What's New in Edmonds This Fall: New Businesses, the Waterfront Build-Out, and the Events Ahead

Edmonds keeps moving this fall, and whether you're weighing a move here or already call it home, it helps to know what's actually changing. This is the useful stuff, pulled from the city's own pages, the Port, and local reporting, current as of late October 2026.

New places to eat and shop

The headliner is Rooster Bagel Cafe, which opened Saturday, October 3 at 515 Main Street, in the space The Loft left after closing late last year. It's an all-day bagel cafe and bar from Niles Peacock, starting out with 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. hours daily and plans to expand to a day-to-night neighborhood spot. A new owner-operator betting on Main Street, a few steps from the ferry, is a good sign for downtown.

Visible Coffee Roasters opened its fifth location on 5th Avenue South in June, taking over the old Barkada space at 622 5th Ave S with a rentable meeting room. Earlier in the year, R+M Desserts opened a European-style takeaway shop at 403 Main Street in May, and DreamComber moved from online to a storefront at 110 3rd Avenue North in July, selling clothing and gifts. Add Crib 2 Castle Gallery, a gift shop with handmade local-artist items and portrait photography, and the list of new owners putting real money into the Bowl in a single year is genuinely long.

The waterfront is getting a serious rebuild

The Port of Edmonds is in the middle of a big, multi-year construction program. Phase II of the North Portwalk and Seawall Reconstruction, which protects the waterfront from extreme weather, got a unanimous commission go-ahead in June and is underway, a roughly $2.5 million phase inside a project that runs to about $30 million overall, with $1.2 million in federal funding locked in for fiscal 2026. There is a lot of construction vocabulary in there; what it means for you is a more resilient waterfront, the part of town people actually move here for.

The Port also moved its own offices and maintenance operations out of 336 Admiral and into a new building at 471 Admiral, which frees up that original waterfront lot for public and community use. And in March the city installed Gateway Canopy, a nature-inspired sculpture at Anway Park, marking the entrance to the Creative District near the ferry holding lanes.

One heads-up if you use the ferry: when BNSF closed the railroad crossing at Main Street and Railroad Avenue overnight October 6-7 for track work, Edmonds-Kingston sailings suspended overnight and resumed the next morning. It's back to normal now, but it's worth knowing the ferry can be one track closure away from a short disruption, and WSDOT posts alternatives when that happens.

City budget and rules worth knowing

Mayor Mike Rosen presented a proposed $249.5 million 2027-28 biennium budget on October 5, and the council is working through it now alongside utility rate increases. For homeowners, two things stand out. Edmonds adopted a 0.1 percent transportation benefit district sales tax in January, pushing the city's total sales tax to 10.7 percent, tied with Lynnwood for the highest in the state. And the council extended the temporary 20 percent utility tax through the end of 2028.

On the housing side, the council held public hearings in October on land-use designations for four Westgate parcels, then approved a permanent Neighborhood Centers and Hubs designation for them and extended a ground-floor commercial requirement along Edmonds Way. The interim ordinance protecting landmark trees, those 30 inches in trunk diameter or larger, keeps getting extended while a permanent tree code is drafted. If you are buying a treed lot, that is directly relevant: those trees are protected during the drafting process.

Parks and recreation

The parks did the quiet, unglamorous work this year. The city dredged the stilling basin at Pine Ridge Park in September, part of the park's stormwater system, and reopened the park when it was done. And a King County councilmember proposed in May using $5 million from the county parks levy to close the Interurban Trail gap between Shoreline and Edmonds, which would finally connect the trail the whole way up the county.

Events to put on the calendar

• Art Walk Edmonds runs the third Thursday of each month, 5 to 8 PM, with artists featured in businesses all month.
• The Edmonds Tree Lighting is Saturday, November 28, 3 to 5 PM at Centennial Plaza, free and organized by the Chamber.
• The first annual Edmonds Luminaria Walk follows that same evening, 5 to 8 PM at Civic Park.
• Small Business Saturday is November 29, and the season closes out with the Claus Crawl on Thursday, December 4, and a free holiday trolley through downtown on Saturdays in December.

Bottom line

Edmonds is reinvesting in its waterfront, its downtown retail, and its infrastructure at the same time, and new businesses keep opening in the Bowl. For buyers and residents, that is the kind of momentum that shows up in the day-to-day feel of the town, not just in a council agenda.