What is Stations Unidos? Stations Unidos is the Everett community development corporation that emerged in early 2026 from the rebranding of the Everett Station District Alliance (ESDA). It is a 501(c)(3) housing-and-placemaking nonprofit with an expanded service area that now covers both downtown’s Everett Station District (around 3201 Smith Avenue) and the Casino Road corridor in South Everett. Its board is split equally between the two neighborhoods. Its mission is to invest in real estate to preserve the affordability of existing housing and small businesses, and to build new affordable housing and commercial space, ahead of Sound Transit’s Link light rail arrival.
Why this matters now
Two planned Sound Transit Link light rail stations are years away from opening on the Everett extension. But the planning is happening now, the property speculation is happening now, and the displacement risk is happening now. Marshall Foster, Sound Transit’s Chief Planning and Development Officer, said at the Stations Unidos launch that the work the organization will be doing in the years before the trains arrive is going to be critical. The lesson the agency took from earlier Link extensions in Seattle — neighborhoods like Rainier Valley and Beacon Hill — is that you cannot wait for the station to open before protecting the people who will need it most. By then it is already too late.
Casino Road is one of the most economically and ethnically diverse neighborhoods in Snohomish County. It is home to large Latino, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and East African communities, several of the most-trafficked food banks and pantries in the city, and dozens of immigrant-owned businesses. The Everett Station District anchors the city’s transit hub, civic agencies, and a working downtown employment center. Both neighborhoods carry displacement risk as transit-driven property speculation accelerates.
What changed in 2026
The pre-2026 ESDA was, for several years after its 2017 incorporation, primarily focused on cleaning, safety, and placemaking work in the immediate Everett Station footprint. The board contracted with LISC Puget Sound — the regional intermediary that has anchored years of community investment in Casino Road — in 2024 to figure out how to evolve from a station-area alliance into a full community development corporation.
After more than a year of community engagement, the ESDA board adopted LISC’s recommendations in 2025, and the organization formally rebranded as Stations Unidos in early 2026. The official launch announcement landed on February 24, 2026.
The new name is the most visible change. The bigger one is structural.
The board structure is the story
Under the new governance, the board of directors is split equally between the Everett Station District and South Everett. The Casino Road side of the table is just as full as the downtown side. Future board seats will be nominated by neighborhood advisory boards in each area.
The current board reads like a who’s who of two neighborhoods that historically have not always talked to each other:
From the Everett Station District: Roland Behee, Mary Anne Dillon (Vice Chair), and Joe Sievers (Secretary).
From South Everett: Julio Cortes, Alvaro Guillen (Chair), and Tony Hernandez.
At-large members: Victor Caesar, Amber Harrington (Treasurer), and Bobby Thompson.
Brock Howell is CEO and President. Ed Petersen serves as Chief Strategic Housing Officer.
The fact that a Chief Strategic Housing Officer is in the room — at all — is the tell. This is not a placemaking nonprofit anymore. This is a housing organization with placemaking in its toolkit.
The mission, in concrete terms
Stations Unidos’s mission is to invest in real estate to preserve the affordability of existing housing and small businesses, as well as to build new affordable housing and commercial space. In a transit-oriented development context, that translates into a specific set of activities:
- Acquiring at-risk properties — apartment buildings, mobile home parks, small commercial properties — and stabilizing them as long-term affordable assets before market pressure forces them out of reach.
- Partnering with existing housing operators to extend affordability covenants on properties that would otherwise convert to market rate at covenant expiration.
- Developing new affordable housing on properties the organization acquires or assembles, including mixed-use buildings that preserve commercial frontage for small immigrant-owned businesses.
- Coordinating with the City of Everett, Sound Transit, the Everett Housing Authority, and LISC on funding stacks that combine federal, state, local, and philanthropic capital.
Why Casino Road specifically
Casino Road carries the highest near-term displacement risk in Everett because of the Link light rail timeline. Two planned stations — including one near Casino Road — bring the kind of property speculation that historically precedes resident and small-business displacement by 5 to 10 years.
