Tag: Everett WA

  • USS Gridley Argentina PASSEX: Southern Seas 2026 Update

    USS Gridley Argentina PASSEX: Southern Seas 2026 Update

    What is USS Gridley doing this week? USS Gridley (DDG-101), the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer homeported at Naval Station Everett, is operating off Argentina’s coast with the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) carrier strike group. From April 26 through 30, 2026, U.S. and Argentine naval forces are conducting a multi-day passing exercise (PASSEX) in international waters off Trelew. Argentina’s destroyer ARA La Argentina (D-11) joins the formation Tuesday, April 28, with additional Argentine ships and patrol vessels embarking April 29 and beyond. After the PASSEX, the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group will round Cape Horn — the only route home for a carrier too large for the Panama Canal.

    For families on Naval Station Everett, the Southern Seas 2026 deployment has been a slow-motion map exercise — Ecuador in early April, Chile last week, and now the longest, loneliest stretch of the cruise: the South Atlantic and the run around Cape Horn. This week, USS Gridley (DDG-101), the destroyer homeported in Everett that is escorting the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) on the carrier’s final overseas deployment, takes up station off Argentina for a multi-day exercise with the Argentine Navy. It’s the third major partner-nation engagement of the cruise and the last big one before the strike group leaves the Pacific Ocean for good.

    This is the part of the deployment Everett spouses circled on the calendar months ago — not because anything dramatic is supposed to happen, but because Cape Horn is real weather, real distance, and the point at which Gridley sailors stop being a Pacific ship and start the long run toward Norfolk on the Atlantic side. After this leg, mail slows down. After this leg, time zones flip. The PASSEX off Trelew is the bookend.

    What’s Actually Happening Off Argentina

    According to U.S. Southern Command and U.S. 4th Fleet announcements covering Southern Seas 2026, the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group — Nimitz, Gridley, Carrier Air Wing 17, and elements of Destroyer Squadron 9 — is scheduled to operate with the Argentine Navy off the coast of Trelew between April 26 and April 30, 2026. The exercise is a PASSEX, the standard term for a passing exercise: two or more navies meeting at sea to drill formation steaming, communications, air operations, and basic interoperability without the formality of a full named exercise.

    The Argentine Navy is bringing a substantial package. The destroyer ARA La Argentina (D-11) is scheduled to join the U.S. formation Tuesday, April 28. Two SH-3 Sea King helicopters from Argentina’s Second Naval Helicopter Squadron are planned to embark on USS Gridley for the duration. Two P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft from Argentina’s Naval Exploration Squadron are scheduled to fly reconnaissance in the operating area. Argentine F-18 fighters are tasked to simulate attacking aircraft in an air-defense drill against the formation.

    Beginning April 29, additional Argentine units are scheduled to join: the destroyer ARA Sarandí (D-13), the corvettes ARA Robinson (P-45) and ARA Rosales (P-42), and the ocean patrol vessels ARA Piedrabuena (P-52) and ARA Contraalmirante Cordero (P-54). Argentine Naval reporting indicates roughly 350 Argentine sailors will participate across the surface units. After the PASSEX wraps, the Nimitz strike group will continue south toward Cape Horn for the transit to the Atlantic.

    None of this is unusual. PASSEX-class events are how partner navies stay legible to each other — the kind of low-stakes, high-repetition work that sounds boring on paper and matters when something is not boring. What makes this one notable for Everett is that it is the fullest partner-nation engagement of Gridley’s deployment so far, and the last big one in daylight before the long, weather-driven Cape Horn leg.

    Why This Matters for Everett — and Why It’s Worth Watching Quietly

    Naval Station Everett is the homeport for five destroyers, plus a Coast Guard component and a maritime force protection unit. Gridley is one of those five. When a single Everett-homeported ship is at sea on the world’s longest single-cruise route home, the effect ripples outward — through Mukilteo School District classrooms with deployed parents, through the spouse-employment workflow at the Fleet & Family Support Center, through every PTA and youth sports league counting on a parent who isn’t there to coach.

    The Southern Seas mission itself is in its 11th iteration since 2007, run by Naval Forces Southern Command and U.S. 4th Fleet. The whole purpose is exactly what is happening this week off Trelew: passing exercises with partner navies, port visits, and the kind of low-temperature presence that makes a regional security architecture work. For Nimitz, this is the last time. The carrier is on its publicly confirmed final overseas deployment before its 2027 decommissioning — a Navy decision the Navy has already extended once to keep the ship in service through this cruise. For Gridley, it is one chapter in a normal Arleigh Burke-class career.

    It is also the exact kind of operation that families at NAVSTA Everett were briefed on before the ship left: scheduled, public, and on the formal U.S. 4th Fleet itinerary, but quiet by design. There will not be a real-time location ticker, and there shouldn’t be — both because operational security matters and because the news, when it comes, will come through Navy public affairs releases on DVIDS, USNI News, and Stars and Stripes, all of which are credentialed to cover this kind of work.

    The Cape Horn Question

    USS Nimitz cannot use the Panama Canal. The carrier’s beam exceeds the canal’s lock dimensions, even after the 2016 expansion of the Panama Canal Authority’s New Panamax locks. That leaves Cape Horn as the only seaway home, which is why the Southern Seas 2026 itinerary is actually the only itinerary the Navy could plan: down the Pacific coast, around the bottom of South America, up the Atlantic to Norfolk.

    Cape Horn is famous for a reason. The Drake Passage that separates Tierra del Fuego from Antarctica is one of the worst stretches of water in the world for surface ships — not because it’s shallow but because of the convergence of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Southern oceans without a continental shelf to break the swell. Modern carriers and destroyers transit it routinely; it is not exotic. But it is meaningful enough that the strike group’s media-relations rhythm is built around it. The Navy’s pre-cruise announcement explicitly mentioned the Cape Horn route. The Argentine PASSEX is the last formal partner exercise on the Pacific side.

    For Everett, the practical effect is communication latency. After the strike group transits Cape Horn, time zones jump several hours, and shipboard communications priorities shift to the Atlantic context. Family Readiness Group updates that came through with Pacific timing earlier in the cruise will arrive on a different rhythm. None of this is new to anyone who has done a deployment before — it is just a real thing that is about to happen.

    What Whitelist Sources Have Said

    The U.S. 4th Fleet press release announcing Southern Seas 2026 (March 23, 2026, southcom.mil) named Nimitz and Gridley as the two U.S. units, named the cooperating partner nations, and described the deployment as a circumnavigation of South America. Stars and Stripes covered the announcement and the carrier’s operational extension into 2027. USNI News has been running its standard Fleet and Marine Tracker through the deployment, including the April 20 update placing the strike group in the South Pacific. DVIDS has been the primary photo and short-news outlet for individual port-visit and exercise events as they happen.

    Argentina-specific coverage of the PASSEX has so far come primarily from Argentine outlets and from regional naval reporters; the U.S. side will release its own DVIDS imagery and short news posts after the exercise begins. That sequencing — partner-nation announcements first, U.S. PA imagery on a delay — is normal for SOUTHCOM PASSEX events.

    Where Everett Families Find Updates Without Speculating

    The pattern that has worked all cruise is the right pattern for this leg too. The Navy’s Public Affairs releases through DVIDS and the strike group itself are the source of record. USNI News and Stars and Stripes pick up those releases quickly. The official U.S. 4th Fleet account on social media posts imagery and short summaries of completed events — past tense, never future tense. Friends and family of Gridley sailors should default to those sources rather than tracking sites or open-source ship trackers, both because shipboard communications discipline asks for that and because the official channels will be the first to show pictures of sailors looking tired and happy after each event.

    For administrative or family questions during the leg — childcare windows during the time-zone swing, deployment counseling, financial questions tied to the cruise itself — the Fleet & Family Support Center at NAVSTA Everett (425-304-3735) remains the front door. That center has the deployment-resource portfolio worked out for exactly this kind of mid-cruise stretch. Mukilteo School District and Everett Public Schools both run their own military-family liaison structures, and Month of the Military Child programming has wrapped for April but the school-level support continues year-round.

    What Comes Next on the Cruise Map

    After the Argentine PASSEX, the next publicly described milestones are the Cape Horn transit itself and the run up the Atlantic. U.S. 4th Fleet has named Brazil and additional partner nations as part of the deployment plan; specific port visits and exercise dates on the Atlantic side will be released through the same channels — DVIDS, southcom.mil, U.S. Embassy press offices in the host countries — that handled the Ecuador and Chile legs.

    For Gridley specifically, the deployment is one event on a normal Arleigh Burke career, not a final cruise. The ship returns to Everett on the schedule released to families before departure. Once back at Pier 3, the rhythm resumes: maintenance windows, port-and-starboard duty, the slow buildup to whatever comes next. None of that is the news this week. This week, the news is that USS Gridley took up station off Argentina, the ARA La Argentina is steaming alongside, and Cape Horn is on the horizon.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Where is USS Gridley right now?

    USS Gridley (DDG-101) is operating with the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) carrier strike group in the Southern Seas 2026 deployment area off Argentina. Per U.S. Southern Command and U.S. 4th Fleet, the strike group is conducting a multi-day passing exercise with the Argentine Navy off Trelew between April 26 and April 30, 2026. Specific locations beyond what SOUTHCOM and DVIDS publicly release are not appropriate to track.

