Columbus State Community College is bringing a new full-service grocery store to its Downtown campus.
ALDI is set to build a new 20,000-square-foot grocery store adjacent to Columbus State's campus through a partnership with Columbus State Community Partners, the college’s real estate affiliate. The new ALDI location will be the first new grocery store by a national retailer in downtown Columbus
in decades, according to the college.Construction on the grocery store, which will be located at the northwest corner of Cleveland Avenue and Spring Street, is set to begin in spring 2027 and open in 2028.
“We are excited to join the Columbus State neighborhood, bringing access to high-quality groceries at the lowest possible prices" Laura Bauer, regional
vice president for ALDI, said in a release. “Shoppers can look forward to a convenient, affordable way to stock up on everyday essentials, and we’re proud to help strengthen food access and support student success.”
Access to affordable, fresh groceries has long been a priority for Columbus State. Food insecurity is one of the biggest nonacademic barriers that can affect student success.
Columbus State President David Harrison said at an event announcing the partnership that having a grocery store so close will be a major addition to campus.
“Our students lead complicated lives, so we are always focused on making resources easy to access," Harrison said. "Having a national grocer right next to our downtown campus will expand food options for Columbus State students while strengthening the broader community.”
ALDI will build and own the store, which will be located on 1.7 acres of a largely vacant lot currently owned by Columbus State. The college will lease the site to Columbus State Community Partners, which will then lease the prepared site to ALDI.
Franklin County committed $900,000 to prepare the site, as well as utility and infrastructure work required for the project, and the Central Ohio Community Improvement Corporation will contribute $100,000 towards demolition of existing structures on the lot.
Columbus State is already home to the Mid-Ohio Market, an on-campus food pantry in partnership with the Mid-Ohio Food Collective.
Mid-Ohio Market opened in 2019 and is a "market model" pantry. Instead of prepackaged boxes of shelf-stable items or limiting pantry use to specific ZIP codes and a certain number of visits a month, the market is set up more like a traditional grocery store. People can visit as often as needed, and the market has a few aisles of pantry staples, coolers for fresh meat and dairy products, and piles of produce.
The grocery store will be near a new 50,000-square-foot Columbus State YMCA at the northeast corner of Long Street and Cleveland Avenue that will open in summer 2028, and Opportunity Pointe, an affordable housing complex located on a block bordered by Cleveland and North Grant avenues and East Spring and East Long streets that will open by the end of 2027.
Higher education reporter Sheridan Hendrix can be reached at shendrix@dispatch.com and on Signal at @sheridan.120. You can follow her on Instagram at @sheridanwrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: New grocery store coming to Columbus State after decades of a Downtown grocery desert
