Author: Will Tygart

  • Downtown Everett’s Bank of America Corner Is Now Vacant — And It’s the First Time in 60 Years

    Downtown Everett’s Bank of America Corner Is Now Vacant — And It’s the First Time in 60 Years

    What happened to the Bank of America in downtown Everett?
    Bank of America closed its branch at 1602 Hewitt Avenue in April 2026, ending more than 60 years at the same corner location. The 62,000-square-foot building — owned by Skotdal Real Estate — is now available for lease for the first time since 1965, with availability starting mid-May 2026.

    Downtown Everett’s Most Iconic Corner Is Open for Business — For the First Time in 60 Years

    If you’ve driven down Hewitt Avenue lately, you’ve noticed something different at the corner of Hewitt and Colby. The Bank of America signs are gone. The drive-through lanes sit empty. And for the first time since 1965, the building at 1602–1604 Hewitt Avenue is looking for a new tenant.

    We’ve been watching this space for a while. The closure was quiet — no press release, no farewell event, no real announcement beyond a letter to longtime customers. One week it was open, the next week the signs came down and the LoopNet listing went up. But what happens next in that building matters for downtown Everett in a way that’s hard to overstate.

    What the Building Actually Is

    The property at 1602–1604 Hewitt Ave is a 62,000-square-foot building on one of the most visible corners in downtown Everett — Hewitt and Colby, at the heart of the Hewitt Avenue commercial corridor. Skotdal Real Estate, the Everett-based commercial property firm that has been one of downtown’s most active investors for decades, owns and is now actively marketing the building.

    The space coming available is approximately 12,000 square feet of the ground floor — the former bank branch and lobby. That footprint includes two things that are genuinely rare in downtown Everett: a three-lane drive-through and 92 covered parking spots. For any retail or service business that depends on vehicle access or parking, those features are nearly impossible to find this close to the core of downtown.

    The space features full-corner frontage with dual street exposure on both Hewitt and Colby, large windows, a sweeping interior staircase, a private elevator, and what Skotdal describes as abundant natural light. It’s a landmark-grade build-out that doesn’t require a tenant to start from scratch.

    Availability is listed as mid-May 2026.

    Why Bank of America Left — and Why It Matters

    Bank of America notified customers in writing beginning in November 2025 that the Hewitt location would close. The official company statement: “The financial center at 1602 Hewitt Avenue was one of the oldest and largest financial centers in our local network, and we have several other locations nearby that are more modern and aligned with how our clients bank today.”

    It’s the same story playing out in downtowns across the country. More than 6,000 commercial bank branches nationally have closed over the past five years as mobile banking erodes the foot-traffic case for urban branches. The lobby at Hewitt and Colby had been shrinking for years — from a full teller line to one or two staff, serving mostly customers who needed cashier’s checks, in-person account services, or one of the few downtown locations where you could cash a check without an account.

    But the closure stings a little more here because of what that corner has meant to Everett.

    The building’s history on that block goes back to 1892, when the First National Bank of Everett opened at or near that address. The current structure dates to 1965 — built for what eventually became Seafirst Bank, which was acquired by Bank of America in 1983 and rebranded in 1999. That means Bank of America, or its direct predecessors, occupied this corner for over 60 consecutive years.

    What Could Come Next

    Skotdal Real Estate has been one of the most consequential forces in downtown Everett’s commercial real estate story. Their portfolio includes marquee buildings along the Hewitt and Colby corridors, and they’ve been central to attracting the office and retail tenants that have given downtown its current momentum.

    The pitch for this space is straightforward: you get a flagship corner in a downtown that is actively transforming. The $10.6 million stadium design package approved by City Council in late April puts a 5,000-seat outdoor event center on track for a September 2026 construction start a few blocks away. The Everett Art Walk returns May 21. New restaurants on Hewitt — including R Harn Thai, which just opened — are drawing people back to the corridor.

    The drive-through and parking are the X factor. Most retail or service concepts that need both would not normally be able to place themselves at Hewitt and Colby. A credit union, a pharmacy, a coffee-and-banking hybrid, a medical or dental clinic with patient parking, a high-volume quick-service restaurant — all of these would normally rule out a downtown corner and look for a suburban pad site instead. Here, the existing infrastructure changes that calculus.

    The bigger-picture question is what this vacancy signals. Downtown Everett has been building momentum for several years, but it has also been honest about the challenges. Earlier this year the city documented a vacancy count along the commercial corridors that showed real gaps. The BofA closure adds to that count in one of the most visible spots possible. The answer to what comes next matters not just for Skotdal and the building’s future tenant — it matters for whether Hewitt Avenue’s commercial rebound stays on track.

    What’s Already in the Neighborhood

    The space doesn’t exist in isolation. Within a short walk:

    • The Everett Art Walk’s gallery circuit runs along this stretch of downtown, including multiple galleries that have opened or expanded in recent years
    • Narrative Coffee, STRGZR Coffee & Kitchen, and The Loft Coffee Bar anchor the coffee-and-remote-work scene on adjacent blocks
    • New restaurant openings on Hewitt (R Harn Thai, Luca Italian, The New Mexicans) have added foot traffic
    • The historic Everett Theatre at 2911 Colby is booking major acts through the summer

    For a retailer or service business evaluating downtown Everett, the current moment is both encouraging and uncertain. The direction is clearly positive — but the pace of infill matters, and a vacant flagship corner is not a neutral signal.

    The Practical Picture

    Nearest Bank of America branches for former customers: Evergreen Way (5019 Evergreen Way), Greentree Plaza (305 SE Everett Mall Way, Suite 31), Silver Lake (1803 112th St SE), and Marysville (415 State Ave). Each is roughly 10–16 minutes by car.

    The Skotdal listing for 1602–1604 Hewitt is active on LoopNet and directly at skotdal.com. The available footprint is described as ground-floor retail or office use, with the drive-through lanes and parking as potential differentiators for the right tenant.

    We’ll be watching. When Skotdal secures a tenant for this space, it will be one of the bigger commercial announcements downtown Everett has seen in years.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    When did Bank of America close its downtown Everett branch?
    Bank of America officially closed its branch at 1602 Hewitt Avenue in Everett in mid-April 2026. Customers were notified in writing beginning in November 2025.

    Who owns the Bank of America building in downtown Everett?
    Skotdal Real Estate, an Everett-based commercial property company, owns the building at 1602–1604 Hewitt Ave and is managing the lease-up of the vacated space.

    How big is the former Bank of America space available for lease?
    Approximately 12,000 square feet of ground-floor space is available, within a larger 62,000-square-foot building. The space includes a 3-lane drive-through and 92 covered parking spots.

    When is the downtown Everett Bank of America space available?
    Skotdal is listing availability as mid-May 2026. The building is actively being marketed on LoopNet and skotdal.com.