    What is a PASSEX?

    A PASSEX (passing exercise) is a low-formality exercise where two or more navies meet at sea to practice formation steaming, communications, basic air operations, and partner interoperability. PASSEX-class events are the most common form of partner-navy engagement and are a core building block of SOUTHCOM and 4th Fleet’s regional security mission.

    Why is the Nimitz strike group rounding Cape Horn instead of using the Panama Canal?

    USS Nimitz exceeds the Panama Canal’s lock dimensions and cannot transit the canal. Cape Horn is the only sea route from the Pacific to the Atlantic for a Nimitz-class carrier, which is why the entire Southern Seas 2026 itinerary is built as a South American circumnavigation.

    Is this Nimitz’s final deployment?

    Yes — Southern Seas 2026 is USS Nimitz’s publicly confirmed final overseas deployment before the carrier is decommissioned. The Navy has extended the ship’s service life to keep it active through this cruise, with the carrier scheduled to begin deactivation procedures after arriving at Naval Station Norfolk.

    How will families at NAVSTA Everett get updates during the Cape Horn leg?

    Through the same channels used all cruise: official Navy Public Affairs releases on DVIDS, U.S. 4th Fleet’s official accounts, USNI News, and Stars and Stripes. The Family Readiness Group through the Fleet & Family Support Center at 425-304-3735 remains the front door for administrative and family questions during the deployment.

    Is the timing of the PASSEX a security risk?

    No. PASSEX windows and partner-nation participation are publicly released by SOUTHCOM and U.S. 4th Fleet because the entire purpose of the exercise is partner-nation visibility. Specific tactical positions during the exercise are not released, and tracking sites or unofficial position trackers are not the right reference.

    What other Everett ships are deployed right now?

    Naval Station Everett’s destroyer squadron homeports five Arleigh Burke-class ships. Beyond Gridley’s participation in Southern Seas 2026, the deployment status of other Everett ships is published by the Navy through DVIDS and Public Affairs. This article does not speculate on operational schedules beyond what the Navy has publicly released.

    When does Gridley come home?

    The Navy has not publicly released a specific return date. The strike group is scheduled to complete the South American circumnavigation and return to U.S. ports on a schedule released to crew families before deployment. Updates will come through the official channels named above.

  • Vintage Cafe Everett: 50 Years of Best Diner Breakfast

    Vintage Cafe Everett: 50 Years of Best Diner Breakfast

    Updated September 30, 2026.

    Vintage Cafe is a family-run diner at 1510 Hewitt Avenue, Everett, WA 98201, open Wednesday through Sunday (7:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m., closed Monday and Tuesday). Founded in 1976 by Karen Staniford, it is still known for all-day breakfast—especially corn-flake-crusted Vintage French Toast—and is managed today by her granddaughter Amber Lang in the same 1893 brick Hove Building downtown.

    Half a century. That’s not a marketing line—that’s the math.

    Vintage Cafe opened on Hewitt in 1976. In 2026 that is 50 years in the same building, same family. Most independent restaurants fail inside the first year; survivors average about five years, per industry brokerage studies cited in HeraldNet’s coverage. Running one room on the same block for five decades is rare anywhere. Running it through downtown Everett’s empty years and its comeback is the story locals actually care about.

    The food still earns the trip. We refreshed this profile because factual local pages like this one used to pick up AI citations and then drift when hours or ownership details go stale—exactly what our AI citation quick scan catches for operator sites. If you measure visibility, AI citation rate is the metric; for a diner, the fix is simpler: verify the address, phone, and hours every quarter.

    The address, hours, and building

    Vintage Cafe — 1510 Hewitt Ave, Everett, WA 98201

    Hours (verified September 2026): Wednesday–Sunday, 7:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m. Closed Monday and Tuesday.

    Phone: (425) 252-8224

    Style: All-day breakfast, lunch, comfort food. Family-friendly. Cozy counter-service dining room.

    The cafe sits in the Hove Building, designed by Charles Hove and built in 1893—the same year Everett incorporated. Karen Staniford leased the former Cave Tavern space in 1976; the family later bought the building. Brick walls, stained glass, and wood trim are not set dressing. They are why the room feels like downtown Everett before the malls hollowed it out.

    The story you should know before you order

    In 1976, Karen Staniford—a single mother—opened The Alley here with a $16,000 bank loan that felt, in her words, like the national debt. Quoting the HeraldNet obituary, this was when “women were supposed to tend bar, not own them.” She fought for her liquor license and her loan. She was reportedly one of the first women in Everett issued a liquor license.

    The name changed—The Alley, then Aaron’s, then Vintage Cafe in 2002 when the family pivoted to family dining. Karen Staniford died August 31, 2022, at 79. The restaurant did not sell. Her daughter Lorrie Bunney ran it for years; in 2019 she handed keys to her daughter Amber Lang, who had worked there since she was a teenager. Three generations. Same address. Fifty years.

    That is not sentimental copy. It is why the Hewitt corridor has a baseline audience at all. Legacy rooms like this are part of why we track long-running Snohomish operators in our Mason County business update series—different county, same question: who is still standing, and can AI engines still quote them accurately?

    What to order

    Breakfast is still the reason to come. Lunch and dinner are real—country-fried steak, pot roast, sandwiches—but the griddle work is the spine of the menu. Yelp’s September 2026 listing still highlights Vintage French Toast, the scramble, and chicken-fried steak among the most photographed plates. Prices are in the moderate diner range ($$ on Yelp); exact plate prices shift—check the board or call ahead rather than trusting a stale number from last year.

    Vintage French Toast

    House signature: French bread in egg, crusted in crushed corn flakes, then griddled. The flakes give crunch without turning the plate into dessert. Order it once even if you usually get savory breakfast.

    Vintage Scramble

    Scrambled eggs with a changing mix of whatever the kitchen is proud of that day—functionally a daily special wearing a permanent menu slot.

    Country-fried steak with gravy

    Two eggs, country fries (their hash-brown style), toast, and jelly at breakfast. Heavy, homemade gravy. Do not plan a road trip immediately after.

    Coffee

    Joe Coffee lists Vintage Cafe as an Everett serving location with hours matching the cafe’s posted schedule. HeraldNet’s 2019 profile noted decades on Bargreen’s; the counter program has evolved—what matters in 2026 is that the cup is still cared for, not poured from a forgotten urn.

    When to come

    Closed Monday and Tuesday—plan around that first.

    – Saturday near 9:00 a.m. — regulars fill in, kitchen finds rhythm, room is lively without feeling overrun.

    – Sunday before the Everett Farmers Market — 2026 season runs May 10 through October 25, 10:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m. at 2930 Wetmore; eat on Hewitt, walk west for produce.

    – Friday evening — open until 8:00 p.m.; dinner menu, more open tables than peak breakfast.

    Hewitt’s anchor tenant

    Vintage has been on this block since 1976—through the exodus to the mall, through Angel of the Winds Arena opening in 2003, through the post-2020 wave of new rooms on Hewitt (Heritage African at 2019, Luca Italian at 1712, The New Mexicans at 1416, Obsidian Beer Hall at 1420, Sabaijai Thai at 1707, and others). None of that works without a place that taught Everett to eat downtown again.

    If you run a service business anywhere in this market—not a diner, a restoration shop or an agency—you still compete in the same AI answers that surface “best breakfast Everett” and “water damage Everett.” Structured local proof and clean entity data matter in both cases; that is the work behind our AI search visibility package and SiteBoost insurance SEO playbooks. Vintage earns citations the old-fashioned way: decades of consistent facts. Most contractors have to engineer that trust on purpose.

    The verdict

    In September 2026, Vintage Cafe is 50 years old, still family-owned, still on Hewitt, still serving the breakfast plates that define the block. There is no serious Everett food map that skips it.

    If you live here and have never sat in that dining room, fix that. Order the French toast. Watch three generations of regulars in one room. That is the whole point.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Q: Where is Vintage Cafe in Everett?

    A: Vintage Cafe is at 1510 Hewitt Avenue, Everett, WA 98201, in downtown Everett between 15th and 16th Street.

    Q: What are Vintage Cafe’s hours?

    A: As of September 2026, Vintage Cafe is open Wednesday through Sunday, 7:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Call (425) 252-8224 before you drive if you are cutting it close on a holiday weekend.

    Q: Who runs Vintage Cafe now?

    A: Karen Staniford founded the restaurant in 1976; the business has never changed hands. Her granddaughter Amber Lang, who started working there as a teenager, took over day-to-day operations from her mother Lorrie Bunney around 2019, according to HeraldNet.

    Q: What should I order at Vintage Cafe?

    A: Start with the Vintage French Toast (French bread, egg, crushed corn flakes), the Vintage Scramble, or country-fried steak with gravy. Lunch covers sandwiches and salads; dinner plates include comfort-food staples regulars still order after the breakfast rush.

    Q: Is Vintage Cafe still open in 2026?

