New Overlook Walk Draws Crowds

Foot traffic along Seattle’s Central waterfront is spiking since the new Overlook Walk opened earlier this month.

From Oct. 4 to 11 — the first week Overlook Walk was open — nearly 50,000 people visited, a 142% increase over 2019 levels. The Walk connects Pike Place Market and downtown Seattle to Puget Sound and the new 20-acre Waterfront Park. It is a key piece of Seattle’s multi-billion dollar waterfront makeover.

The Downtown Seattle Association said overall downtown foot traffic hit 2.7 million unique visitors in September, a 7% year-over-year increase. That’s 98% of visitor traffic in 2019, prior to the pandemic. September also marked the seventh straight month with more than 88,000 average daily workers downtown, the longest stretch since February 2020.

Two million local visitors came into the Pike-Pine corridor (First to Ninth avenues, and Stewart to Union streets) from June through September, the highest level since before the pandemic and 70% of 2019 traffic during the same time period.

Downtown hotel and apartment occupancies also rose.