Downtown Franklin Ohio: One Corner Finished, One Rising
August 13, 2026
August 13, 2026
"This is the finishing centerpiece of the project and we are absolutely looking forward to that."
That's City Manager Jonathan Westendorf, talking about the mural that shut down Franklin's busiest intersection for a week this past June. If you drove Fourth and Main before June 8, you remember plain asphalt. If you've driven it since, you've seen the new artwork spiraling out from the center of the crosswalk, a kite tangled up with the curves of a river. It's the kind of detail that makes a corner feel finished. And that's exactly the point, and exactly what makes it worth a second look, because the finish line for one project in downtown Franklin is turning out to be the starting gun for a much bigger one just up the street.
The mural at Fourth and Main isn't decoration picked off a catalog. It was designed by Human Nature, a Cincinnati landscape architecture firm, to carry two symbols specific to this town: a kite for Benjamin Franklin, the city's namesake, and the Great Miami River, which forms Franklin's western edge and has shaped where the town grew, flooded, and eventually rebuilt. The artwork blends the river's flowing lines with the geometric shape of a kite in flight. It's a small thing to notice next time you're waiting at the light, but it's also the last physical piece of a project that's been running for five years.
That $13.4 million Main Street Streetscape Project didn't start with a mural. It started with sidewalks and lighting, then the demolition of buildings that had sat empty too long, then the conversion of Main Street back to two-way traffic. Underneath all of it, the city rebuilt its downtown electrical grid with Duke Energy, upgrading from a 4,000-volt system to 14,000 volts, and replaced water mains that had been in the ground for 80 to 100 years. None of that shows up in a photo. The mural does. Westendorf has been direct about the tradeoff: the visible improvements are the reward, but the unglamorous utility work underneath is what actually determines whether a downtown can support what comes next.
That distinction matters right now, because what comes next is bigger than anything the streetscape project touched.
A short walk from that finished intersection, at Sixth Street and Riley Boulevard, Slipcast Brewing broke ground on March 16, 2026. It's an 8,000-square-foot building, five million dollars, with a production brewhouse, a taproom, a full kitchen, an outdoor patio, and a gravel gathering area with a fire pit. When it's done, it'll seat around 150 people inside with roughly 30 parking spots on site, plus additional public parking the city is adding next door.
Right now, though, it's a construction site. Slipcast is targeting an opening in early 2027, which means residents will spend the better part of a year watching this corner change shape before they ever walk through the door. The brewery is led by five founders from the craft brewing industry, including Brian Willett, who previously co-founded West Side Brewing in Cincinnati. Bunnell Hill Construction, based in Lebanon, is building it.
This is the part that's easy to miss if you only see the construction fence: the city didn't guess at what downtown needed. During its downtown vision planning process, Franklin surveyed residents about what they wanted to see added, and more than 42 percent named a brewery or restaurant as their top choice. City Council sold seven adjacent parcels at Sixth and Riley to Riley Real Estate, LLC back in March 2024, almost two years before ground broke, specifically to make that survey answer real.
Westendorf has said the goal was never subtle: "a brewery of this scale and in this location was always one of our top goals." Mayor Brent Centers framed the groundbreaking as proof of something bigger than one building, saying "Franklin is proving what small cities can accomplish when vision and community pride come together." For a city of roughly 10,600 people, a $13.4 million streetscape project stacked on top of a $5 million brewery isn't a modest bet. It's a sizable chunk of civic investment landing in a town this size, which is exactly why residents are watching both corners closely.
None of this means downtown Franklin is on pause until February 2027. A few things finished or opened this summer that don't require any patience at all.
Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken held its grand opening on June 1, 2026, in a new 2,309-square-foot location at 400 Commerce Center Drive. It replaced the chain's smaller, longstanding spot on Second Street, and it landed during Lee's 60th year in business, a detail that got a shoutout from co-owner Chuck Doran when the new space opened. It's easy to get swept up in what's new and forget that some of downtown's staying power comes from businesses simply modernizing in place rather than being replaced by something else entirely.
A few blocks off Main Street, the Eric Henn murals along the Great Miami River Trail remain one of the reasons cyclists and walkers stop in Franklin rather than pedaling straight through on their way to Miamisburg or Middletown. And on Saturday mornings, the downtown farmers market sets up in the City Building parking lot, co-sponsored by the city and Chamber45005, running from late spring into early fall with produce, honey, eggs, and a rotating cast of craft vendors.
Already finished or open:
Still under construction:
That gap between the two lists is the real story this summer. Downtown Franklin isn't waiting for one big reveal. It's living through the in-between, where one long project just wrapped and a bigger one is only a few months into a much longer build. If you want to watch a small city do the unglamorous work of actually becoming what its residents asked for, this is the season to pay attention, because by next winter the gravel lot at Sixth and Riley won't look anything like it does today.
If you're the kind of person who likes tracking a town's momentum block by block, you're already doing the work that makes you a great neighbor here. If you're also thinking about what that momentum means for your own address in Franklin, whether you're weighing a move, a sale, or just curious what your corner of downtown might be worth once Slipcast opens its doors, that's a conversation worth having.
Let's Connect. Reach out to Regina Miller whenever you're ready to talk through what's happening in your Franklin neighborhood, whether that's this summer's construction or next year's plans.
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