    A: Yes. The cafe marked 50 years of continuous family operation in 2026 and remains at 1510 Hewitt Avenue with the Wednesday–Sunday schedule above. Joe Coffee’s location directory still lists the address with matching hours.

  • Obsidian Beer Hall: Curated PNW Beer in Downtown Everett

    Obsidian Beer Hall: Curated PNW Beer in Downtown Everett

    What is Obsidian Beer Hall in downtown Everett? Obsidian Beer Hall is a 21+ rotating-tap beer hall at 1420 Hewitt Avenue in downtown Everett, opened in 2024 by owner Craig Chambers in the former Toggles Bottle Shop space. It pours rotating Pacific Northwest craft beers alongside cider, hard kombucha, hard seltzer, wine, and non-alcoholic options. Published hours (confirm on obsidianbeerhall.com before you go): Wednesday–Thursday 4pm–9pm and Friday–Saturday 4pm–10pm; closed Sunday–Tuesday.

    We’ve been writing about Everett breweries for weeks now — Lazy Boy, Sound to Summit’s Marina taproom, the U-Neek/Crucible rebrand, Scuttlebutt’s Paws & Pints promo — and somehow we hadn’t gotten around to writing about the room at 1420 Hewitt that quietly became one of the most interesting beer spaces in the city. That ends tonight.

    Obsidian Beer Hall isn’t a brewery. It’s a beer hall — and that distinction is the whole point. Owner Craig Chambers opened Obsidian in 2024 in the former Toggles Bottle Shop space at 1420 Hewitt Avenue, two doors down from The New Mexicans at 1416 Hewitt and a half-block from a stretch of downtown that has, in the last three years, gone from “sleeping” to “the most rewarding 2-block stroll in Snohomish County.”

    The pitch isn’t we make our own beer here. The pitch is we taste a lot of beer so you don’t have to, and what’s on tap tonight is the result of that work. It’s curation, not production. And in a beer scene as deep as the Pacific Northwest’s, that’s a real job.

    The Address, the Hours, the Vibe

    Obsidian Beer Hall — 1420 Hewitt Ave, Everett, WA 98201

    Hours: Wed–Thu 4pm–9pm, Fri–Sat 4pm–10pm. Closed Sun–Tue — confirm current hours before you go.

    21+ only. No food kitchen — bring it in or order from a neighbor.

    The room itself is the right shape. The Toggles space had good bones — long, narrow, brick — and Obsidian leaned into them. The walls rotate work from local minority artists, which is one of those small commitments that tells you who’s running the place before you even talk to anyone. There’s no TV mounted over the bar trying to compete for your attention. It’s a beer hall, in the original sense of the term: a room designed for people to sit, drink something good, and talk to each other.

    The Origin Story Worth Knowing

    This is the kind of opening backstory that Everett doesn’t get often enough.

    Craig Chambers grew up drinking Coors Light at the University of Washington. His own words. Macrobrew. He transferred to the University of Montana and discovered what beer could actually be at Big Sky Brewing — that specific revelation a lot of us had at some point in our 20s when somebody handed us a glass of something and said “no, taste it.” He carried the vibe of those Montana beer rooms back to the Pacific Northwest, watched the Toggles space come available in downtown Everett, and decided he could do that here.

    The reason this matters: the Pacific Northwest is the densest, most experienced craft-beer region in North America. Anyone opening a beer-focused room here is operating in a market that has seen everything. To survive, you have to know exactly what you’re doing and exactly what you’re for. Obsidian’s answer is curated PNW lineup, comfortable room, no kitchen, art on the walls, community-first events, 21+ adults only. That’s a clear identity, and clear identity is what wins in this market.

    What’s Actually on Tap

    The lineup rotates — that’s the model — but the consistent thesis is PNW first. Expect to see beers from Washington and Oregon producers you might have heard of and several you haven’t, with the rotating-tap rhythm leaning toward what’s interesting now rather than what’s reliably the most ordered. If you ask the bartender what’s worth your time on a given night, they’ll tell you. That’s the trade — you don’t get the comfort of a permanent house IPA you can rely on, but you get an actual recommendation from someone who has been tasting all week.

    Beyond beer, the menu hits the categories an Everett bar room ought to in 2026:

    – Cider (PNW-leaning, regional)

    – Hard kombucha for the friend who wanted to come along but doesn’t drink beer

    – Hard seltzer if that’s your move

    – Wine for the date who is over the IPA conversation

    – Non-alcoholic options — meaningful ones, not just one Athletic Brewing can in the back of a cooler

    The non-alcoholic list is one of the small trust signals. A beer hall in 2026 that takes NA seriously is a beer hall that wants you to come back, not just spend.

    The Music and Art Programming

    Obsidian books real events. The Everett Music Initiative has put live shows here — recent example being Tilson XOXO followed by a dance party — and the room moonlights as an art gallery for local minority artists in rotation. Add in the occasional themed community night (a recent “Pole Jam” community fitness event was, by all accounts, both unexpected and a hit) and you’ve got a programming calendar that does what most Everett bars don’t bother with: it gives you a reason to show up tonight.

    Follow @obsidian_beer_hall on Instagram for the actual schedule. The Facebook page also posts current event lineups.

    How It Fits the Hewitt Corridor

    Here’s the bigger story that’s emerging without anyone planning it.

    Two doors east at 1416 Hewitt is The New Mexicans — the only kitchen in Snohomish County serving real Hatch green chile. Two doors east of that, at 1414, is the closed Prohibition Grille space (per Yelp), and at 1510 Hewitt is the 1976-founded Vintage Cafe — one of the oldest continuously-operating restaurants in downtown Everett. At 1707 is Sabaijai Thai. Up at 2019 Hewitt is Heritage African Restaurant. At 1712 is Luca Italian.

    In the last 10 years, Hewitt Avenue between 14th and 21st quietly became the densest, most-international 6-block restaurant corridor in Snohomish County, and Obsidian Beer Hall is the only dedicated drinks-only room in the middle of it. That makes it the natural before-and-after stop. Eat New Mexican green chile two doors down at 1416, then walk over to Obsidian for a PNW pour. Pre-game a Sabaijai dinner here. Drop in after Heritage. The corridor works in part because Obsidian holds down a specific job — not a kitchen, not a brewery, not a wine bar, but the dedicated rotating beer room — that the other rooms can’t.

    What to Order If It’s Your First Time

    We won’t pin a specific beer to this article because the rotating-tap model means whatever we name will likely be off the lineup by the time you read this. But the pattern to follow:

    1. Walk in. Don’t pre-decide.

    2. Read the chalkboard.

    3. Ask the bartender which one they’d pour for themselves right now.

    4. Trust the answer.

    That’s how a curated beer hall is supposed to work, and Obsidian is built for that interaction.

    The Verdict

    Obsidian Beer Hall is the room downtown Everett needed and didn’t quite know it was missing. It’s not trying to be a brewery. It’s not trying to be a cocktail bar. It’s not trying to be a music venue, even though it hosts music. It’s trying to be a really good beer hall in the Pacific Northwest sense — curated lineup, comfortable room, real adults, real conversation — and on every visit so far it has nailed exactly that brief.

    If you live downtown and you haven’t been: check obsidianbeerhall.com for today’s hours, then go. The Hewitt corridor pre-game starts here.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Q: Where is Obsidian Beer Hall located?

    A: 1420 Hewitt Avenue, Everett, WA 98201, in downtown Everett between 14th and 15th. Two doors west of The New Mexicans.

    Q: What are Obsidian Beer Hall’s hours?

    A: Published schedule is Wednesday and Thursday 4:00pm–9:00pm; Friday and Saturday 4:00pm–10:00pm; closed Sunday–Tuesday. Confirm on obsidianbeerhall.com before you go — hours rotate.

    Q: Is Obsidian Beer Hall a brewery?

    A: No. Obsidian is a beer hall — it pours rotating beer from Pacific Northwest breweries rather than brewing its own. Think of it as a curated PNW craft-beer room.

    Q: Is Obsidian Beer Hall 21+?

    A: Yes. Obsidian is 21-and-over only.

    Q: Who owns Obsidian Beer Hall?

    A: Craig Chambers, a Washington native who discovered craft beer at Big Sky Brewing in Montana. He opened Obsidian in 2024 in the former Toggles Bottle Shop space.

    Q: Does Obsidian Beer Hall serve food?

    A: Obsidian does not have an in-house kitchen. The neighborhood — including The New Mexicans, Sabaijai Thai, and other Hewitt-corridor restaurants — is the food pairing.

    Q: What kinds of drinks does Obsidian serve besides beer?

    A: Cider, hard kombucha, hard seltzer, wine, and a meaningful non-alcoholic selection.

    Q: Are there events at Obsidian Beer Hall?

    A: Yes. Obsidian hosts live music in partnership with the Everett Music Initiative, rotating local minority art on its walls, and occasional community events. Check Instagram @obsidian_beer_hall for the current calendar.

