Columbus donut shop HoneyDip to stay open despite fears of losing home
Top headlines of the week, Dec. 5 2025
Here are some stories you may have missed this week in central Ohio.
- A family-owned donut shop, HoneyDip Donuts & Diner, was at risk of potential displacement after its property was listed for sale.
- The property’s landlord was placed under receivership, leading to the sale of several Kenny Road businesses’ locations.
- A new buyer purchased the properties with the intention of keeping the current tenants, according to the receiver.
- HoneyDip Donuts & Diner will remain at its Kenny Road location until at least 2029.
The family-owned donut shop at risk of losing its longtime home on Columbus’ northwest side isn’t going anywhere – at least, not for the next few years.
HoneyDip Donuts & Diner, which has called 4480 Kenny Road home for over 50 years, was facing potential displacement after a receiver appointed by the Franklin County Common Pleas Court in 2023 listed a series of properties on Kenny Road for sale in August. As a result, HoneyDip and some other small businesses on the strip feared they’d have to give up their properties.
But now, it looks like the donut shop will be sticking around for the foreseeable future. A HoneyDip employee told The Dispatch Dec. 10 it would stay at its Kenny Road location until 2029, but declined to share further details.
Jack Harris with Intercept Management Corp., the court-appointed receiver, told The Dispatch that HoneyDip and the other Kenny Road properties in question were marketed with the goal of keeping the current tenants because of the “great value in keeping them there.” He added that the buyer purchased the sites to hold onto them, not to redevelop.
“It’s a victory for all the people that are there, and that was important to me,” Harris said.
What happened to HoneyDip Donuts & Diner?
Olympic Properties, LLC, the landlord to HoneyDip and other Kenny Road businesses like pizza joint Iacono’s Ristorante, DeSantis Florists and HealthMarkets insurance office, was placed under receivership due to “internal disputes,” according to the donut shop.
In response to Intercept Management Corp. listing the properties, an attorney for HoneyDip filed a motion with the common pleas court in August arguing that what was happening to the donut shop was a “substantial injustice” and “the destruction of a half-century of honest, hard work.” HoneyDip owners also said at the time that their lease ran through 2029.
“We are heartbroken, feel blindsided, and have been left without a voice in this process,” the donut shop shared in an Aug. 27 Facebook post. “If this sale and redevelopment move forward, our businesses—and a piece of Columbus history—face permanent displacement.”
Around the same time, a Change.org petition calling for community input, public hearings and the opportunity for HoneyDip and its neighboring businesses to purchase their respective properties was circulated, yielding almost 20,000 signatures as of Dec. 10.
Reporter Emma Wozniak can be reached at [email protected] or @emma_wozniak_ on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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