nov. 22: The Worthington Holiday Craft Fair, noon to 4 p.m., at the Worthington Community Center, 345 E. Wilson Bridge Road, with more than 70 local makers and small businesses.
• Saturday, Nov. 28: No indoor market.
• Sunday, Nov. 29: The Holiday Open House and Tree Illumination in Old Worthington. The listing describes the open house as noon to 5 p.m. with the tree lighting at 5:30 p.m., but its event summary says noon to 6 p.m. Check the Partnership calendar before you head out.

Every one of those events is set to happen this year. The only open question on the list is the building where the market spends its next 22 Saturdays, and Business First is the outlet to watch for news on the sale.

At Keys + Company, we keep an eye on news like this listing because a change at a major address on North High Street affects the Worthington homes around it. If you're curious how the area looks to buyers right now, request your free instant home valuation, and we'll be glad to talk it through over coffee at the market.