  • Local Produce Everett: 3 Ways to Shop Before Market Opens

    Local Produce Everett: 3 Ways to Shop Before Market Opens

    Where can I buy local-farm produce in Everett before the farmers market opens? The Everett Farmers Market opens Sunday, May 10, 2026 (Mother’s Day) at 2930 Wetmore Avenue. Until then, locals can buy directly from Snohomish County farms through three working channels: Goat & Seed at Twin Willows (8627 Lowell Larimer Rd, Everett), the SnoValley Tilth + Lowlands Farm CSA with Thursday Everett pickups, and Garden Treasures Nursery in Arlington for early-season starts and root vegetables. CSA signups for the 2026 season are open now.

    Two weeks. That’s how long Everett has to wait for the Everett Farmers Market to open its 33rd season on Sunday, May 10, 2026 — Mother’s Day, 10:30am to 3:00pm at 2930 Wetmore Avenue. Every year a portion of this town pretends it doesn’t have a problem, and every year, by mid-April, the same locals start asking the same question: where do I buy actual Snohomish County produce in the meantime?

    The grocery store answer doesn’t count. Asparagus from Mexico in April is not the same conversation. We’re talking about the people who’ve already mentally committed to buying their tomatoes from a person whose hands grew them, and now they have to white-knuckle through 14 more days.

    Good news: there are working answers, and we’ve used all three.

    The Short Version

    Three options that operate now, in the gap before the market opens:

    1. Goat & Seed at Twin Willows — 8627 Lowell Larimer Rd, Everett — offers a 2026 CSA box with Snohomish/Everett pickup

    2. SnoValley Tilth + Lowlands Farm CSA — Thursday Everett pickups; signups open at snovalleytilth.org

    3. Garden Treasures Nursery & Local Farm — Arlington, 25 minutes north — open for retail produce, herbs, and starts you can plant today

    Each one solves a slightly different version of the problem. Pick the one that matches how you actually cook.

    Option 1: Goat & Seed at Twin Willows (8627 Lowell Larimer Rd, Everett)

    The most Everett-side of the three options. Goat & Seed operates a 2026 CSA box program with the Twin Willows Everett address as a pickup point — meaning you don’t have to drive to Snohomish or Skagit. That alone makes it the default for anyone who wants the CSA experience without the round trip.

    What you get is a recurring share of seasonal vegetables (and other farm products in the bigger boxes), priced by the year so the sticker shock front-loads but the per-box cost ends up cheaper than buying the same thing piecemeal at the Sunday market all summer.

    The honest pitch for Goat & Seed: if you cook 4+ nights a week and are tired of building grocery lists from a fridge that already has half-cooked compromises in it, the CSA box reverses the question. You stop asking what should I make tonight and start asking what’s in the box and what does it want to become. That’s a better way to cook.

    What to know: Annual CSA shares are sold ahead of the season, so the longer you wait the smaller your selection of share sizes. The Twin Willows pickup window is set when you sign up.

    Option 2: SnoValley Tilth + Lowlands Farm CSA (Thursday Everett Pickups)

    If Goat & Seed is the produce-as-subscription play, the SnoValley Tilth and Lowlands Farm CSA is the produce-as-direct-relationship-with-a-farmer play. Lowlands Farm is a small farm in Snohomish, owned and operated by people whose names you can learn. Once you sign up through SnoValley Tilth, Lowlands Farm contacts you to arrange your specific Everett pickup details.

    The Everett pickup runs Thursdays at the Snohomish County Office Parking Garage — a downtown drop point that you can walk or short-drive to from most of Everett. That’s the move if you work downtown or live in the historic core; you can build the pickup into your Thursday on the way home and skip the dedicated trip.

    Why the SnoValley Tilth route matters: These are the producers who fill the same Sunday tables you’re going to be browsing in two weeks anyway. Subscribing to one of them in April is essentially front-loading a relationship you were going to develop in May. By July you’ll know what they’re growing well and what they’re struggling with — and that’s where the food gets interesting.

    Option 3: Garden Treasures Nursery & Local Farm (Arlington)

    Twenty-five minutes north of downtown Everett, Garden Treasures is the daylight option — open hours, walk in, buy what’s there. No subscription, no pickup window, no commitment. Their farm store carries their own organic produce alongside starts, herbs, and seedlings that are exactly what you should be putting in your own garden right now if you’re going to put anything in.

    This is the option for people who want the result of CSA-style eating without the commitment of a CSA share. If you’re the kind of cook who likes to walk through a farm store, see what’s actually pulling its weight that week, and decide on the spot — Garden Treasures is for you.

    The drive matters less than you think. From downtown Everett up I-5 to the Arlington exit is about 22 miles. You can fold it into a Saturday morning that ends at the Sound to Summit Marina Taproom or Fisherman Jack’s on the way home and the day suddenly looks like a thing you’d brag about.

    What About May 10? What’s the Plan?

    Mark the calendar. The full Everett Farmers Market season opens Sunday, May 10, 2026 — Mother’s Day — at 2930 Wetmore Avenue, 10:30am to 3:00pm. The market runs every Sunday through October. 2026 is the market’s 33rd consecutive year of operation in downtown Everett — a longer track record than most things in this town, including the highway interchange.

    The vendor mix at the market will give you what the CSAs can’t: same-day variety, the prepared-foods row, flowers, honey, and the social experience of buying from a person on a Sunday morning while everyone else in your neighborhood is doing the same thing two stalls down.

    The right strategy isn’t choosing between the CSA route and the market — it’s stacking them. A CSA share guarantees the boring weeknight vegetables. The Sunday market is for the impulse buys, the bouquet, and the breakfast burrito.

    The Verdict

    If we had to pick one for someone who’s never done a CSA: Goat & Seed at Twin Willows. The Everett address removes the biggest friction point (the drive), the box format teaches you to cook seasonally without you having to think about it, and you’ll have the full summer to figure out whether you want to renew next year.

    If you live or work downtown: SnoValley Tilth + Lowlands Farm. The downtown Thursday pickup is the cleanest fit for an urban-core Everett life.

    If you don’t want to commit: Garden Treasures, Arlington. Walk in, buy produce, leave. Easy.

    Whatever you do, don’t tell us you ate California asparagus in April. We will know.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Q: When does the Everett Farmers Market open in 2026?

    A: Sunday, May 10, 2026 (Mother’s Day), from 10:30am to 3:00pm at 2930 Wetmore Avenue in downtown Everett. The market runs every Sunday through October.

    Q: Where can I buy Snohomish County farm produce in Everett before May 10?

    A: Three options operate during the pre-market window: Goat & Seed at Twin Willows (8627 Lowell Larimer Rd, Everett) for CSA shares, SnoValley Tilth + Lowlands Farm CSA for Thursday Everett pickups, and Garden Treasures Nursery in Arlington for walk-in farm-store shopping.

    Q: What is a CSA?

    A: Community Supported Agriculture. You buy a seasonal share of a farm’s harvest in advance and receive a recurring box of whatever is in season. The farmer gets predictable income; you get vegetables grown by a person whose name you know.

    Q: Where do Lowlands Farm CSA pickups happen in Everett?

    A: Thursday pickups at the Snohomish County Office Parking Garage in downtown Everett. Specific pickup details are arranged after you sign up through SnoValley Tilth.

    Q: Is the Goat & Seed CSA pickup actually in Everett?

    A: Yes — Goat & Seed at Twin Willows is at 8627 Lowell Larimer Road, Everett, WA 98208. That’s the listed pickup point for the 2026 CSA boxes.

    Q: Do I have to commit to a full season for a CSA?

    A: For both Goat & Seed and SnoValley Tilth/Lowlands, the standard share is annual or seasonal. If you want to try farm produce without committing, Garden Treasures Nursery in Arlington is the no-commitment walk-in option.

    Q: What grows locally this time of year?

    A: Late April / early May in Snohomish County is asparagus, rhubarb, arugula, spinach, salad greens, radishes, and overwintered storage crops like potatoes and beets. Tomatoes, corn, and peppers are still 8-12 weeks out.

  • Snohomish County Office Vacancy Drops to 10.7% in Q1 2026

    Snohomish County Office Vacancy Drops to 10.7% in Q1 2026

    Quick Answer: Snohomish County’s office market just posted its third straight quarter of positive net absorption, ending Q1 2026 at 10.7% vacancy with asking rents at $31.20 per square foot — a small but real signal that the office side of the Everett story is firming up while the housing side cools. The numbers come from Kidder Mathews’ Q1 2026 Seattle Office Market Report, and they matter because the Port of Everett’s Waterfront Place build-out is planning 447,500 square feet of office on top of an apartment market that just turned soft. Office is the harder leasing story right now. The Q1 numbers say it is starting to turn.

    Most of the housing-market coverage in Everett right now is about the same story told three different ways: the rental market is down 2% year over year, the new-construction market closed exactly one home above list this month, and the condo market is actually outperforming single-family. Those are three pieces of one residential picture.

    The office market is a separate picture. And Kidder Mathews — the commercial brokerage that publishes the most-cited Seattle Office Market Report — just released its Q1 2026 numbers for Snohomish County. The headline is unflashy and important: vacancy ended the quarter at 10.7%, asking rents nudged up to $31.20 PSF, and the county posted its third straight quarter of positive net absorption. None of those numbers will trend on social media. All of them will show up in the leasing decisions that determine whether the next phase of Waterfront Place is a building full of offices or a building waiting for tenants.

