Scene75 holding company buys shuttered Columbus department store

Stevie Baia, general manager, left, and Jonah Sandler, chief executive of Scene75 Entertainment Center, in a 2014 photo. LISA POWELL / STAFF

Stevie Baia, general manager, left, and Jonah Sandler, chief executive of Scene75 Entertainment Center, in a 2014 photo. LISA POWELL / STAFF

Could the crew behind Scene75 — already planning a Pittsburgh, Pa.-area location this summer — be eyeing a new Columbus location?

A limited liability company tied to Scene75 bought a shuttered 225,000-square-foot department store at the Mall at Tuttle Crossing, Franklin County property records show.

The purchase price was $3 million. County records identify the buyer as “Scene75 Tuttle LLC,” with a West Carrollton mailing address.

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Scene 75 appears to be in acquisition mode of late.

Last fall, a holding company run by the chief executive of Scene75 Entertainment bought the former ITT Tech school property on Stop Eight Road.

JDS Commercial Holdings LLC — of which Jonah Sandler is the principal — bought the former school property at 3325 Stop Eight Road for $740,000, Montgomery County property records showed then.

In 2012, Sandler opened Scene75 at a former warehouse at 6196 Poe Ave., near the former ITT property.

Since then, he has opened a third entertainment location 30 miles south of Cleveland in Brunswick, Ohio. Besides the Dayton center, the company also has a 84,000-square-foot Cincinnati-area venue in Milford.

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The Columbus building most recently served as a Macy’s location at the Mall at Tuttle Crossing, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

A message seeking comment was left for Sandler, who founded the Scene75 chain of indoor entertainment venues with his father.

The Dispatch said Alex Zorniger, vice president of operations for Scene75, said in an email: “I can’t say much right now, but we’ll be able to give more information after some legal items are squared away next week.”

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