New Albany scoop seekers no longer have to drive to Westerville or Gahanna for their Graeter's fix. The Cincinnati-born ice cream chain opened its first New Albany location earlier this month at 5065 Forest Drive, bringing a drive-thru, dine-in seating and an outdoor patio to a brand-new retail strip on the city's east side.
The 2,500-square-foot shop sits within a 15,000-square-foot retail development, according to NBC4 WCMH-TV. That strip was completed earlier this year after construction began in July 2024, per the New Albany Community Development Department. The opening marks Graeter's 13th location in central Ohio, adding to a roster that already includes shops in Bexley, Easton Town Center, Gahanna, Westerville and Hilliard.
A New Retail Strip With Mixed Tenant Reports
Exactly who shares the building with Graeter's depends on which account you read. NBC4's report describes a four-tenant strip rounded out by Timeless Skin Solutions, NovaCare Rehabilitation and First Bank of Central Ohio. A separate retail-market update, however, lists the development at 5065 Forest Drive as delivering fully leased to Graeter's, Dermatologists of Southwestern Ohio, First Bank of Central Ohio and NovaCare. The two accounts agree on First Bank of Central Ohio and NovaCare but differ on the skincare tenant, and the discrepancy has not been independently resolved.
That same retail-market report, published by yourresearchresource.com, frames the New Albany strip within a busier Columbus-area commercial picture. Retail development activity across the region picked up during the third quarter of 2026, with six buildings totaling 47,616 square feet delivered, even as vacancy ticked up modestly to 3.2%. Tenant move-ins generated 18,199 square feet of positive absorption during the same stretch, while retail investment sales volume reached $137.2 million.
What's Scooped Behind the Counter
Graeter's traces its roots to 1870, when the company was founded in Cincinnati, and it has built its reputation on French Pot ice cream. The process involves slowly freezing custard in a spinning metal pot while a blade scrapes the interior walls, yielding a dense, creamy product with minimal air churned in. At the New Albany shop, customers can find staples like black raspberry chip, Madagascar vanilla bean, Oregon strawberry and butter pecan.
The New Albany location is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 10 p.m. Graeter's has grown well beyond its Ohio roots in recent years, expanding to more than 50 shops across Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana and Pennsylvania, according to the company's own figures cited in the NBC4 report.
Lewis Center Shop Plans Move Forward
New Albany isn't the only central Ohio suburb getting a taste. Graeter's is also moving forward with plans for a scoop shop at 541 Preakness Way in Lewis Center. Delaware's planning commission approved the development plan in August 2025.
Design details released for the Lewis Center location describe a 2,649-square-foot building with an outdoor patio, a drive-through lane and 38 parking spaces. The same outlet's earlier reporting on the Delaware County project also notes that Graeter's now counts more than a dozen Columbus-area locations, spanning Bexley, Dublin, Easton Town Center, Gahanna, Hilliard, Pickerington, Polaris Fashion Place, Powell and Upper Arlington. A separate account of that project, meanwhile, pegs the company's broader footprint at more than 50 scoop shops across Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, without mentioning Indiana.
Further south in Delaware County, the Lewis Center outlot sits on roughly 1.2 acres at 541 Preakness Way within the Belmont Place planned mixed-use overlay, according to the Delaware Gazette. That shop's drive-thru is designed to stack up to 10 vehicles, suggesting the chain is betting on steady demand once it finally opens its doors.