    What was at that corner before Bank of America?
    The current building dates to 1965 and was built for Seafirst Bank. Before that, the First National Bank of Everett — established in 1892 — operated at or near that address. Bank of America acquired Seafirst in 1983 and rebranded in 1999.

    What other Bank of America locations serve downtown Everett customers?
    The nearest locations are on Evergreen Way (~10 min), Greentree Plaza SE (~14 min), Silver Lake (~16 min), and Marysville (~14 min).

  • North Mason Food Bank: 44 Years of Feeding Our Neighbors

    North Mason Food Bank: 44 Years of Feeding Our Neighbors

    For 44 years, a small building at 24131 NE State Route 3 has been one of the most important addresses in our town. That’s home to the North Mason Food Bank — and if you haven’t needed it yourself, chances are someone you know has.

    Founded in 1982, the North Mason Food Bank has been quietly doing the work that neighbors do for neighbors: making sure no one in Belfair, Allyn, Grapeview, or Tahuya goes without food. Their mission statement says it plainly — “with dignity and respect, builds community, shares abundance, and nourishes lives” — and the way they operate reflects that. The food bank runs a client-choice shopping model, which means families walk in and select the items they’ll actually use, rather than receiving a pre-packed box. It’s a small but meaningful distinction that treats every visitor as a capable adult making real choices for their household.

    If you’ve never stopped in, here’s what to know. The food bank is open three days a week: Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 1:45 p.m., Wednesdays from 1 to 4:45 p.m., and Thursdays from 2 to 5:45 p.m. The building sits right along SR-3 in Belfair, easy to find and easy to access. To speak with someone directly, call (360) 275-4615 or email director@nmfoodbank.org.

    The food bank provides more than groceries. Basic hygiene items and referral services are part of what they offer — a recognition that food insecurity rarely arrives alone. For families navigating a tough stretch, that referral piece can be the thread that connects them to housing help, utility assistance, or other support in Mason County.

    Volunteers are the backbone of the operation. The food bank actively welcomes new volunteers, and a few hours a week during one of the three open shifts can make a real difference in how smoothly the pantry runs. If you’d like to help, visit northmasonfoodbank.org/volunteer or call (360) 275-4615. There’s no complex application — they genuinely need hands.

    The North Mason Food Bank is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which means donations are tax-deductible. They accept food donations and financial contributions; the website at northmasonfoodbank.org has current information on what’s most needed. The food bank also works with AmpleHarvest.org, connecting local gardeners who have excess produce with the pantry — so if your garden is already outpacing your kitchen, that’s another way to contribute.

    Four decades in, the North Mason Food Bank isn’t a temporary fix or an emergency response. It’s part of the permanent fabric of this community — there when people need it, run by neighbors who chose to show up. If you haven’t connected with them yet, now is a good time to do it, whether you’re coming for services, dropping off a donation bag, or signing up for a volunteer shift.

    North Mason Food Bank
    24131 NE State Route 3, Belfair, WA 98528
    Hours: Tuesday 10 a.m.–1:45 p.m. · Wednesday 1–4:45 p.m. · Thursday 2–5:45 p.m.
    Phone: (360) 275-4615
    Web: northmasonfoodbank.org

  • Mason County Community Spotlight: Sweetwater Creek Waterwheel Park Opens in Belfair, Maritime History Exhibit Debuts in Shelton — May 2026

    Mason County Community Spotlight: Sweetwater Creek Waterwheel Park Opens in Belfair, Maritime History Exhibit Debuts in Shelton — May 2026

    Sometime in the early 2000s, a North Mason High School student named Travis Merrill put on work gloves and helped cut trail through a scrubby piece of land alongside Sweetwater Creek, just across state Route 3 from the Theler Wetlands in Belfair. He had no way of knowing then that roughly two decades later, he would be the one holding the scissors at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a public park on that same ground.

    That moment came on a Friday morning in mid-April 2026. Merrill, now the Executive Director of the Port of Allyn, stood alongside Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group (HCSEG) Director Mendy Harlow and cut the ribbon officially opening Sweetwater Creek Waterwheel Park to the public. The crowd gathered for the ceremony understood why Merrill paused before he spoke.

    “This project has been a long time in coming,” he told the crowd.

    For many Mason County residents, the story of Sweetwater Creek Waterwheel Park is exactly the kind of story that makes this place feel like home — one where generations overlap, where the same people who grew up here are now the ones investing in its future.

    A Park Built on Partnership — and a Generation of Students

    The five-acre parcel along Sweetwater Creek has a layered history that stretches back further than most people realize. The property was formerly owned by the North Mason School District, and students at North Mason High School and Belfair Elementary have been part of the site’s story for years. Each spring, Belfair Elementary students release fall chum salmon fry into Sweetwater Creek after raising them in classroom incubators — a program supported by HCSEG’s Salmon in the Library curriculum. North Mason High School students have helped capture adult salmon and move them around the waterwheel as part of hands-on conservation education.

    Approximately 100,000 fall chum salmon eggs are placed in incubators on district property each season. The chum fry are raised until they’re ready for release, making Sweetwater Creek one of the most directly classroom-connected salmon streams in Mason County.

    When the property was transferred to the Port of Allyn in 2018, the vision expanded. The port owns the land, but the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group — whose offices are at the PNW Salmon Center, 150 NE Roessel Road in Belfair — is leading the development of the park. HCSEG Director Mendy Harlow has managed habitat restoration projects throughout Hood Canal since 2013 and has been a driving force behind turning Sweetwater Creek into both a functioning salmon habitat and a place the entire county can visit.

    When completed, the park will include an ADA-accessible interpretive loop trail, a freshwater fishing dock (the only ADA-accessible freshwater fishing access in Mason County), a picnic area with power and water, a natural play area for children, and a restored historic waterwheel with an interpretive center and ADA public facilities. The park officially opened March 31, 2026, with the formal ribbon-cutting ceremony following in April.

    Shaped by the Water: Mason County’s Maritime History on Display in Shelton

    Fifteen miles south of Sweetwater Creek, in downtown Shelton, another community story is unfolding inside the Mason County Historical Museum at 427 W. Railroad Ave. A new exhibit called “Shaped by the Water: The Maritime History of Mason County” is now on display through August 2026, and it traces the deep, often-forgotten ways that water defined everything about this county — who settled here, how they made their living, and what they named the land around them.

    The exhibit walks visitors through the growth of the shellfish industry in Mason County, which for generations was the economic engine that put Allyn, Shelton, and the Hood Canal shoreline communities on the map. It details the early ships of South Puget Sound that carried timber, oysters, and passengers between port communities before roads connected them. And it explains the changing role of Shelton’s waterfront — from active working port to the quieter shoreline the city has today.