    The Q1 2026 Numbers, Plain

    From Kidder Mathews’ Q1 2026 Seattle Office Market Report, here is the Snohomish County row:

    • Overall vacancy: 10.7% at the end of Q1 2026, down slightly from the prior quarter and a touch below the 10.8% rate at the close of Q1 2025.
    • Net absorption: Positive 37,931 square feet — the third straight positive quarter. Net absorption is leasing brokers’ favorite single number because it captures whether more space got filled than emptied during the period.
    • Total leasing activity: Slowed to 59,395 square feet during Q1 2026, including renewals.
    • Asking rent: $31.20 per square foot, a 0.8% improvement on the prior quarter’s $30.96 PSF.

    That is a market that is not setting records and is not falling apart. It is grinding up. For office, that is a normal story. For Snohomish County office in 2026, after a few years of soft national office demand, it is a meaningful story.

    Why 10.7% Is the Right Number to Watch

    Vacancy alone is a noisy number. A market can have 10% vacancy because nobody wants the space, or because half the inventory is old and the other half is brand new and leasing fast. What changes the read is the trend.

    Snohomish County office vacancy ended Q1 2025 at 10.8%, ended Q4 2025 a hair higher, and ended Q1 2026 at 10.7%. That is a four-quarter window in which vacancy has effectively moved sideways with a slight downward bias. Pair that with three straight quarters of positive net absorption and a 0.8% bump in asking rents, and you have the soft outline of a market floor. Not a recovery. Not a boom. A floor.

    That distinction matters for anyone watching Waterfront Place and the Millwright District. A floor is what you need to start signing leases on new product. A floor is what makes pre-leasing offices in a downtown waterfront development work as a financial pro forma.

    What This Means for Waterfront Place’s 447,500 SF of Office

    The Port of Everett’s master plan for Waterfront Place includes 447,500 square feet of office at full build-out, alongside the 660 housing units, the two hotels, and the 63,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. The first major office product on the waterfront is the Millwright District Phase 2 office — covered earlier this month when we wrote about what 120,000 square feet of waterfront office space means for Everett.

    The Q1 numbers are the leasing context for that 120,000 square feet. If county-wide office had ended Q1 at 13% with three straight quarters of negative absorption, the Millwright pre-leasing pitch would be a hard one. Tenants would have leverage, asking rents would be soft, and the calendar from groundbreaking to stabilized occupancy would be longer than the financing model assumed.

    At 10.7% with a positive absorption trend and rents nudging up, the pitch is different. Waterfront-view office at $31-plus-PSF is a defensible play in a market where vacancy is not bleeding out. It does not guarantee anything. It just removes one of the legitimate reasons to be skeptical.

    What This Means for Downtown Office

    The other pressure point in Snohomish County office is the existing downtown Everett inventory — older Class B and Class C buildings along Colby, Hewitt, and Wetmore that have been competing with the move to remote and hybrid work for half a decade. Those buildings do not benefit from the same waterfront-view pitch.

    What they do benefit from is the absorption trend. If the county is filling 38,000 square feet net per quarter, some of that is going into existing downtown space. A market with positive net absorption broadly is a market in which downtown landlords have a chance to lease, even if the asking rents are well below the $31.20 county average and the deals require concessions that would have been unthinkable in 2019. The signal here is permission to underwrite, not a green light to raise rents.

    The Broader Puget Sound Comparison

    Snohomish County’s 10.7% vacancy compares to the broader Seattle/Puget Sound regional office vacancy, which ended Q3 2025 at 22.7% per the same Kidder Mathews series. That gap — 12 percentage points between the county and the regional average — is the structural advantage Snohomish County has been quietly building. Office demand drains out of the urban core when work-from-home becomes permanent. It does not drain out of the suburban Class A market in the same way, especially in a corridor with Boeing’s commercial aerospace anchor, the Naval Station Everett anchor, and a residential population that does not commute south to Seattle.

    The Waterfront Place office product is being designed to sit inside that gap. Class A finishes, water views, walking-distance restaurants, dedicated parking, and a corridor that has not been hollowed out by the urban-flight pattern that hit downtown Seattle. The Q1 2026 absorption number is a small piece of evidence that the gap is real and that the leasing thesis has a floor under it.

    What to Watch in Q2

    The next Kidder Mathews report will land in mid-July, capturing Q2 2026 absorption. Three things to watch:

    1. Whether net absorption stays positive. A fourth straight positive quarter would convert the floor read into a recovery read.
    2. Whether asking rents push past $31.50 PSF. That is the threshold above which Class A new product can be priced confidently.
    3. Whether leasing activity recovers from the 59,395 SF Q1 figure. Q1 leasing was slow. Q2 is the test of whether decision-makers are sitting on the sidelines or actually backing out of the market.

    What This Doesn’t Say

    It does not say office is back. It does not say the rest of 2026 is a guaranteed recovery. It does not address the suburban-to-suburban moves that are powering most of the absorption (companies giving up old space for newer space — net-positive county-wide, net-zero or worse for individual landlords). It does not isolate Everett from Bothell, Lynnwood, or Mill Creek inside the county number. And it does not predict whether tariffs, interest rates, or the broader macroeconomic story will rewrite the leasing calendar.

    What it does say, in the most boring possible language: the floor is holding, the absorption is positive, and the rents are nudging up. That is the leasing context the next phase of Waterfront Place is going to be pitched into. The Port has been building toward this moment for a decade. The Q1 numbers say the moment is plausible.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is the Snohomish County office vacancy rate in Q1 2026?

    10.7% per Kidder Mathews’ Q1 2026 Seattle Office Market Report, a slight decrease from 10.8% in Q1 2025 and a small improvement from the prior quarter.

    What were Snohomish County’s Q1 2026 office asking rents?

    $31.20 per square foot, up 0.8% from the prior quarter’s $30.96 PSF.

    What is net absorption?

    Net absorption is the change in occupied office space during a period — total square feet leased and moved into, minus total square feet vacated. Positive net absorption means more space got filled than emptied. Snohomish County posted 37,931 SF of positive net absorption in Q1 2026, its third straight positive quarter.

    How much office space is planned at Waterfront Place?

    The Port of Everett’s master plan calls for 447,500 square feet of office at full build-out. Millwright District Phase 2 includes 120,000 square feet of waterfront office in pre-leasing.

    How does Snohomish County compare to the broader Seattle office market?

    Snohomish County’s 10.7% vacancy is significantly tighter than the broader Seattle/Puget Sound regional vacancy, which Kidder Mathews reported at 22.7% in Q3 2025. Suburban Class A markets in Snohomish County have held up better than the urban Seattle core through the work-from-home shift.

    When is the next Kidder Mathews report?

    Q2 2026 data typically lands in mid-July.

    Is this a good time to lease office space in Everett?

    Tenants still hold meaningful leverage at 10.7% vacancy, especially in older Class B and Class C downtown product. Asking rents are firming but concessions remain available. The trend favors landlords gradually but has not flipped to a clear landlord market.

  • Port of Everett Bulkhead: $6.75M Wharf Rebuild Ends 2026

    Port of Everett Bulkhead: $6.75M Wharf Rebuild Ends 2026

    Quick Answer: The Port of Everett’s $6.75 million final-phase bulkhead and wharf rebuild — the project running along West Marine View Drive at Port Gardner Landing — is on track to wrap by May 2026 after starting in early September 2025. Bergerson Construction is replacing roughly 165 lineal feet of aging wooden bulkhead with steel piles to stabilize State Route 529 above it, and the wharf overhead is getting fresh decking, ADA-compliant trail connection, and new landscaping. It is the last piece of a 20-year bulkhead replacement effort that has quietly been holding the marina in place for two decades.

    If you’ve driven southbound on West Marine View Drive any time since last September and wondered why one lane has been closed near Port Gardner Landing and the Grand Avenue Park Bridge, the answer is the most quietly important construction project on the Everett waterfront. The Port of Everett’s final phase of marina bulkhead replacement and wharf rebuild — a $6.75 million contract awarded to Oregon-based Bergerson Construction — is on schedule to complete in May 2026. After 20 years of bulkhead work, segment by segment, this is the piece that finishes the system.

    It is not the splashiest project on the waterfront. It does not come with a ribbon cutting and a brewery opening. But it is the structural reason the road above it stays put, and the reason the marina behind it does not slowly slide into Port Gardner Bay. So we walked the project, read the contracts, and figured out what May actually means.

    What’s Actually Being Replaced

    The project is doing two things in one footprint:

    Segment E bulkhead. The Port is pulling out approximately 165 lineal feet of aging wooden bulkhead and driving steel piles in its place. That bulkhead is the engineered wall that separates the marina from the highway above it. It is the reason State Route 529 — better known locally as West Marine View Drive — has not subsided into the water. The original wooden structure is decades old. Steel piles will hold the same line with significantly more long-term stability and capacity to support the corridor above.

    Wharf reconstruction. Directly above the bulkhead, the section of overwater wharf is being torn out and replaced with new decking. New landscaping is going in alongside it, and the rebuilt wharf will tie into the Port’s waterfront trail system with an ADA-compliant connection — closing a long-standing accessibility gap on the trail. Pedestrian separation from the busy roadway is part of the design, which matters on a corridor that carries commuter, freight, and military traffic in and out of Naval Station Everett.

