Today, Columbia Mall features the traditional retailers JCPenney and Scheels, and also currently features several prominent specialty retailers which are American Eagle, Bath and Body Works, Hot Topic, Maurices, Men's Warehouse, and Zumiez.

Dayton Hudson experienced fierce competition for a new mall in the city of Grand Forks in 1975.

[1] While their proposal was to build a mall at the intersection of 32nd Avenue South and Columbia Road, Inland Construction of Edina, Minnesota wanted to build a mall at 32nd Avenue South and Washington Street (one mile east of the Dayton Hudson site), which was quickly dismissed, while a group of local investors and Farber-Kelley Ltd. of Toronto advanced a proposal for a mall at DeMers Avenue and 42nd Street to be called "Marketplace West."

When it passed, the city council interpreted it as a public endorsement of the Columbia Mall project.

The American Red Cross established a temporary disaster relief operations headquarters at the shopping center in response to the August 26, 2007, tornado that struck nearby Northwood, ND.