For years, Powell life happened in the car. You drove to the zoo, drove to Sawmill for dinner, drove to Polaris for anything else. Downtown was pretty to look at on the way through.

That's quietly stopped being true. Between the openings that landed this past winter and spring, the free programming running on the Village Green most weeks, and the project sitting in front of City Council for W. Olentangy Street, the center of gravity has moved. The three blocks around 77 W. Olentangy are turning into the part of Powell you actually walk to on a Tuesday.

Here's what changed while you weren't paying attention, and what's on the calendar between now and Labor Day.

Three openings that landed in the last five months

If you drive Liberty Street on the way to school drop-off, you've already noticed the newest one. Glazed Over announced on Facebook that their new location would be open for business as of February 26th. Every donut is hand-rolled and hand-cut in small batches throughout the day, they originally opened in Sandusky in 2019, the new location is inside Liberty Plaza at 240 N. Liberty St., and they're open from 6:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. The hours matter. A downtown-adjacent bakery that closes at 1 is designed for people who live here, not visitors coming off 315.

A month later, sushi arrived on Home Road. Hoseki Sushi and Grill at 4290 Home Rd. Suite F is officially open for business in Powell, and the sushi and ramen spot held a soft opening on March 20 for the neighborhood. Hoseki is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sundays noon to 9 p.m. The seven-day schedule is what's worth noting for anyone who's ever tried to find a bowl of ramen north of Bethel on a Sunday night.

The one that hasn't opened yet but is worth putting on your radar: Powell is getting a new edition in 2026, Khaab Indian Kitchen & Bar has announced plans for a new location, and the restaurant promises traditional recipes, a contemporary vibe, and elevated hospitality. The expansion builds on the success of Khaab's Bexley location. Powell has plenty of family-friendly Indian buffets around Sawmill. A cocktail-forward sit-down Indian restaurant is a different animal.

The Village Green, most weeks

The bigger shift isn't the new tenants. It's the programming calendar that has quietly filled in around them. If you didn't grow up doing this, you can now build a full summer week without leaving downtown.

A few of the things running on repeat this season:

• Lolli-Pops! Children's Concert Series on the Village Green. A free, interactive concert series for little ones held in Village Green Park during the summer months, with lively performances designed to get everyone dancing and singing along.
• Movie Night on the Green. Bring blankets, lawn chairs and cozy loungers to the Village Green Amphitheater in Downtown Powell, where movies are shown on a large LED screen, and locals grab food, snacks, and drinks from nearby establishments before the show begins. One recent example on the calendar: a June 12 showing of Zootopia 2 on The Teaching Tree playground at dusk with complimentary popcorn and refreshments.
• Summer live music evenings. You can grab dinner from a local restaurant, sip a DORA beverage from participating businesses, bring your lawn chair, and stay for live music in the heart of Downtown Powell.
• Nocterra Run Club, Thursdays. The club meets every Thursday at 6:15pm for a healthy run followed by a hangout in the taproom or beer garden, works with Columbus Running Company, incorporates all levels of ability and pace, meets year-round, and is open to the public.

Read that list back. The through-line is that none of it is a destination event you plan around. It's the texture of a Tuesday or a Thursday. That's the piece of downtown Powell that didn't exist five years ago.

The one date to actually circle

If there's a single Saturday to hold on the calendar between now and fall, it's the second Sunday of September. Mark your calendar for Sunday, September 13, 2026, from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM for the Powell Street Market & Business Expo, where you can spend the day strolling the streets of downtown Powell shopping from 60+ local vendors.

The Powell Festival in June is bigger. It brings out-of-town crowds and a headliner. The Street Market is different. It's the day the local vendors, the businesses that have been quietly moving into these blocks, get the run of the street. If you want a read on who is opening what next, that's the walk to take.

What's about to change on W. Olentangy

The most consequential piece of news for downtown isn't a restaurant opening. It's a plan sitting in front of the City Council's Development Committee.

A local developer is seeking tax incentives for a pair of projects that would bring a boutique hotel and two new restaurants to Powell, and the combined investment totals about $7.8 million according to a presentation made during Powell City Council's Development Committee meeting on Nov. 5. Specifically, Transform Construction has submitted plans for a two-story restaurant at 147 W. Olentangy St. and a three-story building at 173 W. Olentangy St. that would house another restaurant, retail space, and a 16-room boutique hotel.

To understand the scale, walk it. 147 and 173 W. Olentangy sit inside the same three-block core as the Village Green. A 16-room hotel isn't going to swamp the neighborhood. It's going to give downtown its first meaningful overnight footprint, which means a different kind of foot traffic on the sidewalks after 8 p.m. than Powell has ever had.

The economic case the city is weighing:

• Officials are considering 75% property tax abatements over 15 years for both sites, which would save the developer about $190,000 on the restaurant project and roughly $1.5 million on the hotel building.
• The development team estimates the hotel could generate roughly $1.9 million in annual visitor spending if fully occupied year-round, based on the Ohio Department of Development's average of about $327 per day per overnight visitor, amounting to $28.7 million in economic activity over 15 years.
• City figures show the projects would support more than 70 full-time jobs and bring about $1.95 million in new payroll to downtown, generating around $39,000 annually in payroll taxes.

The abatement number is the one worth chewing on. $1.5 million over fifteen years is real money, and it's the price the city is signaling it will pay to get a hotel inside the downtown grid rather than out by a highway exit. Whether that's a good trade is a City Council conversation, not mine. Whether it will change how downtown feels is not really a question. It will.

And it's arriving alongside a project that's already further along. The COhatch Powell location is expected to support nearly 200 jobs and about $1.5 million in annual payroll, and will include coworking offices, meeting rooms, event spaces, and the "60 East Member House," a renovated historic home, along with a Hawaiian-inspired rooftop bar, the Lani Rooftop Lounge, open to the public and available for private events.

A rooftop bar and a boutique hotel inside the same walking radius as Village Green Park is a version of downtown Powell that didn't exist on any map two years ago.

Why all of this is one story

Pull the pieces apart and each one is a small item. A donut shop. A sushi spot. A Thursday run club. A council vote on a tax abatement. Put them on the same map and they're pointing in the same direction.

Downtown Powell is turning into the kind of place where you can eat, drink, work, hear music, meet a running group, and, soon, stay overnight, all inside a walk you can do in fifteen minutes. The economic administrator's line to the Development Committee was blunter than most city officials get. Asked why more restaurants, he said: "Quite simply, it's because our residents want them. They want to see more choices and restaurants here in our downtown in particular, and Powell in general."

That's the shift worth naming. Powell used to be a place people slept and drove out of. It's becoming a place people spend their evenings inside of. If you already live here, the summer of 2026 is a fun one to pay attention to, because the version of downtown you're walking through in July isn't going to be the version you're walking through next July.

If you're thinking about how the changes downtown might affect your own block, your home's value, or a future move within Powell, I'd love to compare notes. Reach out through Sarah Berlin Moore Homes and let's connect.