Delays, empty storefronts frustrate residents at Everett riverfront

EVERETT — When Grant Harrington first moved into his new home at the Overlook at Riverfront development in east Everett, he would often run past a patch of grass set to be transformed into a brand-new park.

Today, that patch of grass looks the same as when he arrived nine years ago.

It’s the future home of Eclipse Mill Park, a 3-acre area set to be the signature public park for the newly built neighborhoods along Everett’s riverfront. But residents who moved into the surrounding area have been waiting a long time for it, as the city initially expected the park to open in 2022. After a series of delays, a portion of the park is set to be completed by 2026. The entire park will take years beyond that to be built.

The city has cited the pandemic and efforts to seek new funding options as reasons for the setbacks.

That park is one piece of a giant riverfront puzzle the city is working to complete along with Bellevue-based developers Shelter Holdings. The project, in the works for more than a decade, will be a massive redevelopment on the city’s riverfront, the site of a former city landfill, two lumber mills and an infamous tire fire.

The six-phase project is only in its first stages. As part of phase one, the developers have built two mixed-use apartment buildings, giant parking lots and a public plaza.

Other parts of the first phase of the project have seen delays. Shelter Holdings was set to build a cinema on the site as part of the first phase of the development, but in 2024, the City Council allowed the company to change the planned building into a pay-to-play pickleball facility, citing difficulties in the movie business after COVID-19. The council also agreed to push back the deadline for the facility from the first phase of the project to the third phase, which likely won’t be complete for years.

In June, the city also allowed the developers to delay another portion of phase one, a grocery store, until 2030.

Harrington, who now lives in the Townes at Riverfront development north of the former landfill site, heads Snohomish Running Company and is a member of the Snohomish County Parks Advisory Board. In recent months, he’s also been a vocal opponent of the city’s outdoor stadium project, both in council meetings and on social media.

He said he wants the city to give precedence to the ongoing park project and hold other agencies accountable for delays.

“I just want to be able to say to the city, look, you know, these people have a voice,” Harrington said. “Don’t ignore these communities.”

Residents are also waiting on retail businesses to arrive at the riverfront property, as the pickleball facility is still under construction and storefronts on the ground floor of the apartment buildings are empty.

“I’m no ‘pie in the sky’ kind of person. I didn’t expect it all to happen overnight,” resident Micah Wessman said of the commercial ventures at the riverfront property. “But at this point, we were starting to wonder if they’d cancelled it entirely.”

Representatives from Shelter Holdings did not respond to requests for comment. When asking the city in June for an extension on its deadline for bringing in a grocery store, the developer said grocery store operators “want to see additional surrounding population density to support a grocery store at the Riverfront,” a City Council memo read.

Shannon Affholter, who teaches real estate courses at the University of Washington, said the small number of residents in the riverfront area isn’t sufficient by itself to support retail establishments and restaurants.

“The location is a challenge for retail. It’s not easy to get in or get out of there,” said Affholter, who is also a former Everett City Council member.

Compounding the problem, he said, is the uncertain national economic climate, making prospective commercial tenants nervous about opening new locations regardless of their desirability.

The riverfront area, located east of I-5, has seen transformative changes over the years. For nearly six decades, it was home to a landfill. The Eclipse Mill, a lumber mill that operated along the riverfront and serves as the namesake for the new park, burned down in 1962. In 1984, fire struck again when flames ignited a pile of millions of tires stored there, which burned ceaselessly for months, making national news. State agencies then undertook extensive environmental cleanup efforts there.

The city approved a rezone and development agreement in 2008 to pave the way for a huge new riverfront development to rejuvenate the area. After building single-family homes and townhomes on land adjacent to the landfill site, a Bellevue-based developer, Shelter Holdings, began work in 2019 on the massive, six-phase development.

Wessman, who lives in a single-family home in the Overlook area, was drawn to the neighborhood because of its quietness and the relatively low price for a new home, he said, not because of any future development. At the time he bought his home in 2018, the former landfill site north of his home was a mostly empty field.

But the long wait for any park space or commercial tenants — even a coffee shop — has been a source of “simmering frustration” for neighbors, he said. About 200 of them signed an online petition calling on the city to prioritize the riverfront park area.

“I feel like it’s been extremely long to at least get something in there,” Wessman said of the empty commercial space.

Agreements between the city and Shelter Holdings split the responsibilities for building Eclipse Mill Park: The developers would build amenities on land, like a playground and picnic shelter, while the city would stabilize the riverbank and build a floating dock.

In 2019, the city had initially hoped the developers would complete their portion of the park first by 2022. In 2021, however, the city pushed back the deadline to November 2023, citing delays from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2024, the city amended its agreement with the developers again as it decided to use the Local Infrastructure Finance Tool, known as LIFT — a state program that gives sales tax credits to local municipalities to pay for upgrades that attract economic activity — to help build the park. At that point, Everett said it would instead do its part of the job before the developers built theirs.

In March 2025, the city approved the issuance of a $7 million bond to pay for its portion of the park improvements, as well as improvements to the Riverfront Trail. LIFT funds are set to repay that bond.

“Because the Later Phase Eclipse Mill Park requires intensive grading and stabilization work along the riverbank, it is most efficient from a cost and constructability standpoint for this phase to be completed first,” city spokesperson Simone Tarver wrote in an email.

In May, the City Council approved a $3.6 million construction contract to build its portion of the park. Construction was set to begin this summer, according to a city document. Currently, the Washington State Department of Ecology is reviewing the project.

Construction in the water — necessary for the city’s portion of the project — can only take place between Aug. 1 and Oct. 31 to minimize impact to salmon in the river, Tarver wrote in an email. Everett now expects its construction to finish in fall 2026. Once that is built, Shelter Holdings will have another 18 months to complete its portion of the first phase of the park, which includes some of the parking, a playground, a trail connection and a play lawn.

The park won’t be fully completed until Shelter Holdings completes the third phase of its six-phase plan for the riverfront development. That may be years away, Tarver wrote. The first phase of the development is nearly complete and the second phase is set to start soon, she said.

Many of those deadlines can be found only within the development agreements between the city and Shelter Holdings. For Harrington, a lack of communication between the city and the neighborhood was a source of frustration.

“It shouldn’t be this difficult to find out information on these things,” he said. “The lack of transparency is a big one, but it also always seems to be a moving target. Every time you do talk to somebody, they give you a different answer on what’s holding it up.”

For the time being, residents living at the riverfront looking to stroll through the park or sip on some coffee will have to keep waiting.

“I just want to see some progress,” Wessman said. “Or at least be told when progress is going to start.”

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.

Randy Diamond: 425-339-3097; randy.diamond@heraldnet.com.