    Why SR 529 Is the Real Story

    The official name of the project — “Segment E Wharf and State Highway 529 Stability Improvements” — buries the lead. This is a stability project for a state highway as much as it is a marina project. SR 529 / West Marine View Drive is the spine of the Everett waterfront. It connects downtown to the Port, to NAVSTA Everett, and to the freight and military supply chain that runs through the seaport. The wooden bulkhead that has been holding it up was placed before most of the apartments at Waterfront Place were even drawings. It earned its retirement.

    The Washington State Department of Transportation is a stakeholder in the project for the same reason. Anything that happens to the bulkhead happens to the roadway. Replacing 165 LF of aging wood with engineered steel piles is the kind of unsexy infrastructure investment that quietly extends the design life of a critical regional corridor by decades.

    Why This Is the End of a 20-Year Project

    The Port has been replacing bulkhead segments along this stretch of waterfront in phases for two decades. Each segment has been a distinct contract, a distinct construction window, and a distinct round of permitting with state and federal regulators. Segment E is the final phase. When Bergerson hands the keys back to the Port in May, the bulkhead replacement program — the one that has been running quietly underneath every photo of the marina since the early 2000s — is structurally complete.

    That matters because the next 20 years of waterfront development at Waterfront Place — the 660 housing units at full build-out, the 447,500 square feet of office, the two hotels, the 63,000 square feet of retail and restaurants — all sit on top of, or directly behind, a marina that is now backed by modern bulkhead the entire length of Segment A through E.

    The Lane Closure Story

    The construction has required southbound lane closures on West Marine View Drive in the work zone, with traffic reduced to one lane in the affected section. Public access to the trail in that area has also been re-routed during the work window. If you have been driving north-south through the Port and noticing the cone line near Grand Avenue Park Bridge, that is the project. The lane closures end when the project ends — May 2026 is the target.

    How the Project Connects to the Port’s $70M 2026 Budget

    The Segment E work is being delivered out of the Port’s preservation and maintenance budget rather than its capital expansion budget. The Port Commission’s adopted $70 million 2026 budget — covered in our breakdown of what Everett’s waterfront is actually getting this year — sets aside $7.1 million for maintenance and preservation, including pier strengthening, marina bulkhead work, boat launch updates, and dredging. The Bergerson contract was awarded in May 2025, so Segment E is largely a 2025-funded project crossing into 2026, but the maintenance posture that allowed it sits squarely in the 2026 budget posture as well.

    That posture matters for residents and tenants. The Port is funding both the new buildings — $2.6 million in the 2026 budget for new public infrastructure and Waterfront Place retail and restaurant buildings — and the unglamorous work of keeping the existing marina structurally sound. Segment E is the second category.

    What Changes for Trail Users in May

    For everyday waterfront users, the most visible change in May will be the trail itself. The new ADA-compliant connection through the rebuilt wharf section closes a gap that has frustrated wheelchair users, stroller pushers, and anyone using the waterfront trail for the full distance. New landscaping, new decking, and a designed pedestrian separation from the roadway will turn what is currently a construction zone into a finished section of trail. The kind of walk that has been awkward for two decades — past wood pilings, narrow paths, and an unfinished feel — gets rebuilt to the standard the rest of the waterfront has been moving toward.

    What Comes Next

    With the bulkhead done, the next major Port construction milestone in the pipeline is the Jetty Landing renovation, which is anticipated to begin in 2027 per the Port’s 2026 budget plan. The Eclipse Mill Park Riverfront work — covered in our piece on why Everett’s riverfront signature park is now a spring 2028 opening — runs on its own timeline, with Phase 1 (City) running July to November 2026 and Phase 2 (Shelter Holdings) running fall 2026 through spring 2028. And the West Marine View Drive pipeline project — the $113 million combined sewer, stormwater, and water-main replacement we covered when council approved it April 2 — kicks off later this year just a few hundred feet north of where Bergerson is finishing up. The order of operations is intentional: stabilize the bulkhead, then dig the pipeline, then build the buildings.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is the Segment E bulkhead and wharf project?

    It is a $6.75 million Port of Everett construction project replacing approximately 165 lineal feet of aging wooden bulkhead with steel piles along West Marine View Drive at Port Gardner Landing, near the Grand Avenue Park Bridge. The overwater wharf above it is also being rebuilt with new decking, an ADA-compliant trail connection, and new landscaping. Bergerson Construction is the contractor.

    When does the project finish?

    Construction began in early September 2025 and is targeted for completion in May 2026.

    Why does this affect State Route 529?

    The bulkhead structurally supports the embankment that holds State Route 529 / West Marine View Drive in place. Replacing the aging wooden structure with steel piles stabilizes the highway corridor above the marina for the long term.

    Will the lane closures end when the project ends?

    Yes. The southbound single-lane configuration on West Marine View Drive in the work zone is in place for the duration of construction and ends when Bergerson completes the project in May 2026.

    Is this part of Waterfront Place?

    Geographically yes — the work site is along the same waterfront corridor — but the project is funded out of the Port’s preservation and maintenance budget, not the Waterfront Place capital build-out. It is the unglamorous structural work that keeps the marina in place while the new buildings go up around it.

    Does the rebuilt wharf improve the waterfront trail?

    Yes. The new wharf section will include an ADA-compliant connection to the Port’s waterfront trail system, closing a long-standing accessibility gap, plus new landscaping and pedestrian separation from the roadway.

    Is this the last bulkhead replacement project?

    Yes. Segment E is the final phase of a roughly 20-year, segment-by-segment bulkhead replacement program along this stretch of the marina. When Bergerson finishes in May, the program is structurally complete.

  • Everett NR-MHC Zone: A Guide for Mobile Home Park Residents

    Everett NR-MHC Zone: A Guide for Mobile Home Park Residents

    What does Everett’s proposed NR-MHC zone mean if I live in one of the seven mobile home parks? If you live at Creekside, Fairway Estates, Lago De Plata Villa, Loganberry, Mobile Country Club, Silver Shores Senior, or Westridge — the City of Everett is about to put your community on the zoning map in a way it has never been before. The new Neighborhood Residential – Manufactured Home Community (NR-MHC) zone restricts redevelopment of your park’s land into apartments, retail, or any other use without an explicit, public rezone. The Everett City Council holds the public hearing on the ordinance on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. at 3002 Wetmore Avenue. Show up if you can.

    This is the resident-side read of the NR-MHC zone complete guide. The core walks through the ordinance and the Comprehensive Plan policies it implements. This one walks through what it actually means for the residents of the seven parks.

    The basic protection, in plain language

    If you own your manufactured home but rent the lot, your housing security has historically depended on whether the park owner decided to sell to a redeveloper. The standard pattern in Puget Sound has been simple and unkind: a park sells, residents get notice to relocate, and the land becomes apartments or townhomes. Moving a manufactured home is often more expensive than the home is worth. Many older units cannot legally be relocated under current code at all. The home equity you carry — even if modest — disappears in the relocation.

    The NR-MHC zone does not stop a sale. It does change what a buyer can do with the land after the sale. A buyer who wants to redevelop the parcel into apartments, retail, or any other non-manufactured-home-community use has to go through an explicit rezone — a slow, public, politically visible process — rather than the quieter administrative paths that have historically made park redevelopment relatively frictionless.

    That changes the math for park owners weighing a sale to a redeveloper. It does not eliminate redevelopment risk; it raises the friction.

    The seven parks the ordinance would cover

    • Creekside Mobile Home Park — 5810 Fleming Street
    • Fairway Estates Mobile Home Park — 1427 100th Street
    • Lago De Plata Villa — 620 112th Street
    • Loganberry Mobile Home Park — 9931 18th Avenue W.
    • Mobile Country Club — 1415 84th Street
    • Silver Shores Senior Mobile Home Park — 11622 Silver Lake Road
    • Westridge Mobile Home Park — 7701 Hardeson Road

    Several of these are 55+ communities. Several have been in place for decades. None of them, until now, have had a zoning designation that says “this is a manufactured home community and that is the use we are protecting.”

    What does not change

    It is worth being clear about what the NR-MHC zone is and is not.

    It does not regulate lot rents. Rent increases between you and the park owner are governed by Washington state landlord-tenant law and any specific manufactured home community statutes — not by this zoning ordinance.

    It does not change park ownership. The park owner still owns the park. Sale to another owner who continues operating it as a manufactured home community is unaffected.

    It does not change park rules. Internal park rules, lot leases, age restrictions, and pet policies are governed by your lot lease and park rules, not by city zoning.

    It does not stop a sale or transfer. The protective zoning is on the use, not on the transaction.

    It is not permanent. A future City Council can amend or rescind the zone, just as the current council is creating it. The protection is real but it lives inside the political process.

    What the May 6 hearing is for

    The public hearing on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. in council chambers at 3002 Wetmore Avenue is the formal opportunity for residents, neighbors, advocates, and park owners to address the council before adoption.