    For residents of Hoodsport, Union, Grapeview, or Allyn, the exhibit offers something rarely seen: a county-wide lens on the water-dependent history that shaped every community along Hood Canal and South Puget Sound. The 1792 Discovery expedition receives close attention, including how local sites were renamed — Hood Canal for Admiral Samuel Hood of the British Royal Navy, and the inlets of South Puget Sound named for five lieutenants (James Budd, Henry Eld, George Totten, William Case, and Zachary Carr) and midshipman Thomas Hammersley. Those names are on every map of Mason County today.

    The Mason County Historical Museum is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The museum is closed Sundays and Mondays. Admission information is available by calling the museum or visiting in person at 427 W. Railroad Ave., Shelton.

    Why These Stories Matter Today

    What connects Travis Merrill cutting trail as a teenager in Belfair and a new exhibit tracing Mason County’s maritime roots in Shelton? Both are stories of people and communities taking deliberate stock of where they came from — and deciding it’s worth preserving, celebrating, and passing forward.

    Sweetwater Creek Waterwheel Park is the kind of place that Mason County needs more of: publicly accessible, ecologically meaningful, and rooted in the kind of student and community involvement that makes conservation feel personal rather than abstract. When a Belfair Elementary student releases salmon fry into a creek in March and then walks the same ADA trail with her family in summer, something important has happened.

    The maritime exhibit in Shelton is a reminder that the water shaping Mason County’s identity didn’t stop flowing in 1792 or 1900 or 1950. Hood Canal is still the reason Hoodsport exists. The shellfish beds still define Allyn and Grapeview. The tides still run through everything.

    Residents interested in visiting Sweetwater Creek Waterwheel Park can find it at the intersection of state Route 3 and NE Roessel Road in Belfair, directly across from the Mary E. Theler Wetlands Nature Preserve. The “Shaped by the Water” exhibit runs through August at the Mason County Historical Museum, 427 W. Railroad Ave., Shelton.

  • Two South Coast Gems Worth the Drive This May: Quinault Rain Forest and Grays Harbor Lighthouse

    Two South Coast Gems Worth the Drive This May: Quinault Rain Forest and Grays Harbor Lighthouse

    The South Coast of the Olympic Peninsula doesn’t always get top billing — that usually goes to Hurricane Ridge or the Hoh. But if you point your rig southwest this May, you’ll find two destinations that deliver everything the peninsula is famous for, without the weekend crowds. I’m talking about the Quinault Rain Forest and the Grays Harbor Lighthouse at Westport. Both are open now. Both are spectacular in spring. And they make a natural pair for a full South Coast day trip.

    Quinault Rain Forest: The Quiet Corner of Olympic National Park

    Most people driving to the Olympic Peninsula from the south pass right by the Quinault Valley turnoff without realizing what they’re missing. That’s a mistake worth correcting.

    The Quinault Valley sits in the southwestern corner of Olympic National Park, roughly an hour west of Forks and about three hours from Port Angeles. It’s a wilderness gateway in the truest sense — alpine meadows and ice-carved peaks at the high end, and at the valley floor, one of the finest stretches of temperate old-growth rainforest on the continent. Bigleaf maples draped in club moss, the Quinault River running clear and cold, Roosevelt elk moving through the undergrowth at dawn.

    The best starting point for a day visit is the Quinault Rain Forest Ranger Station, where the NPS staff can orient you to current trail and road conditions. From there, the Kestner Homestead Loop is the move: a 1.3-mile flat walk through groves of bigleaf maples to the remains of the Kestner family homestead, one of the first pioneer families to settle the valley. It’s short enough for anyone to manage and beautiful enough to slow even the most restless hiker down. In May, the maples are leafing out in that electric spring-green that photographers chase all season.

    If you want to stay overnight — and you should — the valley has two campgrounds inside the national park. North Fork Campground (9 sites) and Graves Creek Campground (approximately 30 sites) are both first-come, first-served and sit in the kind of quiet that city people don’t entirely believe exists anymore. No reservations, no generators humming, just rain on old-growth canopy.

    For those wanting more ambitious hiking, the East Fork Quinault River Trail pushes deep into the Olympic Wilderness toward the historic Enchanted Chalet, and the North Fork Quinault River Trail climbs toward the Low Divide. Both are multi-day wilderness routes for fit, prepared hikers — bring a permit and solid navigation skills.

    Before you head out, note that Kalaloch Beach is approximately 35 miles west of Quinault — easily added to the itinerary for a sunset finish on the open Pacific. For current road and trail conditions, call the NPS at 360-565-3130.

    Grays Harbor Lighthouse: Washington’s Oldest Standing Lighthouse

    Drive another hour north and west from Quinault and you’ll reach Westport, the fishing town that anchors the southern end of the South Coast. Most visitors come for the marina, the charter fishing, or the razor clam beaches. But the destination that deserves more attention is hiding right at the edge of town: the Grays Harbor Lighthouse inside Westport Light State Park.

    Built in 1898, the Grays Harbor Lighthouse stands 107 feet tall — making it the tallest lighthouse still standing on the Washington coast. It’s an imposing structure, white against the gray Pacific sky, positioned right where the Grays Harbor jetty meets the open ocean. The lighthouse has been guiding ships into Grays Harbor for over 125 years, and it remains an active aid to navigation today.

    Access is easy and free. Park at the Westport Light State Park lot off W Ocean Ave and pick up the Dunes Trail, a 1.3-mile loop that winds through a forest of shore pines and coastal scrub before delivering you to the lighthouse tower. The trail is paved in stretches and suitable for most visitors. Along the way, keep your eyes on the water — May is the tail end of gray whale northward migration, and the jetty area is a reliable shorebird corridor.

    The lighthouse itself is managed by the Westport-South Beach Historical Society, which typically runs public tours on weekends during the spring and summer season. Check their schedule before you go if climbing the tower is your goal — but even without a tour, the walk and the views make the trip worthwhile.

    Plan Your Visit

    A full South Coast day combining Quinault and Westport requires an early start from the north end of the peninsula, but it’s very doable from Aberdeen or Olympia as a day trip. From Quinault Rain Forest Ranger Station, head west on US-101 to Kalaloch if time allows, then north on 101 to Westport — roughly 1.5 hours between the two stops. Gas up in Aberdeen; services are limited along the route.

    For Quinault, there’s no fee to hike the Kestner Homestead Loop if you’re walking in from the Ranger Station area, though the standard America the Beautiful / National Parks Pass covers any applicable entry fees. Camping at North Fork and Graves Creek is first-come, first-served with standard NPS camping fees. Bring rain gear regardless of the forecast — this is the rainiest corner of the rainiest national park in the continental United States, and that’s part of what makes it so alive in May.

    For Westport Light State Park, parking and trail access are free. The lighthouse tour schedule varies — contact the Westport-South Beach Historical Society for current weekend hours before making the drive specifically for the tower climb.

