Northpointe Center serves a large market area of nearly 240,000 people in a seven county area and is the retail core for southeastern Ohio. Northpointe Center merchandise mix offers the largest amalgamation of point-of-difference retailers for 40+ miles. This merchandise mix generates positive cross and impulse-shopping. Tourism accounts for 1.7 million visitors annually drawn by the Longaberger Homestead (home of The Longaberger Company, America' s premier maker of handcrafted baskets); the area' s rich ceramic heritage including collectible, antique art pottery; and The Wilds, one of the largest, most innovative conservation centers in the world. With the discovery of vast oil and gas reserves in the area' s Utica shale, Northpointe Center is positioned to reap the benefits of a major uptick to the local economy. Halliburton has opened a transportation hub to serve its shale drilling operations in the region. The company has committed to creating 300 jobs during the first three years. Major employers in the area are Genesis Health Care System, Zandex Corp., and Shelly & Sands. Near JC Penny, TJ Maxx, Wal-Mart, and Krogers