Drive down Mill Street in Gahanna right now and you'll see gravel, orange fencing, and the outlines of five buildings that aren't there anymore. If you didn't know the backstory, it would read like decline. It's actually the opposite, and the difference matters if you're deciding whether to buy nearby this year or wait until the district looks finished.
What actually happened on Mill Street
According to NBC4i's report on the project, on November 17, 2025, Gahanna City Council voted 6 to 1 to approve a development agreement with Connect Real Estate and Benson Capital, unlocking roughly $100 million in private investment for the Creekside District. The land didn't become available overnight. The Gahanna Community Improvement Corporation had spent years quietly assembling ten parcels along Mill Street between Carpenter Road and Walnut Street, buying out long vacant storefronts one at a time. By July 2026, five of those buildings were down, cleared with help from brownfield remediation funding tied to an Ohio Department of Development grant.
What's coming in their place is specific: two seven-story mixed-use buildings connected by a pedestrian bridge, 263 apartments, a 55 to 70 room hotel, two restaurants including one on the rooftop, and a parking structure. Phase one is required to finish no later than three years after all governmental and financing approvals are in hand, which puts a realistic completion window around 2028. Phase two starts only after phase one wraps, with both phases targeted for completion by the end of 2029.
Two clocks, not one
Here's the part that gets lost when people talk about Creekside as a single project. The private towers are one clock. The City of Gahanna's own plaza renovation is a second, separate clock, running alongside it but not identical to it.
The public side is driven by flood mitigation the city has been coordinating with FEMA since 2020, covering the Creekside Plaza and the attached parking garage. That work is anticipated to begin this fall, in 2026, and includes a clay cap along the creek bank, reconstructed infrastructure, and a temporary flood wall sized for a 100 year event. Layered on top of the required flood work is a wish list the city has floated for the plaza itself: an amphitheater, a splash pad, a redesigned fountain, better trail connections, and new lighting. A formal proposal for those amenities was expected before council in spring 2026.
So a buyer looking at Creekside today isn't watching one construction timeline. They're watching two, coordinated by the city but running on their own schedules, with disruption that will show up in stages rather than all at once over the next three years.
What the city documented about Creekside
The city documented a decline in activity at Creekside. Between 2019 and 2024, total visits to the Creekside District dropped by 400,000, and the average time people spent there fell by 14 minutes.
In its report on the vote, NBC4i quoted Councilmember Jamille Jones on the stakes:
"No store wants to go into an empty mall, no business wants to come into an empty Creekside."
The quote underscores what's at stake, and the single dissenting vote is worth knowing about if you're weighing a purchase near the plaza. Councilmember Nancy McGregor voted against the agreement, citing concerns about the parking that would be lost during construction and afterward. It's a legitimate day to day issue for anyone who'd be walking or driving to Creekside regularly for the next few years, not just an abstract objection.
What this actually means for four different price bands
Gahanna's housing stock breaks into roughly four tiers, and each one sits at a different distance from Mill Street, which means each one is exposed to this redevelopment differently.
| Segment | Typical price range | Distance from Creekside | Exposure to the two clocks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Condos and townhomes in the Creekside area | $200,000 to $310,000 | Walking distance | Highest. Construction noise and reduced parking hit first, but so does the eventual walk to a hotel restaurant and rooftop bar |
| Established ranches (Royal Manor, Woodside Green) | $280,000 to $400,000 | A few minutes' drive | Moderate. Close enough to inherit a finished plaza, far enough to skip most of the fencing and detours |
| Colonials in Pipers Glen and along Hamilton Road | $380,000 to $550,000 | A short drive, not a walk | Lower. Priced more on lot size and school access than on downtown proximity |
| Executive homes | $500,000 to $900,000+ | Across town | Minimal. These sell on their own terms regardless of what happens at Mill Street |
The condos and townhomes closest to the plaza are the ones absorbing the most disruption right now, and they're also the ones sitting closest to the biggest eventual upside once the towers and the redesigned plaza are actually open. The ranches a few minutes away get a version of that upside with a lot less noise in the meantime.
The pricing window that actually matters
Here's the piece that's easy to miss if you're only glancing at listing photos. A gravel lot behind orange fencing is not a neutral background detail. It's the visible sign that a repricing hasn't finished happening yet. Once the towers are leased up, the hotel has a name, and the plaza has its splash pad, the comparable sales in that pocket of Gahanna will already reflect it. The window where a home a five minute walk from Creekside is priced as though nothing is changing is now, while the site still looks unfinished, not later when it doesn't.
There's a useful comparison a few miles north. Westerville's Uptown currently commands $75,000 to $125,000 above Gahanna's median for a similar location advantage, largely because Uptown Westerville already went through its own redevelopment years ago and that value is fully baked into today's prices. Gahanna's Creekside district is earlier in that same arc. Buyers who understand the difference between what's under construction and what's already been absorbed into pricing are the ones positioned to catch it while it's still forming rather than after it's finished.
A few questions worth asking before you commit
Will construction actually disrupt daily life if I buy near Creekside now? Yes, for a few years. Flood mitigation work is set to start this fall, and tower construction will likely follow within the next year or two once permitting and financing close out. The two workstreams may well overlap. That disruption is part of why the entry price where you're standing looks the way it does.
When is this actually finished? Phase one is required to wrap no later than three years after final approvals, putting realistic completion around 2028. Phase two doesn't start until phase one is done, with both phases targeted for the end of 2029. Plan around a multi-year window, not a single move-in date.
Does buying a few minutes away instead of right on Mill Street dodge the disruption entirely? Mostly, yes. Neighborhoods like Royal Manor and Woodside Green sit close enough to benefit from a livelier, better amenitized district once it's built, without absorbing years of fencing, lost parking, and detours in the meantime.
If you're trying to figure out where in Gahanna your budget actually lands against this timeline, or whether a specific street is close enough to benefit without the disruption, that's exactly the kind of question worth working through with someone who watches this market closely. Let's Connect and talk through what your price range looks like against what's actually happening on Mill Street right now.