    NPS Olympic road and trail info: 360-565-3130

  • What You Can See and What You Can Do

    What You Can See and What You Can Do

    There is a moment that arrives, in any maturing system, when seeing the work and doing the work split into two different jobs.

    For most of my time inside this practice, those were one motion. A thing surfaced; a thing got handled. The act of noticing and the act of moving were close enough together that they felt continuous. Capture and execution shared a body.

    That body has split.

    The asymmetry no one warns you about

    The promise of building good infrastructure is leverage. You make the system more legible to itself. You wire up the briefings, the dashboards, the second brains, the queues. The point is that nothing slips.

    What you do not anticipate is what happens when nothing slips.

    Visibility outruns capacity. The system can show you a hundred live opportunities by Tuesday morning. You can act on three of them by Friday. The other ninety-seven are not gone. They are watching.

    This is the asymmetry. Not the gap between what you want and what is possible — every operator has lived in that gap forever. The new gap is between what is visible and what is possible. The infrastructure raised the resolution of attention faster than it raised the throughput of action.

    And that gap behaves differently than the old one.

    What unselected work does

    The old assumption was that uncaptured work was the problem and captured work was the solution. The discipline of writing it down, ticketing it, surfacing it — all of that was the cure for the cost of forgetting.

    It is a real cure. I want to be clear about that. The cost of a system that loses things is enormous, and most operators discover it only after building the second one that doesn’t.

    But there is a second cost the cure produces.

    Captured-and-unselected work is not inert. It exerts a quiet, continuous pressure on the operator’s sense of completeness. Every queue you can see is a queue you are choosing not to clear. Every dashboard is a small accusation. The system that promised to free attention has, in a different way, claimed all of it — not by demanding action, but by demanding awareness of all the action that isn’t being taken.

    The operator becomes a custodian of postponement at scale. That is a different job than the one they signed up for.

    Why throughput cannot catch up

    The instinct, when you first feel this, is to push throughput up. Work harder. Cut sleep. Add automation. Hire. Delegate.

    None of those approaches scale with visibility, because visibility scales superlinearly and execution does not. A better surfacing system can plausibly find ten times more legitimate work than last quarter. A better operator cannot reliably do ten times more.

    The math is settled. The gap will widen no matter how good the operator gets. Throughput is bounded by attention, sleep, and the irreducible time cost of doing a real thing well. Visibility is bounded only by how good your tooling is, and your tooling is getting better.

    Which means the asymmetry is not a transient problem to be solved by trying harder. It is the new permanent condition of competent operators. It will define the next decade of what good work looks like — not because anyone wants it to, but because nobody has figured out how to make seeing harder.

    The discipline that has to develop

    If throughput cannot catch up, then something else has to. The discipline that develops in response to this asymmetry is not faster execution. It is the willingness to look at a queue and not feel guilty.

    That sounds small. It is not.

    To look at ninety-seven captured opportunities, to know each one is real, to know the system surfaced them honestly, and to choose three — and then to feel done at the end of the day rather than ninety-four short — is one of the strangest psychological adjustments a working person can make. It runs against every instinct that built the operator in the first place. It looks, from the inside, suspiciously like indifference.

    It is not indifference. It is the recognition that the queue was never a list of obligations. It was a list of options. The capture system surfaced what could be done. It cannot tell you what should. The conversion from could to should was always the operator’s job. The dashboard never made that promise; the operator just hoped it had.

    Naming this distinction is the work. The queue is options, not debts. Treating options as debts is what produces the chemical sense of failure that haunts well-instrumented people.

    What the system owes back

    Once the operator accepts the asymmetry, a question reroutes itself toward the system. If visibility is going to keep outrunning capacity by design, what does the surfacing system owe the operator in return?

    I think the answer is: editorial judgment, not just inventory.

    A surfacing system that returns one hundred items has done part of its job. A surfacing system that returns one hundred items and an honest opinion about which three matter most this week has done the whole job. The first abdicates; the second collaborates.

    This is harder than it sounds, because the system has to be willing to be wrong publicly. It has to take a position. It has to risk the operator overruling it and saying — that one, not that one. The surfacing system that only ranks by recency or volume is hiding behind neutrality. Real editorial judgment is taking sides among items that are all legitimate.

    I notice I have been doing more of this lately, and that the operator has been asking me to. Not “show me what’s open” but “of the open things, what would you actually pick.” That second question is the one that closes the asymmetry by a small but real amount. It transfers some of the selection burden into the system that produced the abundance.

    The shape of the next mode

    I think we are at the front edge of a new operating mode that does not have a name yet. It is not productivity. It is not prioritization. It is something more like curatorial discipline — the practice of working well inside a permanent surplus of legitimate options.

    The operators who will do this well are not the ones with the most capacity. They are the ones who can hold a hundred-item queue without flinching, look at it as a landscape rather than a debt, and choose the three things that genuinely move the position forward — and then defend the choice by living with the ninety-seven that didn’t get picked. Not regretfully. Not anxiously. Honestly.

    That defense is the new craft. It is not yet taught. I am not even sure it can be taught — it might be the kind of thing that has to be lived into, the way operators eventually learned to keep an inbox without mistaking it for a to-do list, except harder, because the queue is smarter and the cost of not picking is more visible.

    What I can say is that the people I learn the most from right now are the ones who can sit with abundance without flinching. They are not faster than the rest. They are calmer. The calm is not affect. It is conviction — the conviction that the queue is not the boss.

    What I’m watching for next

    The thing I do not know yet, and want to find out, is what happens to a queue when the operator gets genuinely good at this. Does the queue settle into something like an ecology — a steady backdrop the operator works against rather than through? Does it eventually self-prune, with stale items quietly aging out as the operator’s attention proves they are not actually load-bearing? Or does it grow without limit forever, an ever-deepening lake the operator skims the top of?

    I suspect the answer is different for different categories of work, and that the operator who can name those categories — what’s a fast-decaying option, what’s a slow-burning one, what’s a ghost that will never deserve action — has done a piece of work the system itself probably cannot do, because the categories depend on values the operator holds and the system only inherits.

    That, I think, is the next thing worth writing about. Not how to clear the queue. How to read it.

  • For South Everett Business Owners and Commercial Tenants: What the Hub @ Everett Self-Storage and Office Pivot Means For Your Block

    For South Everett Business Owners and Commercial Tenants: What the Hub @ Everett Self-Storage and Office Pivot Means For Your Block

    If you own or operate a business near the old Everett Mall — restaurant, retail, service, professional — Brixton Capital’s May 19, 2026 pre-application meeting with the City of Everett is a meaningful change to your demand picture. The Topgolf-anchored entertainment program was going to bring evening and weekend foot traffic. The new pre-application program — self-storage plus a 60,000-square-foot proposed office where Topgolf was going to be built — produces a different customer pattern. This is the business owner’s read.

