What's New Around Old Hilliard This Summer

For most of the last decade, Old Hilliard was a place you drove through on the way to somewhere with a bigger sign. That is changing on two fronts at once, and both are visible this summer. Main Street is picking up sit-down restaurants that used to skip Hilliard for German Village or Bexley, while a second dining hub is being built from scratch on Trueman Boulevard at TruePointe. If you already live here, the practical effect is that your Thursday-night rotation and your Saturday-lunch options are about to double inside a single zip code.

Here is what is actually landing between now and fall, who is behind it, and where each piece fits on the map.

The Main Street trade of the year

The most watched space downtown is 3987 Main Street. Harvest Pizzeria is taking over the historic property that most recently housed Legacy Smokehouse, which closed last month after nine years of operation; the building, owned by developer Andy Warnock and his wife Ashley, was originally a residence and later home to Bookphil, a rare bookstore that operated there for 45 years.

That is a lot of local history for one address. It is also a real signal about where Old Hilliard sits on the Central Ohio dining map. The Hilliard restaurant will mark the sixth location for Harvest Pizzeria, which has built a following for its wood-fired pizzas and locally sourced ingredients since launching in German Village in 2011, with prior expansions to Clintonville, Dublin, Bexley, and Granville. Every one of those earlier neighborhoods is on the short list of places Columbus food media treats as destination dining. Hilliard was not on that list a year ago.

An opening timeline for the Hilliard location has not yet been announced, so the reasonable working assumption is late 2026. If you want to see the building while it is still Legacy's shell, the walk is worth doing now.

What Westwood Collective is doing at the old Chase bank

Two blocks east, a different kind of project is starting. A mixed-use development featuring an Italian restaurant, along with retail and residential space, is in the works for Downtown Hilliard, after the Hilliard Development Corporation entered into an agreement allowing local real estate firm The Westwood Collective to purchase and redevelop the former Chase bank property at 4056 E. Main St.

The plan is more ambitious than a single tenant swap. Project plans call for a sit-down Italian restaurant to move into the former bank building and for a mixed-use building to be constructed on the adjoining parking lot, with dining and retail space on the ground floor and a limited number of luxury apartments on the upper level. The former Chase bank closed last year when the bank relocated within Hilliard to a newly constructed branch at 4199 Parkway Lane.

The through-line here is the same developer family behind the Harvest deal. The Westwood Collective is led by founder and CEO Andy Warnock, whose Hilliard-based company owns and manages several commercial and residential properties throughout Hilliard and central Ohio, and Warnock has said that as a Hilliard local and business owner it is meaningful to invest in the community his family calls home. Two restaurant announcements from one operator in a six-block stretch is not a coincidence. It is a downtown plan.

TruePointe finally has tenants

While Main Street densifies, the newer story is a mile east on Trueman Boulevard. TruePointe is a 27-acre development that will also feature apartments, a hotel, retail stores, office space and other restaurants, including a concept by a former Cameron Mitchell chef.

The first restaurant tenant is out of Dayton. Founded in 2016, Old Scratch Pizza currently has four locations in southwest Ohio, including restaurants in Dayton, Troy, Beavercreek and Centerville. The pizzeria is set to open in late summer or fall of 2026, alongside the initial launch of the TruePointe development. Hilliard diners can expect open kitchens with multiple Neapolitan ovens on display, a lively beer-hall vibe, a full-service bar and a patio.

The second is the Cameron Mitchell alum. From Culinary Collectives comes Medley Kitchen, a communal dining concept inspired by shared food traditions from around the world, with owner Derek Bush describing it as a place where guests can learn about other cuisines while sharing their own, with a menu spanning tapas, dim sum, and mezze-style dishes; it is the company's first brick-and-mortar and will anchor the new TruePointe development in Hilliard. Bush has worked in leadership roles with Cameron Mitchell Restaurants and the Ohio State University's Hospitality Management program, and is joined in ownership by entrepreneur Justin McMaster. TruePointe is at 4457 Trueman Blvd.

