From British bar to coworking space and social club. The transformation of The Pub at Polaris is complete as COhatch opens the doors to their fourth Central Ohio location at 1554 Polaris Pkwy.
The coworking space meets mall concept offers approximately 8,500 square feet of work space by day, and through a partnership with Brothers Drake Meadery, bar and event space by night.
When it comes to work space, COhatch The Pub features 10 private offices, a limited number of dedicated desks, 50 plus open seats for coworking, seven meeting rooms and indoor and outdoor event space.
The bar stayed in place, but COhatch gutted the kitchen to convert the square footage to private offices. The patio was also enclosed to create an indoor-outdoor space dubbed The Pavillion. One set of windows opens the space up to the outside, with another set that opens into the main bar area.
After 5 p.m. Brothers Drake Meadery takes over the show, and the front space and bar open to the public. Coworkers can retreat to the back office coworking area or join the party.
Brothers Drake is looking forward to bringing their bar experience to a new northern crowd. Sarah Benary, co-owner of Brothers Drake, says they want to recreate the template they have in Short North, curating a wide selection of live music events and more. Fellow co-owner Oron Benary is excited to turn occasional customers into regulars, putting another location in an area where people live, work and play – and have easier access to parking.
Brothers Drake has a production area in The Pub where they will do small-batch production and barrel aging. Those meads will be featured in a variety of tastings and other events the meadery plans to host with the space’s other alcohol partners – North High Brewing and Middle West Spirits.
The Pub continues COhatch’s trend of renovating and restoring unique buildings, especially those that were not previously used in an office capacity. The coworking location is also pioneering in the shared office space it brings to the densely populated Polaris area.
COhatch Co-Founder Matt Davis says there are other offices in the area, but they are very corporate products. COhatch takes what is normally located on the upper floors of buildings and brings it to the ground level, where the foot traffic is.
“We did not want to be a standard office and boring,” Davis says. “We wanted to do something always unique that adds value to our member base.”
Ryan Fogelman, strategic partnerships and business development at COhatch, sees the location as indicative of the future of the mall.
“As retail evolves, a mall needs to become a neighborhood,” he says.
“Our forward-looking lifestyle concept is  being well received by real estate developers such as Washington Prime Group (the owners of Polaris Fashion Place), who see our model as an opportunity to help them recreate the retail space of the future,” Davis adds.
For more information, visit cohatch.com.
Photos by 10 SPEED Studios and provided by COhatch unless otherwise noted.