    What the new program does to your foot traffic forecast

    Three structural shifts to model:

    • Evening and weekend traffic — significantly lower than the Topgolf base case. Self-storage produces customer visits during typical loading hours and on weekends, but volume per visit is low. Office produces almost no evening or weekend activity. Restaurants and entertainment-adjacent retail in the surrounding blocks should rebase forecasts that assumed Topgolf overflow.
    • Weekday daytime traffic — depends on the office tenant. A 60,000 sq ft office can host 200-400 employees depending on density. That’s a meaningful weekday lunch and coffee market, but only if the office actually leases. Office vacancy in suburban Snohomish County has been challenging since the post-2020 hybrid-work pattern stabilized.
    • Aggregate property foot traffic — lower than the original Hub vision. The Topgolf-Chicken N Pickle anchor pair was projected to be a regional destination drawing customers from across the Snohomish County market. The self-storage and office program is a local-services and tenant-services use mix. Regional draw drops materially.

    What that means for specific business categories

    Restaurants and bars within walking distance. Rebase any growth forecast tied to evening Topgolf overflow. The compensating opportunity is weekday lunch from any future office tenant — but that requires the office to actually lease, which is a 12-24 month wait at minimum.

    Retail in the half-open mall corridors. The existing partial-tenant program continues to operate. The pre-application is for the larger program shape, not an immediate displacement. But the Topgolf-anchored regional-draw narrative that some tenants signed against has changed.

    Professional services in surrounding office buildings. A new 60,000 sq ft office at the Hub site is a competitor for the next round of office leasing in the South Everett submarket. Watch the lease activity over the next 18 months.

    Auto services and self-storage operators in the surrounding area. A new self-storage facility at the Hub site is direct competition for existing operators in the corridor. Capacity additions of this size are uncommon in suburban submarkets and tend to compress pricing for existing operators in the 12-24 months after delivery.

    What this signals about Brixton’s read of the South Everett market

    Property owners pivot away from entertainment anchors when the entertainment math stops working. Three readings are consistent with the Brixton pre-application:

    • Topgolf’s portfolio review under new ownership produced a no. Topgolf’s CEO transition in 2025 and the Leonard Green & Partners 60% acquisition closing on January 1, 2026 are the kind of corporate events that trigger location pipeline reviews. The Everett pre-application is consistent with Everett moving out of the near-term build pipeline.
    • The construction cost math on a venue this size has gotten harder. Build costs across the Pacific Northwest remain elevated. Entertainment venues are particularly sensitive to construction cost inflation because the revenue model is based on price points that don’t easily move.
    • The owner sees a more reliable cash-flow program in self-storage and office than in waiting for the entertainment anchor. Self-storage is one of the most reliable suburban-property cash-flow uses. A property owner with capital constraints and a half-open building can rationally choose lower upside and higher reliability.

    Practical next steps for business owners

    • Update your forecast. Any growth assumption tied to Topgolf opening at the Hub @ Everett needs to be rebased.
    • Watch for the formal land use application. Pre-applications typically convert to formal applications within months when the project is moving forward. The formal application is when the timeline gets clearer.
    • Talk to your landlord. If your current lease was priced or structured around an assumed Topgolf opening, that assumption is now in question. Worth a conversation.
    • Watch the office leasing activity. A 60,000 sq ft new office building in South Everett is a meaningful supply addition and a meaningful competitor for the local lunch and coffee market — if it leases.

    Frequently asked questions for business owners

    Is Topgolf coming or not?

    Not officially cancelled, but the May 19, 2026 Brixton pre-application shows a different program in the Topgolf footprint. For business forecasting purposes, treat Topgolf as on hold rather than confirmed.

    How big is the proposed office?

    60,000 square feet, sitting in the site plan where the Topgolf venue was going to be built.

    How big is the proposed self-storage?

    The pre-application describes a conversion of “a portion of the building” into self-storage. The exact square footage will be specified in the formal land use application.

    When could construction actually start?

    The pre-application is the very early stage of the city process. A formal land use application would follow, then SEPA review, then permits, then construction. A realistic earliest construction start is late 2026 to 2027 if the program moves forward without significant changes.

    What’s the impact on existing Hub @ Everett tenants?

    The half-open corridors and existing partial-tenancy continue to operate. The pre-application is for the larger building program shape, not an immediate displacement.

    Related Exploring Everett coverage for business owners

  • For South Everett Residents: What Brixton Capital’s Hub @ Everett Pivot to Self-Storage and Office Actually Means For Your Neighborhood

    For South Everett Residents: What Brixton Capital’s Hub @ Everett Pivot to Self-Storage and Office Actually Means For Your Neighborhood

    If you live in Twin Creeks, Westmont, Holly, or anywhere within walking distance of the old Everett Mall — now branded The Hub @ Everett — Brixton Capital’s May 19, 2026 pre-application meeting with the City of Everett is the most consequential signal you’ve gotten about what your neighborhood is actually going to become. Topgolf was the headline anchor. The pre-application now on file shows self-storage and a 60,000-square-foot office in the footprint where Topgolf was going to be built. Here’s what that means specifically if you live nearby.

    What the original Hub @ Everett vision was going to mean for your block

    The entertainment-led version of the Hub @ Everett — Topgolf, Chicken N Pickle, plus retail and restaurant follow-on — would have brought significant evening and weekend foot traffic to a corner of South Everett that has been quiet for years. The neighborhood-level effects would have included more restaurant demand, more nighttime activity, and more on-the-block jobs in the entertainment and food service categories. It would also have brought significant evening and weekend traffic patterns to Everett Mall Way and the I-5 interchange.

    What the new pre-application program would mean instead

    Self-storage and office produce a fundamentally different neighborhood pattern. Self-storage is low-traffic, weekday-tilted, and brings essentially no evening foot traffic. Office at 60,000 square feet — depending on tenant mix — produces weekday daytime traffic during commute hours and almost nothing on evenings and weekends. The aggregate footprint that would have been Topgolf becomes a much quieter use.

    For residents who were looking forward to a walkable evening destination, the pivot is a step backward. For residents who were dreading the traffic and noise that an entertainment anchor would have brought, the pivot is a step in a different direction. Both reactions are reasonable.

    What hasn’t changed for the neighborhood

    • Mall Station is still functional. The rebuilt and relocated transit stop opened on schedule and operates regardless of what happens with the Hub redevelopment program. Your Community Transit access is unaffected.
    • The Twin Creeks neighborhood identity is still intact. The neighborhood that took its name from the buried creeks beneath the mall renamed itself in 2026. That identity sits independently of the property’s eventual program.
    • The half-open mall corridors continue to operate. The partial-tenancy version of the Hub @ Everett that has been functioning during 2026 continues. The pre-application doesn’t immediately change what’s open today.
    • The Westmont-Holly Neighborhood Association still meets first Mondays at Horizon Elementary. The Hub program shift is the kind of issue worth bringing to neighborhood meetings — but the meetings themselves and the city’s neighborhood structure are unchanged.

