How does a housing development valued at more than $200 million get a city council's blessing before its first shovel goes in the ground, while a public park along the same river breaks ground, gets built, and opens to walkers and dog owners in about the same stretch of time? That's the question worth sitting with if you live anywhere between Parsons Avenue and South High Street this year, because the answer says something true about how this part of Columbus actually changes: not all at once, and not in the order the renderings promised.
South Columbus has been described as "about to transform" since at least 2017, when Justin McAllister bought an old ladder-and-fire-truck factory on South High Street and started filling it with furniture makers, architects, and coffee roasters. Nine years later, some of that promise has arrived. Some of it is still a line item in a tax credit application. Here's what's actually open, what's still on paper, and what that split means for anyone who already calls this stretch of the city home.
Nine years of renderings, one approved agreement
The Fort, McAllister's original building, is real and occupied, home to more than two dozen tenants. What grew up around it, called Steelton Village, is the bigger swing: partner Kyle Katz and McAllister pitched a $350 million plan for more than 1,000 apartments and repurposed brick warehouses back in 2022. By the time city council actually took action in 2026, the figure attached to the deal in local coverage had settled at more than $200 million, a scaled first bite of the original vision rather than the whole thing at once.
That plan took most of four years to reach a vote. Columbus City Council approved a development agreement for Steelton Village on April 13, 2026, clearing the way for developers to seek state TMUD tax credits to help fund the project. The first phase, led by Utah-based Lotus Company, would bring 279 affordable units as part of an initial 455-unit buildout. As of that April approval, construction had not started. The agreement is a real step. It is also, still, a step before the first foundation gets poured.
What's actually pouring pints right now
While the residential tower waits on paperwork, the corridor's smaller commercial bets have already opened their doors. Honest Friend Brewing, at 2112 S. High St., is one of them, and it's had its own long runway. The brewery first signaled plans to open at a different South High Street address, then filed permits for the current location, with an original target of opening by the end of 2024. It actually opened in late 2025, roughly a year later than planned, but it's open now and running Monday through Thursday from 4 p.m. and weekends starting at noon. PunchDrink named it one of the top ten breweries to know in 2026, calling out its lower-ABV, sessionable approach and a taproom built to feel more welcoming than boisterous.
Next door in the same development, City Winery is still finishing its space. As of a May 2026 update from The Fort, both City Winery and Honest Friend were described as "working on their commercial spaces," which for Honest Friend meant the finishing touches on an already-operating taproom, and for City Winery meant a build-out that hadn't yet opened to the public.
The park that beat the apartments to opening day
The clearest evidence that infrastructure can move faster than housing sits along the Scioto River. Great Southern Metro Park opened in April 2026 as the 21st park in the Metro Parks system, built on 70 acres of old riverboat canal land just south of downtown. It has prairies, an overlook mound, an obstacle course, fitness stations, and both paved and nature trails, and it went from proposal to open gate faster than Steelton's housing has gone from proposal to permit.
It's not the neighborhood's only green space, just its newest. Scioto Audubon Metro Park, on the Whittier Peninsula, has been the area's anchor since it opened in 2009 on a former industrial brownfield, eventually growing to about 120 acres. Its climbing wall, at 35 feet tall across three towers and two arches, is considered the largest free outdoor climbing wall in the United States. One caveat if you're planning a session there: as of early June 2026, the wall was closed for repairs, so it's worth checking current status before you drive over with a harness.
Here's the split in plain terms:
| What | Status | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Great Southern Metro Park | Open to the public | April 2026 |
| Honest Friend Brewing (2112 S. High St.) | Open, weekly hours | Late 2025 |
| Scioto Audubon climbing wall | Closed for repairs, per last check | Early June 2026 |
| City Winery at The Fort | Space still being built out | As of May 2026 |
| Steelton Village apartments (Phase I) | Agreement approved, construction not begun | April 2026 |
Public parks and small commercial buildouts have a shorter path from announcement to opening than large, tax-credit-dependent housing. That's not a knock on Steelton Village. It's a pattern worth knowing if you've been reading headlines about the "next Columbus" rising on South High Street and wondering why you haven't seen a crane yet.
The corridor that never needed a rendering
A few blocks east, Parsons Avenue has been changing without a single splashy master plan, and it's been doing it for a while. The Parsons Area Merchants Association has supported businesses along the corridor since 1986, long before anyone was pitching billion-dollar visions for the South Side.
What's happening there now is infill, one building at a time. Developer Riewald Development demolished a small existing building at 844 Parsons Ave. to start construction on a five-story, 86-unit project with two commercial storefronts planned at street level. Riewald has pointed to Nationwide Children's Hospital's $3.3 billion campus expansion as the reason Parsons has room to grow, arguing that a major, expanding employer next door makes it worth building housing there now rather than waiting. A separate 43-unit mixed-use project at 921 Parsons Ave. is also in the city's 2026 development pipeline, according to permit tracking. None of this required a renamed neighborhood or a nine-figure headline. It's the kind of change you notice because a storefront that was empty for two years suddenly isn't.
What's on the calendar this August
None of the above requires a real estate transaction to enjoy. If you already live here, here's what's worth putting on the calendar:
- Merion Village Festival, Sunday, August 23, at Moeler Park. This is an outdoor, rain-or-shine event that's been running for well over a decade, with food trucks, a beer garden, live music, local makers, and a silent auction, and it's free to attend.
- Honest Friend Brewing, open weekends from noon, if you want to see what earned it a spot on a national top-ten list this year.
- Great Southern Metro Park, open through the summer for anyone who wants to walk 70 acres that didn't exist as public space a year ago.
- Scioto Audubon Metro Park, still the area's most activity-dense green space with its obstacle course, wetland trail, and dog park, climbing wall status pending confirmation.
The pattern underneath the headlines
If there's one thing worth taking from this year on the South Side, it's that the neighborhood's future keeps arriving in the wrong order. The billion-dollar-sounding plan is still working through a state tax credit process. The park, the brewery, and the small infill buildings along Parsons got there first. That's useful to know whether you're deciding where to grab a beer this weekend or just trying to read the neighborhood correctly the next time a headline promises it's about to change.
Hart Property Advisors tracks these shifts block by block because that's how the South Side actually moves. If you're curious what any of it, the park, the corridor, the still-pending apartments, might mean for a home you own or are thinking about on the South Side, reach out for a free home valuation and we'll walk through it plainly.
