Most Heath summers get described the same way on the internet: fireworks at Geller Park, a trip to the mall, a drive out to Dawes. That description was accurate ten years ago. It misses what has actually changed in the last twenty-four months.
Right now, inside a roughly five-minute drive from South 30th Street, you have one of only twenty-five UNESCO World Heritage sites in the United States, a $218 million downtown district breaking ground on 300 acres of former farmland, and a growing bench of independent restaurants that finally rewards a resident who wants a Tuesday night out. That combination is unusual for a Licking County community of Heath's size, and it changes what a good summer weekend here looks like.
The World Heritage site is a five-minute errand, not a road trip
The Great Circle Earthworks at 455 Hebron Road sit closer to most Heath addresses than the nearest Kroger. That geography is easy to forget because the site was a quieter local landmark for decades. It is not a quiet local landmark anymore.
In September 2023, the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, becoming the first such site in Ohio and the twenty-fifth in the country. The Great Circle is one of three sites in Licking County included in that inscription, alongside the Octagon Earthworks in Newark and Wright Earthworks. The Octagon was also voted the country's best new attraction for 2026 in USA TODAY's 10Best Readers' Choice Awards, which is drawing a different kind of visitor into Heath than the site saw before.
For a resident, the practical piece is the schedule. The park grounds are open dawn to dusk, year-round. The museum and visitor center are open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with free admission. Senior World Heritage Archaeologist Brad Lepper leads a guided tour of the Great Circle on the first Friday of every month, and a companion tour of the Octagon on the third Friday. If you have relatives coming through in July or August, that is a better answer than a chain restaurant patio.
What is actually being built behind Indian Mound Mall
For years the 300 acres of farmland west of Indian Mound Mall sat as a "someday" parcel. Multiple attempts to develop it fell apart over two to three decades. That changed when Wallick Communities partnered with master-plan developer Joe Ciminello and the project qualified for the Ohio Department of Development's Transformational Mixed-Use Development Tax Credit.
The project is called Central Park, and phase one alone is a significant reshaping of the block behind the mall:
- 48 acres of phase-one construction on the eastern edge of the 300-acre site
- 424 multifamily residential units, largely two-bedroom, across eight buildings
- Four mixed-use buildings with commercial space on the ground floor and residences above
- Roughly 40,000 to 42,000 square feet of ground-floor space earmarked for shops, offices, restaurants, and breweries
- A clubhouse with community pool, volleyball courts, green space, and recreational trail access
The developer expects the first buildings to open in 2026, with additional buildings coming online over the following twelve to eighteen months and roughly three years of total construction. Heath Mayor Mark Johns has described a multiple-use downtown-style development on this parcel as a decades-long dream for the community.
The other movement worth noting is inside the mall itself. The former Sears anchor is being converted into a trade school and training facility for electricians and apprentices run by the Newark Electrical Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee. That decision was driven explicitly by the data-center construction boom moving through Licking County. If you have wondered why traffic on Route 79, which already carries roughly 27,000 vehicles a day past the mall, feels heavier than it did two summers ago, that is part of the answer.
The July 2 workaround, and why locals use it
The single most useful piece of summer scheduling in Heath is this: the city's Star Spangled Celebration runs on July 2, not July 4. This year's edition ran 5:00 to 10:30 p.m. at Geller Park with live entertainment, food, and activities for kids, and the fireworks show capped the night at 10 p.m. Admission was free.
If you have ever tried to leave Red, White and Boom in downtown Columbus and merge back onto I-70 East, you understand the value of a hometown show two nights earlier. Mark it now for next year. The park is also on the WQIO regional fireworks list alongside Utica's South End Park (July 1), Johnstown's Frank H. Chambers Stadium (July 3), and the Newark show on the OSU/COTC Newark campus, which typically features the Licking County 4-H Band, McGuffey Lane, and the Heisey Wind Ensemble. Three fireworks nights inside twenty minutes of your driveway, spread across three evenings, is a planning advantage worth using.
A weekend eating map that is not the mall food court
The bench of independent Heath restaurants has quietly deepened. Yelp's most recent Heath rankings, updated in 2026, put a set of local operators at the top that would not have been there five years ago: Homefires Grill, Elliot's Wood Fired Kitchen & Tap, Mill Dam Corner Grille, Naughty Pine Pizza, and Bummie's on Main. Shade on 30th shows up regularly on Uber Eats' Heath list for American food, alongside Billy Lee Chop Suey House and East West Chinese Restaurant. Newer arrivals like West Church Social, DankHouse, Stockyard Grill, and Earthworks Cafe and Lounge rotate through the "open now" rankings, and Tlaquepaque anchors the Mexican side. Hereinafter Cocktail Tavern has given the area a cocktail bar in a category that was almost entirely absent locally.
A resident-useful sequence looks like this: coffee and a walk at the Great Circle museum on a Saturday morning, an early lunch at Homefires or Bummie's, then a matinee at AMC Indian Mound 9. Save Elliot's or Hereinafter for a date night when you do not want to drive to Granville.
Three Saturdays worth marking
The Licking County summer calendar has a handful of dates that reward a small amount of planning. These are the ones with the highest local density and lowest travel cost from a Heath address.
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| July 18, 2026 | For Your Health 5K Run/Walk and 1-mile Fun Walk | The Dawes Arboretum |
| July 18, 2026 | 250th Freedom Celebration Cruise-In | Heath |
| Aug. 7–9, 2026 | Weathervane Playhouse 4th annual melodrama fundraiser | Weathervane Playhouse, 7:30 p.m. |
| Aug. 8, 2026 | Heath Girls Soccer Showcase, 12 teams and 12 games | Swank Field at Heath High School, 9 a.m.–7 p.m. |
| Aug. 8, 2026 | Home food preservation class with OSU Extension's Shari Gallup | Bryn Du Mansion |
A note on the melodrama: the tradition at Weathervane is that the audience purchases soft tomatoes to toss at the actors playing the villains. If that sounds like your family, buy tickets early. It sells.
Why this summer is a hinge
Here is the argument in one line. For a long time Heath was described as a bedroom community 35 minutes from downtown Columbus with a mall and a nice park. That description no longer captures the place.
A resident right now lives inside walking or short-driving distance of a UNESCO-listed archaeological complex, a working AMC and trampoline park inside a 736,000-square-foot mall being actively re-tenanted, a $218 million mixed-use downtown breaking ground, a growing independent restaurant scene, and a fireworks show that lets you skip the interstate. Central Park's first buildings opening in 2026 will be the moment the "someday" version of Heath becomes the current version. Neighbors who use this summer to actually visit the Great Circle museum on a Wednesday afternoon, or to eat at three restaurants they have not tried, will have a much better sense of what the next three years are going to feel like than neighbors who wait for the ribbon-cuttings.
The homes here have not repriced around all of that yet. They will, gradually, as leases in the new downtown fill and the JATC training program brings a steady flow of tradespeople into the area. That is a topic for another post. For this weekend, the point is smaller. Pick one of the Saturdays above, pick a restaurant off the list, and treat the town like the town it is becoming.
If you want a clear read on what your current Heath address is worth as Central Park comes online, or how the arrival of the JATC training center and new multifamily inventory might shape resale timing on your street, Shannon Lists Homes can pull the specific numbers for your block. Get Your Free Market Report and start the conversation with data that reflects the Heath of 2026, not the Heath of five years ago.