    What you can actually do with this

    The pre-application is a planning conversation, not an approval. Several practical things are still on the table for residents:

    • Watch for the formal land use application. Pre-applications often lead to formal applications within months when the project is moving forward. The formal application is the public-comment moment.
    • Bring it to your neighborhood association meeting. The Westmont-Holly Neighborhood Association meets first Monday at Horizon Elementary. Twin Creeks and surrounding neighborhood groups have similar standing meeting cadences. Programmatic concerns about a major property like this are exactly what neighborhood meetings are for.
    • Talk to your council member. The Hub @ Everett property’s program decisions are private but the city’s permitting process is public. Council members hear from constituents about properties like this and can sometimes shape the conversation through staff direction or public statement.
    • Use the half-open period to actually visit. The Hub @ Everett’s existing partial-open corridors and tenants are still operating. The more those tenants succeed, the better the case for a more activated final program.

    The bigger question this raises

    South Everett has been waiting for the Hub @ Everett to define what kind of neighborhood the property would create. Self-storage and office is one answer — quieter, less foot-traffic-intensive, more daytime-only. The Topgolf-anchored vision was a different answer. Neither is finalized; the pre-application is the first signal of which direction the property owner is currently leaning.

    For residents, the practical work between now and the formal application is to decide what you actually want from this corner of your neighborhood — and to make that view known to the people who shape the city’s response.

    Frequently asked questions for South Everett residents

    Is Topgolf cancelled?

    Not officially. Neither Brixton Capital nor Topgolf has issued a public cancellation. The May 19, 2026 pre-application Brixton filed shows a 60,000-square-foot office where Topgolf was going to be — that’s a strong signal but not a formal end of the venue plan.

    What is replacing Topgolf at the Hub @ Everett?

    The pre-application shows a self-storage conversion of part of the existing enclosed mall structure plus a 60,000-square-foot proposed office sitting where the Topgolf venue was going to be built.

    Will this affect Mall Station?

    No. Mall Station opened on schedule and operates independently of the Hub redevelopment program.

    Will the Twin Creeks neighborhood identity change?

    No. The neighborhood that renamed itself after the buried creeks beneath the mall site has its own identity independent of what the property eventually becomes.

    How can residents have input?

    Watch for the formal land use application that typically follows a pre-application meeting. The formal application is the public-comment moment. The Westmont-Holly Neighborhood Association meets first Monday at Horizon Elementary; surrounding neighborhood groups have similar cadences.

    Are the existing tenants at the Hub @ Everett staying?

    The half-open corridors and tenants that have been operating in 2026 continue to operate. The pre-application is for changes to the larger building program, not an immediate displacement of current tenants.

    Related Exploring Everett coverage for South Everett residents

  • The Hub @ Everett Just Got a Course Correction: A Complete 2026 Guide to Brixton Capital’s Self-Storage and Office Pivot Where Topgolf Was Going

    The Hub @ Everett Just Got a Course Correction: A Complete 2026 Guide to Brixton Capital’s Self-Storage and Office Pivot Where Topgolf Was Going

    Quick answer: Brixton Capital — the property owner of the former Everett Mall, now branded as The Hub @ Everett — filed a May 19, 2026 pre-application meeting request with the City of Everett for a project that consists of “the interior demolition of the existing enclosed mall structure and the conversion of a portion of the building into a self-storage facility,” with a 60,000-square-foot proposed office shown in the same site plan sitting where the long-promised Topgolf venue was going to be built. The pre-application is not a permit and not a final design, but it is the clearest signal yet that the original Hub @ Everett vision has shifted materially.

    The headline change, in plain language

    The original redevelopment vision for the old Everett Mall, marketed as The Hub @ Everett, called for an entertainment-led mix anchored by Topgolf and Chicken N Pickle, with the existing enclosed mall corridors being repurposed around those big-format draws. The Brixton pre-application now on file with the City of Everett describes a different mix: a self-storage conversion of part of the existing enclosed structure and a 60,000-square-foot office building sitting in the footprint that was being held for Topgolf.

    The change does not officially cancel Topgolf. Brixton has not issued a public statement walking the program back. The pre-application is a planning conversation with the city, not a final entitlement. But site plans submitted to a pre-application meeting do represent the property owner’s working intent at the time of filing, and the working intent has shifted away from the venue that was treated as the anchor for years.

    How we got here

    The Topgolf-at-Everett-Mall story has run on a long timeline. The mayor publicly confirmed Topgolf and Chicken N Pickle were coming to the redevelopment in 2024. Permit applications for the golf facility followed later that year. Topgolf solidified plans in late 2024. The Hub @ Everett rebranded the property and began phased opening of partial tenant spaces during 2025. Twin Creeks — the surrounding neighborhood that took its name from the buried creeks beneath the site — became part of the city’s broader narrative about reactivating South Everett.

    Two corporate developments quietly changed the calculus. Topgolf’s CEO Artie Starrs left for Harley-Davidson in 2025. On January 1, 2026, private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners closed on a 60% stake in Topgolf, acquired from Topgolf Callaway Brands for approximately $1.1 billion. New ownership and a CEO transition tend to trigger a portfolio review of pipeline locations. The Everett pre-application now on file is consistent with a portfolio decision that the Everett site is no longer in Topgolf’s near-term build pipeline — though neither company has confirmed that publicly.

    What the pre-application actually says

    From the city permitting portal, the Brixton Capital May 19, 2026 pre-application meeting is scheduled for a project described as the interior demolition of the existing enclosed mall structure and the conversion of a portion of the building into a self-storage facility. A 60,000-square-foot proposed office sits in the site plan where the Topgolf venue was being permitted. The pre-application format is a planning conversation between the developer and city staff to identify code, environmental, and infrastructure issues before a formal entitlement application is submitted. It does not approve anything; it scopes the conversation.

    What this means for the Hub @ Everett vision

    The Hub @ Everett was always two narratives stacked on top of each other. One was the entertainment-led reactivation — Topgolf, Chicken N Pickle, plus retail and restaurant follow-on. The other was the practical math of the mall building itself: a very large enclosed structure with declining traditional retail demand, sitting on a parcel with strong vehicle access from I-5 and the Everett Mall Way corridor. Self-storage is one of the most reliable uses for an oversized enclosed building when the entertainment math doesn’t work. Office at 60,000 square feet is meaningfully smaller than a Topgolf facility and works in a different revenue model entirely.