Read together, the four new food anchors give downtown and Trueman a symmetry it did not have before:

One more piece of context on the east side: CAVA opened its doors in Hilliard at 1790 Hilliard Rome Rd., the first of three Columbus locations expected to open this year. That is a different customer than TruePointe or Main Street, but it does mean the Hilliard Rome corridor now has fast-casual Mediterranean before Dublin does.

Thursday nights already have a lineup

If none of the new places are open in time for your summer, the concert calendar at Hilliard's Station Park is doing the heavy lifting. All concerts will be held in Hilliard's Station Park beginning at 6:30 p.m. There is no concert on Thursday, July 2, and the remaining lineup runs Trailer Park Ninjas, The Flex Crew, Shucking Bubba Deluxe, then Long Live (a Taylor Swift tribute) on July 9, Lt. Dan's New Legs on July 16, RockHouse on July 23, Gravy on July 30, Conspiracy on Aug. 6, and Fleetwood Gold on Aug. 13.

Two things make the series more useful than the average suburban concert night. First, the DORA is legitimately convenient: the Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area is open daily downtown from noon to 9 p.m. for guests 21 and up, with drinks required to be purchased from an authorized location. Second, if the weather turns, the series is held rain or shine, and if weather is not favoring an outside concert the show shifts from the outdoor stage to the indoor theatre stage.

Add the Hilliard Arts Council's own Summer Concert Series that kicked off June 14, 2026, and Thursday effectively becomes the busiest evening of the downtown week.

The July stretch that changes downtown foot traffic

If you have out-of-town family visiting between the Fourth and the end of the month, you can build a full week without leaving Hilliard.

Freedom Fest, July 4. Held at Roger A. Reynolds Municipal Park with live music by a national artist, food trucks, inflatables, games, and a fireworks show after dusk. The City of Hilliard has signed on to participate in the Ohio America 250 Picnic, a statewide initiative inviting neighbors to gather on July 4, and this year's patriotic celebration will take place during Freedom Fest.

Franklin County Fair, July 20 to 26. Held at the Franklin County Fairgrounds in Hilliard, admission is $10, and most attractions and performances are free with admission excluding select Grandstand events, rides, games and food. The fair features themed activities that celebrate the semiquincentennial, offering a July opportunity to experience this Ohio tradition rather than waiting for August.

Scoop, Chalk, and Celebrate Ohio 250 Goes to the Fair, Sunday, July 26. From 1 to 3 p.m. in Hilliard's Station Park, the afternoon includes splashing in the fountains, free ice cream, and a local chalk artist transforming the park into an outdoor gallery.

The practical read: for one week in July, the fairgrounds pull daytime visitors, Station Park pulls evening visitors, and Main Street businesses see the kind of foot traffic that usually only happens on the Fourth.

Why any of this matters if you already own here

Two data points to hold in mind. The first is location: the Franklin County Fairgrounds sits in the heart of Hilliard, home to the Franklin County Fair for more than 100 years and hosting a wide variety of events throughout the year, from car shows and craft shows to 5k races and harness racing. The second is momentum: four new restaurants confirmed inside two years, all clustered on either Main Street or Trueman Boulevard, all from operators with track records in higher-rent Columbus neighborhoods.

For a homeowner who has been in Old Hilliard for more than a few years, this is the first summer where the walking radius from your front door is materially different from what it was in 2023. That is the story worth watching, and it is the story that shows up in resale narratives two and three years from now. The value of a downtown block is not the median price on the last comparable sale. It is what a buyer thinks they can walk to after dinner. That answer is changing on both ends of the East Main axis.

If you have been on the fence about whether it makes sense to reprice, refresh, or list a home while the market is still catching up to what downtown is becoming, that is a conversation worth having early rather than late. Guided Property Sales works with Hilliard owners on exactly that timing question. Request your VIP home valuation when you are ready to see what the shift is worth to your property.