The corridor’s working-class, immigrant-rooted character is exactly what gets lost first under transit-driven displacement — and exactly what is already showing up in pressure on places like the small Casino Road tortillerías and family-run restaurants that anchor day-to-day life in the neighborhood. For the deeper neighborhood read, our Casino Road neighborhood guide walks through the demographic and economic context.
The funding stack
Community development corporations like Stations Unidos do not run on a single funding source. The typical capital stack combines:
- Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) for new construction
- Federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME funds, channeled through the City of Everett
- Washington State Housing Finance Commission programs
- Snohomish County housing funds
- LISC Puget Sound capital, which has anchored years of Casino Road investment
- Philanthropic and private capital from Puget Sound foundations and community development financial institutions
The transit-oriented dimension also opens specific federal and state programs designed to fund anti-displacement work in station areas before the transit infrastructure arrives.
How Stations Unidos fits with the broader Everett picture
Stations Unidos is not the only organization doing this work in Everett, but it is the one with explicit governance structure built around the two neighborhoods carrying the highest near-term transit-driven displacement risk. Read it alongside:
- The Everett Housing Authority’s ongoing portfolio
- The City of Everett’s Comprehensive Plan implementation in Casino Road and the Station District
- The proposed NR-MHC manufactured housing zone protecting seven mobile home parks (separate but parallel anti-displacement work — see our NR-MHC zone coverage)
- LISC Puget Sound’s broader Casino Road work
- The Sound Transit Everett Link extension planning — see our Everett Link complete guide
What to watch next
- First Stations Unidos real estate acquisitions or development announcements
- Funding stack signals — LIHTC awards, CDBG allocations, philanthropic commitments
- Sound Transit Link extension milestones and the resulting property-speculation patterns
- Coordinated work with the City of Everett on Comprehensive Plan implementation along Casino Road
- Board expansion as neighborhood advisory boards nominate additional seats
The honest framing
Stations Unidos is not going to single-handedly stop transit-driven displacement in Everett. The market forces around a Link extension are too large for any single nonprofit. But it is the organization specifically built to slow displacement in two neighborhoods where the displacement risk is most concentrated — and to do that with the explicit governance representation that historically has been missing from these conversations. The structure tells you the seriousness. The next 24 months will tell you the throughput.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Stations Unidos used to be called?
Stations Unidos is the rebranded form of the Everett Station District Alliance (ESDA), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit incorporated in 2017. The official name change and expanded service area were announced February 24, 2026.
Who runs Stations Unidos?
Brock Howell serves as CEO and President. Ed Petersen serves as Chief Strategic Housing Officer. The board chair is Alvaro Guillen, with Mary Anne Dillon as Vice Chair, Joe Sievers as Secretary, and Amber Harrington as Treasurer.
What neighborhoods does Stations Unidos serve?
The expanded service area covers both the Everett Station District in downtown and the Casino Road corridor in South Everett. The board is split equally between representatives from the two neighborhoods, with three at-large members.
How is Stations Unidos connected to Sound Transit?
Sound Transit’s Link light rail extension will bring two planned stations to the Stations Unidos service area — one near downtown Everett, one near Casino Road. Sound Transit’s Chief Planning and Development Officer Marshall Foster publicly endorsed the Stations Unidos work at the launch as critical anti-displacement preparation.
What is LISC Puget Sound’s role?
LISC Puget Sound is the regional community development intermediary that has anchored years of community investment in Casino Road. ESDA contracted with LISC in 2024 to design the evolution into a full community development corporation; LISC’s recommendations were the foundation of the 2025 board adoption and the 2026 rebrand.
How can residents get involved?
Stations Unidos’s governance includes neighborhood advisory boards in both the Everett Station District and South Everett. Future board seats will be nominated through these advisory boards. Resident engagement runs through Stations Unidos directly at stationsunidos.org and through community events in both neighborhoods.
What’s the relationship to the Casino Road neighborhood organizations already there?
Stations Unidos is built to coordinate with — not replace — existing community-based organizations in Casino Road, including the long-standing Connect Casino Road network and dozens of immigrant-owned business organizations. The expanded board structure is designed to bring those voices into a unified anti-displacement governance.
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