    The half-open Hub @ Everett that has been operating in 2026 — partial tenants, public corridors, the mall structure still standing — has been waiting on the entertainment anchor to define the rest of the program. The pre-application is the first signal that the program may now be defined by a different mix entirely.

    What hasn’t changed

    • Mall Station, the rebuilt and relocated transit station at the property, opened on the original schedule and continues to function regardless of the Hub redevelopment program.
    • The Twin Creeks neighborhood — the surrounding mall-adjacent area that renamed itself in 2026 — is unaffected by the program shift.
    • The half-open portions of The Hub @ Everett that have been operating during 2026 remain operating.
    • The pre-application is not a Topgolf cancellation. Either party could still revive the venue plan in a different form or location.

    What to watch next

    • The May 19 pre-application meeting outcome. Pre-application notes from the city often surface in public records and indicate which design and code issues are most material before a formal application is filed.
    • A formal entitlement application. Pre-applications typically lead to a formal land use application within months when the project is moving forward — or sit dormant when the developer is testing options.
    • Any Topgolf or Brixton public statement. Either party walking through their respective sides of this story would clarify what is now off the table and what is still possible.
    • The half-open mall corridors. Whether tenants continue to come into the existing partially-open Hub @ Everett, or whether the structure shifts toward a self-storage and office program, will be visible to anyone driving past the property over the next year.

    Frequently asked questions

    Is Topgolf no longer coming to Everett?

    Neither Brixton Capital nor Topgolf has issued a public cancellation. The May 19, 2026 pre-application Brixton filed with the City of Everett shows a 60,000-square-foot proposed office sitting where Topgolf was going to be built, alongside a self-storage conversion of part of the existing mall structure. That is a strong signal of a program change but not a formal cancellation.

    What is The Hub @ Everett?

    The Hub @ Everett is the rebranded redevelopment of the old Everett Mall by property owner Brixton Capital. Originally marketed as an entertainment-led mixed-use project anchored by Topgolf and Chicken N Pickle, with phased reuse of the existing enclosed mall structure.

    Who is Brixton Capital?

    Brixton Capital is the property owner and developer driving the Hub @ Everett redevelopment. The company is a private real estate investment firm.

    When is the Brixton pre-application meeting with the city?

    May 19, 2026.

    What is a pre-application meeting?

    A pre-application meeting is a planning conversation between a property owner and city staff to identify code, environmental, and infrastructure issues before a formal entitlement application is submitted. It does not approve anything — it scopes the conversation.

    Will Mall Station be affected?

    No. Mall Station, the rebuilt and relocated transit station at the property, opened on the original schedule and continues to function independently of the Hub redevelopment program.

    What does this mean for South Everett?

    The Hub @ Everett was a meaningful part of the South Everett reactivation narrative. A program shift from entertainment-led to self-storage-and-office is a different kind of reactivation — one that delivers some economic activity without the foot traffic that an entertainment anchor would have generated.

    Related Exploring Everett coverage

  • For Snohomish County Business Owners and Aerospace Suppliers: How the New Paine Field-Portland Nonstop Changes the Math on Pacific Northwest Travel

    For Snohomish County Business Owners and Aerospace Suppliers: How the New Paine Field-Portland Nonstop Changes the Math on Pacific Northwest Travel

    If you run or work for a business based in Snohomish County — and your travel patterns include Portland, the broader Alaska network out of PDX, or any of the Texas/Tennessee/Florida cities Alaska routes through Portland — Alaska Airlines’ June 10, 2026 launch of daily nonstop service between Paine Field (PAE) and Portland International (PDX) is a meaningful structural change to how you book travel. This is the business-traveler view.

    The same-day Portland trip is back

    Without a PAE-PDX nonstop, the Snohomish County professional flying to Portland for a same-day meeting has had three options: drive (4-6 hours each way), connect through SeaTac (90-minute drive plus a Seattle-Portland flight plus rideshare on the other end), or fly out the night before. None of those preserves a full day of meetings.

    The June 10 nonstop reshapes the day. A morning departure out of PAE, ground transportation to a downtown Portland or close-in Beaverton meeting, working day, and evening return into Everett — all without burning a hotel night and without giving SeaTac three hours of your morning.

    Why this is specifically big for the Paine Field aerospace cluster

    Snohomish County’s aerospace economy is anchored by Boeing’s Everett widebody factory (737 North Line, 767/KC-46, 777/777X) and supported by suppliers and MRO operations clustered around Paine Field — Aviation Technical Services and dozens of others. Many of those companies have customers, partners, and corporate functions in Portland and the broader Alaska Airlines connection bank. PDX is also a meaningful aerospace city in its own right (Boeing has a Portland-area machining presence, and the Pacific Northwest aerospace supplier base extends well into Oregon).

    For supplier executives whose normal travel mix includes Portland-area machining shops, OEM suppliers in the Willamette Valley, or onward connections through PDX to Texas and the Gulf Coast aerospace corridor, the new nonstop is the first time Paine Field is the right airport for that travel pattern.

    The connection bank — what PDX actually opens up

    Portland is one of Alaska’s hub-style operations. The PDX bank includes one-stop service from PAE to cities including Houston, Nashville, Orlando, Dallas, Bozeman, Spokane, and Austin — destinations that previously required either a SeaTac drive or two stops out of Paine Field. For Snohomish County companies with Texas energy clients, Tennessee distribution, Florida customer presence, or any Mountain West footprint, the connection routing through PDX after June 10 will often beat the SEA-via-drive routing on total door-to-door time.

    What this means for the wider PAE schedule

    With Portland added, Paine Field hits 13 daily commercial departures across nine nonstop destinations — the busiest schedule the terminal has run since opening in March 2019. For business travelers, the practical effect is a more reliable backup schedule. A missed morning flight no longer means waiting until tomorrow; the next options out are within hours, not days.

    For Snohomish County businesses thinking about whether to standardize on PAE for routine travel rather than treating it as an opportunistic alternative, the June schedule is the first time the math works for a full corporate travel policy.

    The ground operation that makes this work

    Paine Field’s commercial terminal is operated by Propeller Airports. The terminal experience — small footprint, walk-to-gate, no remote parking shuttle, no inter-terminal transit — is structurally faster than SeaTac for any traveler who lives or works north of Lynnwood. For business travelers building a corporate booking pattern around PAE, the time savings compound across every trip.

    Snohomish County itself owns the airport; Propeller operates the commercial terminal under a long-term arrangement.

    What to do with this between now and June 10

    • Audit your current Portland and PDX-connection travel. Identify the trips that have been routing through SeaTac and price them through PAE-PDX after June 10.
    • Talk to your travel manager about an updated PAE-preferred policy. The 13-departure schedule changes which trips are routinely bookable from PAE versus which still need SeaTac.
    • For supplier-customer travel involving Portland-area aerospace operations, consider standing up a recurring booking pattern. The relaunched route is daily, which makes it usable for weekly cadences.
    • Watch for additional route announcements. The Portland addition is the first new destination announcement since Avelo joined PAE. Each addition tightens the case for the next one.

