Old Hilliard Main Street New Businesses: Openings and Plans

"Before you say it: 'Not another pizza place in Hilliard!'" That was Westwood Collective's reply, made in advance, when it announced that Harvest Pizzeria would take over the former Legacy Smokehouse space at 3987 Main St. The joke shows that the developer knows people on Main Street are watching closely. The more useful news is in the address. Harvest is moving into a building the street already had, and so are the other businesses coming to this short stretch of downtown.

There are three projects between 3987 and 4056 Main St., and Station Park at 4021 Main St. sits in the middle of them. One is a mid-century garage, one is the old smokehouse space, and one is the former Chase bank. Westwood Collective, led by founder and CEO Andy Warnock, is behind all three. None of them is a teardown. Each building keeps its shell and gets a new tenant, and the openings are spread over roughly two and a half years.

Three Buildings, Three Timelines

Here is where each project stands as of early October 2026.

The table shows a clear pattern. Small, local tenants that already had loyal customers moved first. The larger restaurant comes next. The project that needs new construction comes last.

The Garage Opened First, With a Bakery People Already Knew

Ketchum's Garage was an Old Hilliard landmark until it closed in 2025, when its owner retired. The building dates to the mid-20th century and once housed a Chevrolet dealership. Accounts of how long Ketchum's itself operated vary, but it was a Main Street fixture for decades. After Westwood Collective bought the property, it split the building between two businesses.

Bakes by Lo got half. Owner and chief cookie artist Laura Young held the bakery's grand opening at 4045 Main St. on Sept. 12, after years at a stall inside Center Street Market. The shop makes custom cookies and cakes by hand. Warnock, who says he is a Bakes by Lo customer himself, explained the move in terms of space. "This building provides her much needed space to expand her business and it grows her presence on Main Street," he told the Hilliard Beacon.

The move also connects two downtown landmarks. Center Street Market is still open as a food hall, daily from 11 a.m. The bakery that built its following inside the market now has its own storefront a short walk away. That gives a reason to plan one downtown outing around both stops.

Cyclical Nature Bicycles is set to take the other half of the garage. For the bike shop, this is a return. It first opened in the Old Hilliard district and moved to Cemetery Road in early 2020. Warnock linked its return to the trail. "Bringing Cyclical Nature brand back to our downtown enhances the rails-to-trails experience," he said. As of this week, the shop's own homepage still says "We're moving." The Hilliard Herald's Sept. 15 report also described the bike shop as a future tenant, not an open one. If you need a tune-up before the weather turns, call the shop before heading to Main Street.

The Smokehouse Space Is Next

Harvest Pizzeria's Old Hilliard restaurant will be its seventh location in Central Ohio. The others are in Clintonville, Dublin, Bexley, the Brewery District, Granville, and New Albany, where a location at 24 Main is also scheduled to open this fall. The restaurant is known for wood-fired pizza made with locally sourced ingredients. Its menu also includes seasonal salads, sandwiches, appetizers, and farm-focused entrees. When Westwood answered its own "another pizza place" joke, it pointed to the blackened chicken chop salad and the buffalo cauliflower.

In June, the Columbus Navigator reported that Westwood expected renovations to start within weeks and the restaurant to open this fall. Harvest has not announced an opening day yet, and its locations page still shows Hilliard as "Coming Soon." For now, "this fall" is a target, not a date to plan around.

The Bank Will Take the Longest

The former Chase branch at 4056 E. Main St. is the largest of the three projects, and its timeline shows why reuse can still be slow. Chase closed the branch when it moved to a new building at 4199 Parkway Lane. On June 5, the Hilliard Development Corporation signed a development agreement with Westwood Collective for the property.

The plan has two parts. A sit-down Italian restaurant will move into the original bank building, which will be preserved. A new building on the adjoining parking lot will add ground-floor dining and retail with a limited number of luxury apartments upstairs. The city says the finished project will have more parking spaces than the property has today.

The restaurant now has a name, Lira Italian Kitchen. It comes from Benjamyn Greig and the team behind The Clocktower Kitchen + Bar in Plain City, which won Best New Restaurant in the 2026 ColumBEST poll. Greig's Around The Clock Hospitality will run it. Planned dishes include handmade pasta, wood-fired food, and seasonal ingredients, along with European wines and craft cocktails. The old vault will become a wine cellar. The Clocktower team has done this kind of project before. They opened that restaurant in August 2025 inside a restored clock tower building from 1902.

"A place you can come for a great bowl of pasta on a Tuesday night, meet friends for cocktails at the bar, celebrate something special or settle in for a dinner with family." Benjamyn Greig, on the goal for Lira

The target is early 2028. As of the Herald's Aug. 27 report, no permits had been filed and no groundbreaking date had been announced. You can sign up for updates at liraitaliankitchen.com. The City of Hilliard's announcement says more timelines will be shared as the project moves forward.

The bank project follows earlier Westwood work around downtown. Firefly Winery opened at 5435 Franklin St. in October 2024, and The One9 Golf Lounge opened in Old Hilliard that May. The two newest projects on Main Street extend that run of reused buildings along the street's main frontage.

This Fall Downtown, Between the Openings

While two of the three buildings are still in progress, Main Street's calendar keeps the area busy. Station Park, in the middle of the three projects, hosts both the October and December events.

1. Saturday, Oct. 10. The LifeWise Hilliard 5K + 1 Miler runs from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Hilliard Civic & Cultural Arts Center, with race parking near Crooked Can. Later that day, The Witch's Harvest Market, billed as the season's final outdoor market, runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at The Witch's Parlor, 3840 Lattimer St.
2. Friday, Oct. 16, and Saturday, Oct. 17. The Hilliard Historical Society's Haunted Village runs from 6 to 9 p.m. at 4100 Columbia St.
3. Saturday, Oct. 24. The Old Hilliard Halloween Haunt runs from 9 to 11 a.m. along Main Street and in Station Park. It's free, with trick-or-treating at participating businesses.
4. Thursday, Oct. 29. Citywide Trick or Treat runs from 6 to 8 p.m.
5. Sunday, Dec. 6. The Tree Lighting runs from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Station Park, 4021 Main St., with festivities extending through downtown and to Weaver Park.

On the Halloween Haunt route, Bakes by Lo is the one new storefront you can already walk into. Harvest could be open by the Tree Lighting, or it could still be under renovation. The bank on the corner will most likely look much as it does now through at least two more December lightings.

Not far from Main Street, Bagels & Jam opened July 16 at 4465 Cemetery Road. It serves New York and New Jersey style bagels, along with rugelach, sandwiches, and salads. Cemetery Road is also where Cyclical Nature has been operating while its new space on Main Street gets ready.

If you live near downtown and wonder how the new storefronts and the planned apartments at the old bank could affect your own plans, The Grandey Group is glad to talk it through. We follow these Main Street projects closely, and we'll give you a clear, honest read whenever you're ready to talk.