2024 Annual Report
In 2024, the Everett Station District Alliance continued its efforts to partner with the City, businesses, property owners, residents, and community members for a safer, more equitable neighborhood.
The core of our work is the Neighborhood Services program, funded by the business improvement area (BIA). 2024 was our first full year of the program, and we focused on the efficient and effective execution of our ambassador program. Our contracted daytime ambassadors walk and bike our neighborhood, helping people in need by providing them directions to social services as well anti-overdose medication, picking up litter, addressing graffiti, reporting improperly parked vehicles, and working closely with businesses and the police. Each night, a security officer patrols the neighborhood in a vehicle, reporting any potentially criminal behavior and property damage to ESDA and the Everett Police Department. Together, they addressed more than 1,300 incidents and issues during the year.
Through our Community Development program, we look to strengthen our district’s assets of good-paying industrial and related commercial jobs and business activity. That starts with ensuring our neighborhood is safe and clean. We also work to connect our businesses to existing workforce development programs, helping to prevent labor shortages; and we advocate for common sense zoning reforms that allow commercial and industrial businesses to continue to operate.
At the same time, we look to the future. The city is expected to grow from 82,900 to 167,200 jobs and from 114,200 to 179,200 residents by 2044. This is a tremendous economic opportunity that also allows us to rethink how people get around and where they live and work, creating places that are move walkable and sustainable and that provide opportunities for all to thrive.
Since our beginning with small conversations in 2014 that percolated into the creation of ESDA in 2017 to what we’ve become today, we’ve consistently been at the forefront of convening civic leaders to imagine and inspire what our district can become. Our 2017 “Transformations” workshops and resulting report gave a picture of a phased redevelopment over a 30 year period. The city’s planning efforts for its 2018 Metro Everett Plan conceptualized segmented areas of the district, including an entertainment area in the northwest corner near downtown (where the multipurpose stadium is planned now). A 2019 report by the organization Forterra imagined parks, trees, and raingardens. Our 2020 “Future Concepts” report provided a framework for balancing new transit-oriented housing with light industrial business activities. ESDA’s and Housing Hope’s 2021 “Convergence Study” provided redevelopment concepts of city-owned properties.
From our beginning, civic leaders recognized the need for a public-private partnership that would have agency in realizing these visions, whether it was empowering an existing entity or creating a new one, such as a public development authority. During 2024, we contracted with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) to help answer these questions. ESDA’s Board of Directors has embraced LISC’s recommendations to support equitable transit-oriented development and will be working closely with the South Everett community in 2025 to implement a “One Everett” approach.
From the new multipurpose stadium to the openings of expanded medical facilities, 2025 will be a huge year. ESDA will continue to work to make the neighborhood a more welcoming gateway to the city — including new street pole banners that will line Broadway and Hewitt. I hope to see you at one of our community cleanups, our street fair on June 18, and other events like the Santa photo booth. I look forward to continuing to support your dreams for the District and city.
Sincerely,
Brock Howell
ESDA Executive Director
Neighborhood Services
District ambassadors Jason and Terry.
We contract with Pacific Security to provide two ambassadors who patrol the BIA area on foot and bike during the day and a nightly security officers who patrol the district by vehicle. The contract is overseen by our on-staff neighborhood services program manager, who interacts with the ambassadors on a daily basis and serves as a central point of contact between the reports generated by the ambassadors and the property/business owners and the City of Everett for any follow-up.
The ambassadors take a hospitality-first approach. While making sure individuals are not committing crimes or infringing on business owners’ operations, the ambassadors assist people-in-need by asking how they’re doing, providing information about nearby social services, and distributing anti-overdose medication. As ambassadors patrol the neighborhood, they pick-up litter, address graffiti, and check-in on businesses to see if they have any additional needs.
Key Numbers for 2024
Ambassadors removed an average of 150 bags of debris and trash per month.
Performed 292 business check-ins.