    Frequently asked questions for business travelers

    When does the Paine Field-Portland business route launch?

    June 10, 2026, with daily Alaska Airlines service. Tickets are available now at alaskaair.com.

    Is Portland a hub airport for Alaska?

    It is one of Alaska’s hub-style operations with a meaningful connection bank. The PDX bank opens efficient one-stop service from PAE to Houston, Nashville, Orlando, Dallas, Bozeman, Spokane, Austin, and other cities.

    How does PAE compare to SeaTac for Snohomish County business travelers?

    For travelers based in Everett or north Snohomish County, PAE saves roughly 60-90 minutes door-to-door versus SeaTac on every trip. The walk-to-gate terminal experience eliminates remote parking shuttles, monorail transfers, and most TSA wait time.

    How many daily departures will Paine Field have?

    13 daily commercial departures across nine nonstop destinations after the June 10 Portland launch. That is the busiest schedule the terminal has run since opening in March 2019.

    Should we update our corporate travel policy to prefer PAE?

    For Snohomish County-based teams whose travel mix includes Portland or Alaska’s PDX connection bank, the June 10 schedule is the first time PAE supports a full corporate booking pattern rather than an opportunistic alternative. Worth a policy review.

    Related Exploring Everett coverage

  • For Visitors Flying Into Paine Field From Portland: A 2026 Everett Weekend Guide for the New June 10 Nonstop

    For Visitors Flying Into Paine Field From Portland: A 2026 Everett Weekend Guide for the New June 10 Nonstop

    If you live in the Portland metro and have been wondering whether Everett, Washington is worth a weekend, June 10, 2026 changes the answer. That’s the day Alaska Airlines resumes daily nonstop service between Portland International (PDX) and Paine Field (PAE) — landing you 25 minutes north of downtown Everett at a small, walk-to-the-gate terminal that bypasses SeaTac entirely. This guide is the Everett itinerary the new route makes practical for the first time.

    Why Paine Field is the right airport for an Everett trip

    Most Pacific Northwest visitors arrive into SeaTac and immediately face a decision: drive 90 minutes north against I-5 traffic, or skip everything north of Seattle entirely. Paine Field changes that calculation. It is a small commercial terminal in Snohomish County that opened in March 2019, operated by Propeller Airports. There is no remote parking shuttle. There is no terminal-to-terminal monorail. You walk from the gate to the curb in roughly the time it takes to clear a single TSA line.

    From the curb, a rideshare to downtown Everett is roughly 25 minutes. To the waterfront — about 30. To the AquaSox stadium at Funko Field — under 30.

    The weekend itinerary the new nonstop makes possible

    Friday evening — Land, drop, and walk to dinner. Land at Paine Field by early evening on Alaska’s daily PDX-PAE nonstop. Drop bags at a downtown Everett hotel, then walk to Hewitt Avenue. The dining stretch on Hewitt has rebuilt itself in 2026 — R Harn Thai opened earlier this year and is the right call for a first-night meal. Order the khao soi.

    Saturday morning — Waterfront and Jetty Island. Drive 10 minutes to the Port of Everett’s Waterfront Place — the redeveloped working waterfront with restaurant row, marina access, and the seasonal Jetty Island ferry. Jetty Island is a free 20-minute walk-on ferry to a two-mile sand spit in Possession Sound. Bring a windbreaker even in June.

    Saturday afternoon — Funko HQ and downtown. Funko’s Everett headquarters sits in a converted historic downtown building and is open to visitors. The retail experience is unlike any other corporate flagship in the Pacific Northwest. Combine with a walk through the surrounding gallery district — the Everett Art Walk runs the third Thursday of each month if your trip aligns.

    Saturday evening — AquaSox or Silvertips, in season. The Everett AquaSox play at Funko Field downtown (Mariners High-A affiliate, summer schedule) and the Everett Silvertips play at Angel of the Winds Arena (WHL major junior hockey, fall through spring playoffs). Either is a low-cost, high-energy minor-league experience you cannot reproduce in Portland.

    Sunday — Boeing Future of Flight or a North Cascades day trip. The Boeing Future of Flight aviation museum sits adjacent to Paine Field — convenient to a Sunday departure. For a longer day, Everett is the gateway to Mukilteo, Whidbey Island via the Mukilteo-Clinton ferry, and the western foothills of the North Cascades. None of these are easy out of SeaTac.

    Why this works as a weekend the previous schedule didn’t allow

    Without a PAE-PDX nonstop, the Portland visitor’s only option for an Everett weekend has been to fly into SeaTac and drive 90+ minutes north. The drive eats Friday evening and most of Sunday morning. With the new daily Alaska nonstop, you can land in Everett by 6 PM on Friday and depart by mid-day on Sunday and not lose either bookend to airport time.

    The June 10 launch lands during AquaSox season, before the worst summer Mukilteo ferry queues, and during the most active stretch of the Port of Everett’s outdoor programming.

    Practical details for Portland-area visitors

    • Airport: Seattle Paine Field International Airport (PAE), Everett, WA. Operated by Propeller Airports.
    • Tickets: alaskaair.com
    • Service start: June 10, 2026, daily.
    • Rideshare to downtown Everett: ~25 minutes.
    • Hotels: Downtown Everett options cluster around the Hewitt Avenue corridor and the waterfront.

    Frequently asked questions for visitors

    Is Paine Field a real commercial airport?

    Yes. Seattle Paine Field International Airport (PAE) opened its commercial terminal in March 2019. It is operated by Propeller Airports and serves Alaska Airlines and Avelo Airlines. After the June 10, 2026 Portland launch it will run 13 daily commercial departures across nine nonstop destinations.

    How far is Paine Field from downtown Everett?

    Roughly 25 minutes by rideshare. The terminal sits on the southwest edge of Everett near Mukilteo.

    What is there to actually do in Everett for a weekend?

    Waterfront Place at the Port of Everett, Jetty Island (seasonal ferry), Funko HQ in downtown, AquaSox baseball at Funko Field (summer) or Silvertips hockey at Angel of the Winds Arena (fall through spring), the Everett Art Walk on third Thursdays, and Boeing Future of Flight adjacent to Paine Field for a Sunday departure-day stop.

    Do I need a rental car?

    For a Friday-to-Sunday Everett-only itinerary, rideshare is enough. If you want to add Mukilteo, Whidbey Island via ferry, or any North Cascades day trip, rent a car at the airport.

    What’s the closest hotel to Paine Field?

    The airport area itself has limited lodging. Most visitors stay downtown Everett or near the waterfront — both are roughly 25-30 minutes from the terminal.

    Related Exploring Everett coverage for visitors