Pier review: Everett’s Waterfront is in the midst of a transformational makeover

If you haven’t been to the Everett waterfront in a while, you’re in for a surprise.

What was once an industrial mill town with smokestacks is gradually turning into the Puget Sound region’s new go-to destination with upscale restaurants, wine bars, breweries, hip hotels, waterfront housing, and four miles of walking trails with mountain and water views.

It’s all part of Waterfront Place, a $550 million, 1.5-million-acre mixed-use public-private development, which, when done, will represent an investment of more than $1 billion by the Port of Everett and its partners. At 65 acres, it will be more than three times the size of Seattle’s Waterfront Park — a 20-acre makeover that will feature open public spaces linked by a pedestrian-oriented promenade — and rivals the redevelopment of Tacoma’s Point Ruston. 

Plans include 63,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 447,500 square feet for offices, two hotels, 20,000 square feet for retail along the marina, and more than 600 waterfront apartments, condos, and townhomes. For this industrial, working-class city of 111,812 people, it’s quite the transformation. Many are excited for Everett to join the short list of trendy West Coast destination waterfronts like those of Seattle, Vancouver, B.C., Tacoma, and even distant Los Angeles. 

“We’re creating a unique destination,” Port of Everett CEO Lisa Lefeber says. “This area was the industrial hub of Everett when the port was formed more than a century ago. It has now become a hub of the revitalization for all of Everett.”

The gentrification of a formerly hardscrabble area worries some residents concerned that chichi wine bars, breweries, and condominiums will be out of reach for the average Everett resident, but the reception in general has been overwhelmingly positive. “It’s magnificent and well thought-out,” says Carl King, who was recently walking the bluff overlooking the port. “We plan to take advantage of all of it.”

And there are risks, including an economic slowdown and higher interest rates, which make borrowing for this supersize project more challenging. But the rebuilt marina, walking paths, and restaurants under construction are a big improvement over what had been here years ago, when pulp plants pumped toxic waste into the ground, and then packed up and moved away when manufacturing became cheaper elsewhere. 

The port’s rich history dates back to the late 19th century. Using John D. Rockefeller’s money, James J. Hill lured the Great Northern Railway across the West to the Puget Sound region. Croatian and Norwegian fishermen followed, along with wood fabricators, shingle makers, casket manufacturers, and paper processors, giving Everett its nickname, “Smokestack City.” Huge logs of Douglas fir and Western hemlock floated in the water. 

Money from these endeavors built the numerous mansions that today line the Grand Avenue bluff overlooking the Port of Everett. But by the 1960s, lumber and paper pulp makers were closing shop and moving on. Workers had also moved on to good middle-class jobs at the enormous new Boeing plant. Left behind at the port were acres of contaminated land and what many called an eyesore.

The Port of Everett, steward of this history for more than 100 years, had spent decades cleaning up what was left behind. It dredged the port, created land from water, and built the largest publicly owned marina on the West coast with 2,300 boat slips. Together with the Washington State Department of Ecology, it cleaned up and decontaminated more than 250 acres of port-owned waterfront property of chemicals and detritus left behind by the lumber and paper mills. That initiative alone cost some $238 million.

The first attempt at redevelopment went poorly. The plan was to sell the land around the marina to Maritime Trust of Chicago, which ultimately lost financing for the project in the Great Recession. The Port took back control of the property and negotiated 80-year ground leases with developers, meaning the Port now retains ownership of the land and the developers own the improvements.

An investment of $350 million has paid for the cleanup as well as all new riprap and bulkheads, the marina, new guest docks and dock walks, the board yard, utilities, paths, and public spaces. These in turn spurred interest from commercial fishing, pleasure boats, and developers eager to build on the site. In 2007, the port received a clean bill of health and started on the master plan that would begin transforming the waterfront in to the destination that is now taking shape.

“The development community, the business community, they are all seeing what we have seen all along,” Lefeber says, “a waterfront that is amazing, a beautiful jewel with vast potential.”

By this summer, a handful of new eateries will join two apartment buildings and the Hotel Indigo in what is Fisherman’s Harbor, a $200-million investment by the Port and developers that represents the first of a three-phase build-out.

They include Fisherman Jack’s and South Fork Baking Co., whose buildings are being busily assembled now. Coming right behind them will be the opening later this summer of a second retail building for Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt, the Rustic Cork and Wine Bar, and Anisoptera Spa. 

Next will be Lazy Boy Brewing, a fish market, and an upscale steak or Mexican restaurant, for which the port is now seeking tenants. These spots will fill out Restaurant Row at Fisherman’s Harbor, all easily accessible from Marine View Drive and the newly built pedestrian bridge connecting Waterfront Place to the residential neighborhood on the bluff above. 

Retail has followed new housing, of which 266 units were completed in 2022. Located in two buildings, the units are more than 95% leased, says John Shaw, principal and director of multifamily acquisitions with SeaLevel Properties, a Seattle-based developer. SeaLevel stuck with the project even after a four-alarm fire burned down the first of two buildings just as they were near completion. 

“No one is making any more new waterfront,” Shaw says. “To find large property on the water in the Puget Sound area, it’s almost unheard of.” Just as valuable was the initial work put in by the port to prepare the area and then envision and design the whole transformation. “The concept, the grand vision, it was hard not to get excited, and be part of it.” 

That vision harkens back to the port’s history. Everything from the overall design to the rooftops, siding, paint colors, and street names recall the local history of timber, commercial fishing, and boat building. Millwright District, phase two of the project, for example, is named for the workers who built, assembled, and maintained the lumber mill. 

Three years from now, longtime Everett residents will be hard-pressed to recognize the 10.5-acre parcel named for those workers, more than a few of whom lost fingers and hands in the machinery. Surrounded by mountains and water, the plot is now being leveled by bulldozers. It will eventually be home to another 250 units of multifamily housing and up to 60,000 square feet of retail space, along with open parks and walkways. This $500 million project, to be built by LPC West, will also include a 150,000-square-foot office building being marketed to a premier headquarters-type tenant.

While office space in downtown Seattle is going begging in the post-pandemic environment, LPC and the port believe Everett’s waterfront should remain an attractive alternative for employers looking to lure back their hybrid workforce. “To have a vibrant waterfront place like this for employees will be a huge draw,” says J.P. Harlow, senior vice president of LPC.

LPC hopes to also snag the contract to develop what will be the final, most prestigious property to be built on the westernmost tip, adjacent to BoxCar Park and facing the water. This $300 million area, Wharf’s Edge, is being reserved for the most expensive housing units — more than 200 luxury condominiums and townhouses with fully waterfront views.

That portion will be anchored by the historic Weyerhaeuser headquarters building. Made more than 100 years ago of old-growth timber to be a showcase for the pulp manufacturer, the Gothic architecture has been moved several times and now sits on the northwest edge of the lot. It will reopen in June as a whisky and coffee bar.

“This place is so special. We’re going to blow (Seattle and Tacoma) out of the water.”

— Holly Gardner, schuster group

Breaking ground next year will be Wine Walk, to be located along the southernmost esplanade section just south of the Navy base. Here, the Schuster Group, a retail developer, is constructing three buildings for up to 10 wine tasting rooms. Facing the marina and water, these will all have outdoor and rooftop patios, and fire pits for congregating.

“This place is so special,” says Holly Gardner, president of the company that has been the port’s retail development partner for the past five years. “We’re going to blow (Seattle and Tacoma) out of the water. We have the largest public marina on the West coast, the largest number of super yachts, and a long wait list. This is the place to be.”