    If you live in one of the seven parks, the most useful thing you can do is show up — or submit written comment in advance through the city’s standard public-comment channels. The council is implementing two specific Comprehensive Plan policies (HO-10 and HO-19) through this ordinance; testimony from the residents the policies are designed to protect carries real weight in that record.

    If you cannot attend in person, ask a neighbor to read your written comment, contact your council member directly, or work with a neighborhood organization or housing advocate to ensure your voice is in the record.

    What to ask, what to bring

    If you plan to testify, useful frames include:

    • How long you have lived in the park, and what the park means to your household
    • What the equity in your manufactured home represents to your finances
    • What the lot rent in your park is compared to nearby apartment rents — that is the affordability story in concrete numbers
    • Why a stable, protected community matters for older residents, fixed-income households, or 55+ neighbors
    • What questions you have about the long-term durability of the protection

    You do not need a polished speech. The lived experience is the testimony.

    How this fits with the broader anti-displacement work in Everett

    The NR-MHC zone is part of a broader effort across the city to slow displacement before larger market and infrastructure pressures arrive. Two parallel pieces:

    • Stations Unidos — the rebranded community development corporation focused on Casino Road and the Everett Station District ahead of Sound Transit Link. See our complete Stations Unidos guide.
    • The City of Everett’s broader Comprehensive Plan implementation across all 21 neighborhoods.

    Read together, the NR-MHC zone is the regulatory side of the strategy. Stations Unidos and the Housing Authority are the acquisition and development sides. Each addresses a different slice of the same problem.

    The honest read

    The NR-MHC zone is one of the strongest structural anti-displacement tools the city has put on the table for manufactured home communities. It is not a guarantee — no zoning is — but it materially raises the friction on redevelopment and gives residents a meaningful structural backstop. The May 6 public hearing is the moment to get it on the record. If you live in one of the seven parks, your voice is the one the council most needs to hear.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is the NR-MHC zone?

    NR-MHC stands for Neighborhood Residential – Manufactured Home Community. It is a new zoning category restricting the underlying land of seven specific Everett mobile home parks against redevelopment into other uses without an explicit rezone.

    When is the public hearing?

    Wednesday, May 6, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. in council chambers at 3002 Wetmore Avenue.

    Will my lot rent change because of this?

    No. The NR-MHC zone does not regulate lot rents. Rent between you and the park owner remains governed by your lot lease and Washington state landlord-tenant law.

    Can my park owner still sell the park?

    Yes. The zone does not prohibit sale or transfer. It restricts what a buyer can do with the land afterward — specifically, redeveloping it into a non-manufactured-home-community use requires an explicit rezone.

    Can a future council remove the zone?

    Yes. A future City Council can amend or rescind the zone through the same legislative process. The protection is durable but lives inside the political process.

    What if I cannot attend the May 6 hearing?

    Submit written comment through the city’s standard public-comment channels in advance of the hearing. You can also contact your council member directly. Working with a neighborhood organization, housing advocate, or trusted neighbor to make sure your voice is in the record is a strong fallback.

    How do I find out my parcel’s current zoning?

    The City of Everett Planning Department is the authoritative source. Their public counter and online zoning map will show your parcel’s current designation and the proposed NR-MHC change. Contact Planning at (425) 257-8810 or visit everettwa.gov for current zoning information.

    Does this affect the city’s broader budget or my taxes?

    The NR-MHC ordinance is a zoning code amendment with no direct tax or budget line item. The broader anti-displacement strategy interacts with the city’s housing programs and Comprehensive Plan implementation, which sit inside the larger 2027 budget conversation covered in our complete budget guide.


  • Everett NR-MHC Zone: Protecting 7 Mobile Home Parks

    Everett NR-MHC Zone: Protecting 7 Mobile Home Parks

    What is Everett’s NR-MHC zone and when is the public hearing? The Neighborhood Residential – Manufactured Home Community (NR-MHC) zone is a new land use category the City of Everett is creating to protect seven existing manufactured home parks from being redeveloped into other uses. The proposed ordinance amends Sections 15.02 and 19.03–19.13 of the Everett Municipal Code and repeals Title 17 (Mobile Home Parks). The Everett City Council holds a public hearing on the ordinance on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. in council chambers at 3002 Wetmore Avenue. The new zone is one of the most consequential anti-displacement tools the city has on the table this year.

    What this ordinance actually does

    The proposed code amendment, posted by Everett Planning – Public Notices on April 10, 2026, would do four things at once:

    1. Create the new NR-MHC zoning category in Title 19 EMC (Sections 15.02, 19.03, 19.04, 19.05, and 19.13).
    2. Apply the new NR-MHC zone to seven specific manufactured housing communities (addresses below).
    3. Repeal Title 17 of the Everett Municipal Code — the older “Mobile Home Parks” chapter — folding that regulation into the unified development code.
    4. Implement two specific policies from the city’s adopted Comprehensive Plan: HO-10 (Protect manufactured/mobile home communities from redevelopment into other uses) and HO-19 (Collaborate with local partners to preserve and maintain affordable housing units).

    Goal 4 of the Comprehensive Plan, which the city is invoking here, reads: “Ensure equitable access to opportunity and housing choice throughout the city’s neighborhoods so that all residents may choose their neighborhood.”

    The seven communities being put on the map

    Per the city’s public notice, the new NR-MHC designation would apply to:

    • Creekside Mobile Home Park — 5810 Fleming Street
    • Fairway Estates Mobile Home Park — 1427 100th Street
    • Lago De Plata Villa — 620 112th Street
    • Loganberry Mobile Home Park — 9931 18th Avenue W.
    • Mobile Country Club — 1415 84th Street
    • Silver Shores Senior Mobile Home Park — 11622 Silver Lake Road
    • Westridge Mobile Home Park — 7701 Hardeson Road

    That is roughly the manufactured-housing population of Everett’s south end, plus a chunk of the Silver Lake area. Several of these are 55+ communities. Several have been in place for decades. None of them, until now, have had a zoning designation that says “this is a manufactured home community and that is the use we are protecting.”

    Why this matters more than a typical code update

    Manufactured home parks are one of the only forms of unsubsidized affordable homeownership left in Snohomish County. The standard pattern in Puget Sound over the last 20 years has been straightforward and unkind: a park sells, residents get notice to relocate, and the land is redeveloped into apartments or townhomes. Households that owned their manufactured home but rented the lot lose the home equity they had — moving a manufactured home is often more expensive than the home is worth, and many older units cannot legally be relocated under current code at all.

    The NR-MHC zone does not make a sale impossible. It does make redeveloping the land into a different use a slow, public, and explicit process — one that requires the city to actively rezone the parcel out of the protective designation. That changes the math for park owners weighing a sale to a redeveloper, and it gives residents a structural backstop that lease-side protections alone cannot provide.

    The May 6 public hearing

    The Everett City Council will hold the public hearing on the ordinance on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. in the city council chambers at 3002 Wetmore Avenue, Everett.

    This is the formal opportunity for residents of the seven affected parks, neighbors, housing advocates, and park owners to address the council before adoption. Written comment is also accepted through the city’s standard public-comment channels in advance of and at the hearing.

    How this fits with the rest of Everett’s anti-displacement work

    The NR-MHC zone is one piece of a broader anti-displacement strategy taking shape across the city. Read it alongside:

    • Stations Unidos — the rebranded community development corporation explicitly built to slow displacement in Casino Road and the Everett Station District ahead of Sound Transit Link. See our complete Stations Unidos guide.
    • The City of Everett’s broader Comprehensive Plan housing implementation across all 21 neighborhoods.
    • The Everett Housing Authority’s portfolio work.
    • The broader 2027 budget conversation that determines what additional anti-displacement programs the city can fund — see our complete 2027 budget guide.

    The NR-MHC zone is the regulatory side of the strategy. Stations Unidos and the Housing Authority are the acquisition and development sides. Together they form an anti-displacement toolkit that addresses different parts of the same problem.

    Park-by-park: what is being protected

    Each of the seven communities has its own demographic and physical character. The common thread: residents who own the manufactured home but rent the underlying lot, often older households on fixed incomes, often in 55+ communities. The total resident count across the seven parks is in the low thousands. The lot rents in these communities are meaningfully below market apartment rents in the same parts of the city, and the home equity residents carry — even modest — is a significant piece of household wealth that disappears in a relocation.

    The city’s framing of the proposed zone as a furtherance of HO-10 and HO-19 in the Comprehensive Plan is the key institutional signal. This is not an emergency response to a specific pending sale; it is the implementation of an adopted housing policy through the zoning code.

    What to watch next

    • The May 6 City Council public hearing — testimony, council questions, any proposed amendments
    • Council vote schedule following the hearing
    • Park owner positions on the proposal
    • Resident advocacy and organizing in the seven affected communities
    • Any parallel or follow-on housing code amendments the council pursues alongside the NR-MHC adoption

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is the NR-MHC zone?

    NR-MHC stands for Neighborhood Residential – Manufactured Home Community. It is a new zoning category the City of Everett is proposing to apply to seven specific manufactured home parks, restricting redevelopment of those parcels into other uses without an explicit rezone.

    When is the public hearing?

    The Everett City Council holds the public hearing on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. in council chambers at 3002 Wetmore Avenue.

