Columbus State Community College is bringing a full-service grocery store to its downtown campus for the first time, with Aldi set to open what the college says is the first new grocery store by a national retailer in downtown Columbus in decades. The discount grocer plans to build a 20,000-square-foot store on 1.7 acres at the northwest corner of Cleveland Avenue and Spring Street, just off the college's urban campus.
The project is being developed through a partnership with Columbus State Community Partners, the college's real estate affiliate, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Per Columbus State Community College, vacant structures on the site will be demolished before Aldi builds and owns the finished building, with the property flowing from the college to its real estate affiliate before being leased to the grocer. Construction is scheduled to break ground in spring 2027, with an official opening expected in 2028.
A Campus Built Around More Than Classrooms
The grocery store is landing in the middle of a broader push to strip away barriers that keep students from finishing their degrees. Columbus State serves more than 40,000 students annually across Central Ohio, and campus leaders have made food access a central priority for a student body where basic needs, not academics alone, often determine who stays enrolled.
Housing is getting the same treatment. Woda Cooper Companies plans to break ground on Opportunity Pointe, a 166-unit mixed-income housing project adjacent to the campus that is set to open by late 2027 and will reserve 20 units exclusively for student housing, according to the college. Childcare is next: Columbus State and the YMCA of Central Ohio have announced plans for a $38 million, 53,000-square-foot campus YMCA at Cleveland Avenue and Long Street, slated to open in 2028 and featuring free drop-in childcare for student parents, who make up roughly 25% of the student population, as reported by WOSU.
Cleveland Avenue's Opportunity Corridor
The new Aldi anchors what the college calls Cleveland Avenue's Opportunity Corridor, a designated redevelopment strip that links the urban campus to public transit routes including COTA's CMAX bus rapid transit line and nearby health sciences facilities. The corridor has been a target of sustained municipal infrastructure investment, positioning the grocery store as one piece of a larger transit-oriented development strategy rather than a standalone retail deal.
The timing lines up with Aldi's national growth push. The company is investing $9 billion through 2028 to add 800 U.S. stores, including 180 planned openings in 2026, per corporate announcements from ALDI US. The Columbus State location fits into that aggressive expansion as the chain competes with larger supermarket rivals for market share in dense urban corridors.
Downtown's Grocery Gap Has Two New Contenders
Aldi isn't the only major grocer betting on downtown Columbus. Giant Eagle announced in September 2025 that it will anchor Phase II of The Peninsula development with a 20,000-square-foot Market District store at Broad and Belle Streets, with construction starting in 2026 and an opening targeted for 2027 to 2028, as Hoodline previously reported on that grocer's arrival. The two projects mean two separate 20,000-square-foot national grocery stores could both be operating downtown within roughly the same window.
The independent grocery scene has already been shifting on its own. The Hills Market Downtown, a boutique grocer at 95 N. Grant Avenue since 2013, was acquired by the owners of Charmy's Persian Taste and rebranded as Charmy's Market in March 2025, according to WhatNow. That change left a gap in full-service options even as national chains began circling the same neighborhood.
Chasing a Population That Keeps Growing
The commercial interest tracks a population boom. Downtown Columbus reached approximately 13,500 residents by the end of 2025, and city planners are pursuing a strategic goal of expanding that number to 40,000 by 2040, according to WOSU reporting. Residential density of that kind is typically the metric national grocers weigh most heavily before committing to a site, and downtown's growth curve appears to have finally cleared that bar after decades without a major chain.
Whether two new grocers arriving within a year or two of each other permanently closes the gap remains to be seen, but for now, Columbus State students and downtown residents have a concrete timeline to watch: ground breaking in spring 2027 and doors opening in 2028.
