Westerville approved a new Aldi-anchored mixed-use development at Polaris Parkway and Worthington Road, and the question I keep getting from people who own near there is simple: is this good or bad for my home value?
Honest answer: mostly good, over time. Here's the breakdown.
What's Actually Getting Built
The project, called Zumstein South in city planning documents, covers about 37 acres at Polaris Parkway and Worthington Road.
Site plans include a grocery store (the Aldi anchor), multiple office buildings totaling roughly 178,000 square feet, restaurants, and a possible brewery or food-hall concept.
This is not a standalone strip center. It plugs into the broader Polaris/Westar corridor that Westerville has been positioning as an employment and economic development hub for several years.
Yes, Traffic Is Going Up
Let's get this out of the way first because it's the most common concern from owners near Polaris: yes, vehicle trips will increase.
A grocery anchor plus restaurants plus office tenants at a high-traffic intersection adds daily volume. No traffic study eliminates that.
What the city pushed for, and the developer agreed to, is a full internal connector road across the site so cars can move between Worthington Road and Polaris Parkway without using Polaris Parkway itself as a cut-through. That is meaningful.
According to city planning documents, the traffic impact study for the project did not flag dramatic changes beyond what was expected for this type of mixed-use development. Short-term, construction and signal work will make things feel worse before the connector road and any signal timing improvements take effect.
If you live directly on Polaris Parkway or Worthington Road in that stretch, you will feel it during construction. If you're a block or two off the main corridor on a side street, the connector road design is specifically intended to keep through-traffic on the arterials.
Jobs and the Broader Corridor Picture
Westerville is explicitly building out the Polaris/Westar area as an employment center. The corporate campuses and medical facilities already in that corridor support close to 10,000 jobs, according to city planning materials for the Zumstein South project.
The Aldi development adds frontline retail positions and, once the 178,000 square feet of office space leases up, higher-paying office roles. That increases both daytime population and local purchasing power in the corridor.
The Zumstein South project also sits alongside new medical facilities breaking ground nearby along Polaris. This is not one development in isolation. It is another piece of a corridor that has been growing consistently.
What This Actually Does to Home Demand
Job centers plus new amenities are a textbook driver of housing demand. People who work in a corridor tend to want to live near it. Residents in that area gain access to a full grocery, restaurants, and office services within five to ten minutes.
Westerville's Polaris corridor and Westar area have been among the city's faster-growing zones. This project reinforces that trajectory.
The homes that historically hold value and generate strong resale interest in these situations are the ones with reasonable access to the corridor but not directly on the busiest cut-through roads. A home two streets off Worthington Road has a different profile than one fronting Polaris Parkway. That gap tends to widen during active development periods and compress once the dust settles.
If You Own Near Polaris Right Now
If you own in the Polaris-adjacent areas of Westerville or the Columbus zip codes that border the corridor, this is worth tracking for your pricing strategy.
Selling during the "messy middle" of construction, when traffic is visible and the development is incomplete, typically means competing with some buyer hesitation. But the long-term fundamentals for well-located homes in this corridor are pointing in the right direction.
If you're thinking about buying near Polaris, the same construction-phase window that creates hesitation also sometimes creates room to negotiate. The corridor's growth trajectory over the past several years has rewarded owners who positioned ahead of infrastructure maturity.
None of this is a guarantee. Development timelines shift, office lease-up is never instant, and traffic management depends on execution. But the direction of the corridor is clear.
Curious what the Zumstein South project means specifically for your address? I'll put together a quick pricing snapshot and commute read for your street. Reach out at calendly.com/adam-geuy or call/text 937-239-2919.
Adam Geuy, Realtor, NextHome Experience, ABR/PSA/SRS. License #202000794. Each office is independently owned and operated.