Provided 11 new No Trespassing Signs to businesses within the BIA and coordinated the collection of no-trespassing agreements between businesses and Everett Police Department.
Reported 126 places of graffiti — 96% have been addressed. Ambassadors painted over 12 of the tags, while most of the remaining graffiti was quickly addressed by the business/property owner.
Conducted 79 welfare checks with people-in-need.
Distributed 49 naloxone kits to people-in-need.
Led 3 volunteer community cleanups through the city’s Adopt-A-Street Program.
Removed 1,062 pallets from businesses/properties for free with pallet recycling program.
Community Development
Everett Link Light Rail
Sound Transit continues to plan its Everett Link Extension, which will connect the Everett Station District to a spine of light rail to Seattle and Tacoma. The most recent publicly available financial analysis indicates that the project can be completed by 2041, with agency leadership having a goal to complete it by 2037. Within the Everett Station District, there are three alternative locations being analyzed as part of the environmental impact statement (EIS): (A) Everett Transit’s West Lot A P&R; (C) westside of McDougall at 32nd Street; and (D) eastside of Broadway between Pacific & Hewitt. The agency expects to publish the draft EIS in Q1 of 2026, after which there will be an opportunity for public comment on the three alternatives.
Multi-Purpose Stadium
In December, Everett City Council selected the area bound by Hewitt, Broadway, Pacific, and the railroad as the preferred location for a new multipurpose stadium that would be home to the Everett AquaSox baseball team, men’s and women’s USL soccer expansion teams, and other outdoor entertainment. With the first phase of the stadium expected to cost more than $100 million without the complete funding plan worked out, the City of Everett is entering into a progressive design-build contract with Bayley Construction and DLR Group. If the project goes as hoped by the City and AquaSox, the stadium will be ready for the 2027 baseball season.
Expanding Medical Facilities
Both Compass Health and Kaiser Permanente are expected to complete their expansions in the Everett Station District in 2025. Compass’s Broadway Phase II project adds 75,000 sf, including a 16-bed evaluation treatment unit, 16-bed triage unit, and an on-site pharmacy. Kaiser Permanente’s expansion adds 165,000 sf to accommodate primary and specialty care, surgical services, an ambulatory surgery center, 24/7 urgent care, imaging, lab, and pharmacy services.
Citywide Transit-Oriented Community Development
During 2024, ESDA contracted with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) to develop recommendations to the City of Everett and ESDA on whether an entity was needed to focus on implementing the city’s and region’s priorities for transit-oriented development and, if so, how best to structure the entity. The ESDA Board of Directors is now working to implement LISC’s recommendations, which includes building real estate development capacity and creating a governance structure with broader citywide representation to include South Everett and the Everett Station District.
Placemaking
Town Hall Day
On June 20, 2024, 48 nonprofits, public agencies, and businesses joined us for an outdoor street fair to highlight the great work they’re doing for the neighborhood.
Save the date for our Everett Station District Street Fair in 2025: June 18, 5-8 p.m.
Little Free Library
During the summer of 2024, we had a Little Free Library that also served as a wayfinding kiosk to visitors arriving by Amtrak and transit. The project was originally intended to be part of our 2023 conversion of 32nd Street into a park (“The Yard”), and was funded primarily by grants.
Cleanups, Vaccination Clinic, & Santa Photos
Building a sense of community, ESDA held three community cleanups, a pop-up free vaccination clinic, and free photos with Santa. Twenty-five people were vaccinated, and 50 people took photos with Santa, spreading holiday cheer.
Coming Soon!
In early 2025, we will be installing street pole banners along Broadway and Hewitt Avenue. The background art was designed by Angelina Villalobos-Soto, a renowned artist who has designed the 2024 Sounders season ticket holder scarf, a mural in Climate Pledge Arena, a massive print on the Museum of Flight, and a mosaic on the future light rail station in Redmond.
2024 Financials