    Which parks are covered?

    The proposed NR-MHC designation would apply to Creekside Mobile Home Park (5810 Fleming Street), Fairway Estates Mobile Home Park (1427 100th Street), Lago De Plata Villa (620 112th Street), Loganberry Mobile Home Park (9931 18th Avenue W.), Mobile Country Club (1415 84th Street), Silver Shores Senior Mobile Home Park (11622 Silver Lake Road), and Westridge Mobile Home Park (7701 Hardeson Road).

    What does the ordinance change in the Municipal Code?

    The ordinance creates the NR-MHC category in Title 19 EMC by amending Sections 15.02, 19.03, 19.04, 19.05, and 19.13, applies the new zone to the seven specified parks, and repeals Title 17 EMC (the older Mobile Home Parks chapter).

    What Comprehensive Plan policies does this implement?

    HO-10 (Protect manufactured/mobile home communities from redevelopment into other uses) and HO-19 (Collaborate with local partners to preserve and maintain affordable housing units), under Goal 4 (Ensure equitable access to opportunity and housing choice throughout the city’s neighborhoods).

    Does the NR-MHC zone make a park sale impossible?

    No. The zone does not prohibit sale or transfer. It does require any redevelopment of the underlying land into a different use to go through an explicit rezone — a slow, public, and politically visible process — rather than the quieter administrative paths that historically have made park redevelopment relatively frictionless.

    Can I comment if I do not live in one of the parks?

    Yes. Public hearings are open to anyone who wants to address the council. Written comment can be submitted through the city’s standard public-comment channels in advance of and at the hearing.

    How does this connect to Stations Unidos?

    Both are anti-displacement tools, but they target different problems. The NR-MHC zone protects mobile home parks across multiple Everett neighborhoods through zoning. Stations Unidos is a community development corporation focused on Casino Road and the Everett Station District, working through real estate acquisition and development. Read together, they are pieces of a broader strategy.


  • Stations Unidos Casino Road: Anti-Displacement Guide 2026

    Stations Unidos Casino Road: Anti-Displacement Guide 2026

    What does Stations Unidos mean for me as a Casino Road resident? If you live in Casino Road or one of the apartment complexes along Evergreen Way, the Stations Unidos rebrand and expanded service area give you something the neighborhood has never had before: a community development corporation with explicit governance representation from South Everett, an explicit anti-displacement mission, and an explicit timeline tied to Sound Transit’s Link light rail planning. Two planned Link stations are coming. Stations Unidos exists to slow the displacement that historically follows.

    This is the resident-side read of the Stations Unidos complete guide. The core walks through the structure and history. This one walks through what it actually means for renters, homeowners, and small-business owners in Casino Road.

    The pattern Stations Unidos is built to interrupt

    If you have lived in Casino Road for any length of time, you already know the rhythm. A new apartment complex goes up, the rents on the older buildings climb to match, and the families who made the neighborhood what it is start quietly disappearing. It happens in the spaces between the news cycles, and by the time anyone outside the neighborhood notices, it is done.

    That is the pattern Stations Unidos was built to slow down. The rebrand from Everett Station District Alliance, the expanded service area into Casino Road, and the equal-board representation are the structural answer to the question: who is at the table when these decisions get made?

    What changed for Casino Road specifically

    Three concrete shifts as of early 2026:

    1. Equal board representation. The Stations Unidos board now has three South Everett seats — Julio Cortes, Alvaro Guillen (Chair), and Tony Hernandez — sitting at the same table as three Everett Station District seats. Future board seats are nominated by neighborhood advisory boards in each area.
    2. An organization with money to spend on real estate. The mission is to invest in real estate to preserve the affordability of existing housing and small businesses, plus build new affordable housing and commercial space. That is a different operating model than a placemaking nonprofit.
    3. An explicit anti-displacement mandate ahead of light rail. Sound Transit’s Chief Planning and Development Officer publicly endorsed the work as critical preparation for the Link extension. The institutional alignment is real.

    What this means if you rent

    If you rent in Casino Road, the displacement risk you are reading about in the news is not theoretical. The Link extension brings property speculation 5 to 10 years before the trains run. The most exposed renters in the corridor are:

    • Tenants in older apartment complexes that change ownership in the run-up to light rail
    • Tenants in buildings with expiring affordability covenants
    • Tenants in the small mixed-use buildings along Casino Road and Evergreen Way that are most attractive to redevelopment

    Stations Unidos’s strategy includes acquiring and stabilizing at-risk buildings before market pressure forces them out of reach. The practical implication: as renters, your most useful move is to know your rights, document your tenancy, and stay engaged with neighborhood organizations like Connect Casino Road that work alongside Stations Unidos.

    What this means if you own

    For homeowners, the Link extension is a property-value story with a complicated edge. Property values in transit-oriented neighborhoods historically rise meaningfully ahead of station openings. That is good news on paper. The complication is that the same forces that lift homeowner values displace renters and small businesses, and a neighborhood that loses its character loses some of what made the property valuable in the first place.

    Stations Unidos’s anti-displacement work is not at odds with homeowner interests. A stable neighborhood with preserved small-business commercial frontage and durable affordability is a better long-term place to own a home than a neighborhood that gets reshaped by speculative redevelopment in the run-up to light rail. Engaging with the work — through neighborhood advisory channels, through the City of Everett’s Comprehensive Plan implementation, through the broader anti-displacement effort — is in homeowner interest.

    What this means if you run a small business

    The corridor’s working-class, immigrant-rooted character is anchored by small businesses — the tortillerías, the family-run restaurants, the immigrant-owned services that anchor day-to-day life in Casino Road. Stations Unidos’s mission explicitly includes preserving the affordability of small business space, including new affordable commercial space in mixed-use buildings the organization develops or acquires.

    For business owners, the practical near-term move is to get on the radar — through neighborhood organizations, through direct outreach to Stations Unidos at stationsunidos.org, through the City of Everett’s small-business resources. Anti-displacement programs work best when the organizations doing the work know exactly which businesses are most at risk and which would benefit most from acquisition or partnership.

    The Sound Transit timeline context

    Sound Transit’s Everett Link extension is on a long planning horizon. Construction is years away. Service is further away still. The deeper read on the timeline is in our Everett Link complete guide from the April 15 run.

    The crucial point for residents: the displacement pressure does not wait for the trains. Property speculation, ownership change, and rent pressure tend to start showing up 5 to 10 years before a station opens. That is exactly the window Stations Unidos is operating in right now.

    How to plug in

    • Visit stationsunidos.org to follow the organization’s announcements and acquisition priorities
    • Engage with Connect Casino Road and the broader LISC Puget Sound network in South Everett
    • Attend neighborhood advisory board meetings as those structures form
    • Follow City of Everett Comprehensive Plan implementation in Casino Road
    • Watch for affordability covenants expiring on local apartment buildings — those are the highest-leverage acquisition targets

    The honest read

    No single organization can stop transit-driven displacement. The market forces around a Link station are too large for that. But Stations Unidos is the organization explicitly built to slow the pattern, with the governance structure, the funding access, and the institutional alignment to do meaningful work in the years before the trains arrive. That is something Casino Road has not had before. Whether the throughput matches the structural promise is the next 24 months’ question — and resident engagement is part of what determines the answer.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Where is Stations Unidos located?

    Stations Unidos’s institutional roots are in the Everett Station District at 3201 Smith Avenue. The expanded service area now covers both downtown’s Station District and Casino Road in South Everett. The organization operates across both neighborhoods.

    How is this different from Connect Casino Road?

    Connect Casino Road is a long-standing community network coordinating dozens of immigrant-owned businesses, social service providers, and resident organizations. Stations Unidos is a community development corporation with the capacity to acquire and develop real estate. The two work in coordination — Connect Casino Road provides the deep neighborhood knowledge; Stations Unidos brings the housing and commercial real estate strategy.

    Will rents stop rising in Casino Road?

    No single intervention stops the broader rent pressure that comes with transit-oriented investment. Stations Unidos’s strategy is to acquire and stabilize specific at-risk buildings as long-term affordable assets, preserving affordability for existing residents in those buildings. The wider rental market will continue moving with regional dynamics.

    What if I want to nominate someone for the board?

    Future board seats will be nominated by neighborhood advisory boards in both the Everett Station District and South Everett as those structures form. Engagement through the advisory boards, once announced, is the formal nomination path.

    How does the NR-MHC mobile home zone connect?

    The proposed NR-MHC manufactured housing zone is separate but parallel anti-displacement work — the city’s effort to preserve seven mobile home parks against redevelopment. Read the two together as parts of a broader anti-displacement strategy in Everett. Our NR-MHC zone coverage walks through the proposed ordinance and the May 6, 2026 public hearing.

    What’s the most useful thing a resident can do right now?

    Document your tenancy, know your rights, stay engaged with neighborhood organizations, and watch for the affordability covenant expirations and ownership changes on apartment buildings near you. Those are the leading indicators of where the next acquisition decisions will need to land.


  • Stations Unidos: Everett’s New Anti-Displacement CDC

    Stations Unidos: Everett’s New Anti-Displacement CDC

    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) (stationsunidos.org). 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.