Carvana to open area’s first ‘vending machine’

Used cars are running the go-karts off Magic Mountain.

Magic Mountain’s Polaris location will close at 5 p.m. Thursday to make way for the used-car company Carvana’s first Columbus dealership.

The move ends the amusement center’s 23-year run at the location, although Magic Mountain’s other location, on Scarborough Road, will remain open, said a worker at the Polaris site who confirmed the closing.

The Columbus City Council approved Carvana’s request to rezone Magic Mountain’s 8-acre site at 8350 Lyra Dr., on the west side of Interstate 71 south of Polaris Parkway.

This would be Carvana’s first Columbus facility and second in Ohio, following one in Warrensville Heights outside Cleveland. The used-car company is known for its car “vending machines,” glass towers where customers can pick up their cars after buying them online.

In its rezoning request to the city, Carvana proposed a 7,960-square-foot, seven-story vending machine-style building on the site, flanked by a parking lot to the south and a site to be further developed on the north.

Carvana, the Phoenix-based firm that operates 30 vending machines nationwide, did not respond to a Dispatch request for comments.

Magic Mountain opened the Polaris location in December 1998, the second Magic Mountain following the Far East Side location.

The Polaris location was more than twice the size of the Far East Side Magic Mountain, with go-karts, miniature golf courses, a restaurant, bumper boats, laser tag, an arcade, a playland and motion-simulation games.

The Magic Mountain employee said outstanding gift cards would be honored at the Far East Side location.

The two Columbus-area Magic Mountain locations are operated by Adventure Holdings, a Jacksonville, Florida, entertainment firm that filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2019.

Dispatch calls to Adventure Holdings were not returned.

Adventure Holdings leases its sites from National Retail Properties, which has owned the Polaris Magic Mountain location since 2008. jweiker@dispatch.com @Jimweiker

DORAL CHENOWETH/COLUMBUS DISPATCH Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY NETWORK Carvana is planning a car “vending machine” at the Magic Mountain Fun Center in the Polaris area, immediately west of Interstate 71, seen here on the right.

CARVANA Carvana is known for its glass car “vending machines.”