Mukilteo to consider lease of waterfront property
Published 1:30 am Friday, March 6, 2026
EVERETT — The city of Mukilteo will explore options for potentially leasing a piece of property along its waterfront following a city council vote Monday.
The property, known as Lot 5, is just over an acre in size, located north of the ferry holding lanes next to the Mukilteo ferry terminal. It’s one piece of a larger puzzle: the city’s plans to develop its waterfront into a walkable hub for business and tourism.
Now, Mukilteo will have multiple options as to how to best use the property. The city could lease the land to a developer or develop the land as a park.
Mukilteo’s latest comprehensive plan shows the property is currently zoned as open space. A 2016 waterfront master plan created by the city envisions a park where the parcel is located, referred to in planning documents as Central Waterfront Park, though city staff say there is nothing requiring them to build a park there.
Following Monday’s vote, city staff will begin researching the demand for the property and the expected revenues a lease would result in, a city council memo read. The council would have to decide at a later date whether to approve a lease agreement or to build a public park.
The Mukilteo City Council also considered for months whether it would vote to surplus the property as a way to explore a potential sale. On Monday, that option was defeated by a 5-2 vote.
Lot 5 is next to two other parcels of land — known as Lots 2 and 3 — that are also owned by the city and zoned as Waterfront Mixed Use, a zone that allows the building of mixed-use housing, offices, restaurants and retail. Those pieces of land are adjacent to properties owned by the Port of Everett that are also set to be part of the waterfront redevelopment project.
The process of redeveloping the properties along Mukilteo’s shoreline has been in the works for decades. It started with a tank farm — a fuel storage and distribution terminal for the U.S. Air Force built in the 1950s — that was decommissioned in 1990.
After years of cleanup work, the Air Force transferred much of the property to the Port of Everett in 2013. The port, in turn, gave some of the land to partners like the city of Mukilteo in 2016 for development into a larger riverfront promenade. In 2016, the city of Mukilteo also put together a waterfront master plan with a vision of beach access, a promenade and a new city park, along with housing and businesses.
Much of that land remained undeveloped for years.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, known as NOAA, had also planned to open a research facility along the waterfront but scrapped its plans in 2021 due to high costs. That land was later transferred to the port as well to be developed for public use, though the process took years. NOAA transferred the property to the Port of Everett in February, increasing the available land for redevelopment.
In 2022, the port partnered with the city of Mukilteo to create a unified plan for the undeveloped properties along the city’s shoreline, which includes 10 owners over 26 acres of land. The plans call for a pedestrian-oriented street tied to the waterfront with restaurants, retail, housing and a promenade, according to the port.
Now, the Port of Everett is planning to offer a number of its properties along the waterfront to private developers to help achieve that vision. It will put out a formal call for interested developers this spring, it wrote in a February press release. The Mukilteo-owned parcels next to the Port of Everett’s properties are not a part of the port’s current redevelopment plans, the release said.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
