Young’s Jersey Dairy building multi-million dairy barn to replace iconic ice cream, cheese shop

New building will offer window for sneak peek at the cheese and ice cream production process.

The main gathering place at Young’s Jersey Dairy for countless sticky-fingered, smiling kids with ice cream cones in-hand will soon be replaced.

Construction has begun at Young’s near Yellow Springs on a multi-million dollar dairy barn set to be completed next year, most likely in April, Dan Young, Young’s CEO, said Friday. The new structure will cost around $2 million to $3 million, Young said, though the final cost is not yet known. The existing dairy store has been in place for more than 50 years.

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

WENCO Construction of Huber Heights has teamed up with Young’s for the project.

The project was in the planning phase for two years. Construction initially was set to begin in March, however, COVID-19 pushed that start date back to August, Young said.

The new building will replace the big red barn where guests now go to shop, get ice cream and order a quick meal.

Credit: Tom Gilliam

Credit: Tom Gilliam

“The one we are using now, we built the first part of it in 1968 and we’ve added on to it many times over the years,” Young said. It was just time to build a new one. We’re excited about it and one of the coolest things, we’re going to move our ice cream and cheese production over to the same building."

Customers and children will be able to look inside the windows of the new building and watch as Young’s makes ice cream and cheese curds. Young said the farm doesn’t currently encourage guests to watch the cheese and ice cream production because the “viewing window” is right next to the road and wouldn’t be safe for children.

Credit: Tom Gilliam

Credit: Tom Gilliam

Once the new building is in operation, the current dairy barn will be torn down and that space converted to a parking lot.

"It might be just a pile of dirt for now, but we’ll be posting weekly or monthly update videos... throughout the entire build of the new Dairy Store 2021!” Young’s posted to its Facebook page Friday morning.

“Dairy Store 2021” is what the new barn has been named, and when completed, Young expects a grand celebration to take place.

“(There will be a celebration) for sure,” Young said. “I (just) don’t have any specific plans for that yet. We have an annual celebration for the founding of the farm. Next year will be the 152nd year (and) we usually do that in January. We were just thinking about rolling that back to spring whenever we get (the new building) going.”

When nearing the end of construction, Young expects operations to need to close for a week or so while equipment is transferred to the new facility.

People can follow Young’s Jersey Dairy Facebook page for updates on the project.

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