This year Bellevue moved to protect the look of Old Bellevue's Main Street: the doors, the cornices, and the way one storefront lines up with the next. The rules don't cover the businesses inside, and one block on Main Street is emptying out anyway.
That block sits at Main Street and 103rd Avenue NE. In about thirteen months it has lost a boutique that was there for 20 years, a glass studio that was there for 17 and a home shop that was there for 18. The redevelopment planned there is exempt from the city's new Main Street rules.
What the Council Actually Protected
On Feb. 10, 2026, the Bellevue City Council voted 4–3 to adopt an Interim Official Control for Main Street between 100th Avenue NE and Bellevue Way. The goal was to protect Old Bellevue's historic qualities, small-scale character and walkable shopfronts while the city works on longer-term rules, as Downtown Bellevue Network reported.
In July the council extended those rules through February 2027 and made them more specific. According to the renewal ordinance, new buildings on that stretch must have:
- A door on Main Street that's open to the public
- Doors and solid vertical elements no more than 30 feet apart
- Facades that line up with the buildings next door
- A cornice
Owners who want to demolish or significantly alter a facade more than 50 years old must first file a report with the building's address, construction year, uses, style, materials and photographs taken before any work begins. The same ordinance gives developers 100 amenity bonus points for every $1,000 spent on documented preservation work.
Put together, the rules describe the Main Street you see on a walk: narrow storefronts, frequent doorways, a steady roofline. They keep that look intact. They don't require property owners to keep their existing tenants.
The permanent version is being worked out through the city's Downtown Livability 2.0 code update. The council started that process on May 5, 2026, and one of its stated goals is to encourage Main Street's historic building patterns.
The Project the Rules Skip
Vander Hoek Corporation's North of Main project, at Main Street and 103rd Avenue NE, vested under the earlier zoning, so the interim rules don't apply to it. The plans call for an eight-story building with 176 market-rate apartments, 10,363 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and 154 parking stalls on about 0.71 acres. Every existing building on the site will come down.
Here's what the site has looked like over the past thirteen months:
| Business | Main Street address | Time on the block | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| La Ree Boutique | On the North of Main block | 20 years | Closed Sept. 25, 2025 |
| Glassybaby | 10230 Main St. | Since October 2009 | Opened a larger store at Design Market on Oct. 1, 2026 |
| Veritables | 10220 Main St. | 18 years | Announced an Oct. 15, 2026 closing |
| Matcha Magic | 10246 Main St. | Since May 2022 | Announced a Nov. 1, 2026 closing |
Some of these stories continue elsewhere. Glassybaby's new store is at 1048 116th Ave NE, in the Design Market center across from Overlake Hospital, and it has more room than the Main Street corner did. Matcha Magic started on this block. Founder Rachel Barnecut opened in the former Jujubeet space before the brand grew to Redmond, Capitol Hill, South Lake Union, New Orleans and Tempe. Its operator, Bellevue-based Conscious Hospitality Group, told Downtown Bellevue Network that it's looking for a new Bellevue location.
Veritables owner Marie Harris said on Instagram that the building's owners decided to redevelop. She plans buying trips for pop-ups and is looking for a new space. "This is not the last chapter," she wrote, as Downtown Bellevue Network reported.
One part of this block's history stays on Main Street. Rachael Nov founded La Ree, and her fine jewelry store Gin & The Banker is still open on the street.
Meanwhile, the Rest of Main Street Is Filling
The rules can't keep a tenant in place. What they can do is keep a storefront shaped so a new tenant can move in easily. Along the rest of the street, that's what has been happening.
- Valentinas Wine Bar opened at 10204 Main St. in 2025, in the former Rouge Cocktail Lounge space. It was a stop on this year's Spring Wine Walk on May 14, along with 520 Bar & Grill at 10146 Main St.
- Reprise, a luxury consignment shop, opened at 10129 Main St., Suite 107B, on May 1, 2025.
- Gin & The Banker is expanding into the space next door that Lorelei Optical used to occupy. Its website lists a permanent Marla Aaron shop-in-shop and a larger selection of home fragrance, perfume, stationery and ceramics.
- Bar Da Vila, a Brazilian restaurant, has signs up and has posted kitchen jobs at 10145 Main St., Downtown Bellevue Network reported. That's the space Adrian's Restaurant & Tequila Bar left in early 2026, according to the same outlet.
Close by, Goban Korean BBQ opened at 1015 103rd Ave. NE with a soft opening on Aug. 12 and now takes reservations through Resy.
So at the same time as the North of Main site lost a home shop, a glass studio and a matcha bar, the rest of Main Street added a wine bar, a consignment shop, a bigger jewelry store and a restaurant on the way. Once construction is done, North of Main brings back about 10,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, built under the earlier zoning.
The Merchants Run the Holidays, Too
The rules protect the buildings, and the merchants do most of what makes the street busy. That's most obvious in December. Santa Saturdays come back to Main Street on Dec. 5, 12 and 19, 2026, from 1 to 3 p.m. They're free, with no tickets. Kids can get photos with Santa, decorate cookies, write letters to the North Pole and have hot chocolate. The Old Bellevue Merchants Association organizes the event with support from local merchants, Amazon and the City of Bellevue's Community Programming Fund. The district's Wine Walks also help pay for Old Bellevue's winter lights each year, according to Downtown Bellevue Network.
Here's the season around those Saturdays, in order:
- Friday, Nov. 13: The Bellevue Downtown Ice Rink opens at Bellevue Downtown Park and runs through Jan. 18, 2027. Select Mondays are $12 "Cheapskate Mondays."
- Saturday, Nov. 21: The Bellevue Farmers Market holds a Saturday market from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Friday, Nov. 27: Snowflake Lane begins its 22nd year, with a free parade every night at 7 p.m. through Christmas Eve on the route between Bellevue Square and Lincoln Square, NE 4th to NE 8th streets. That evening, Santa counts down to lighting a 30-foot tree in the Bellevue Place Wintergarden.
- Saturday, Nov. 28: Garden d'Lights opens at Bellevue Botanical Garden, 12001 Main St., and runs through Jan. 3, 2027. It's closed Christmas Day.
- Saturdays, Dec. 5, 12 and 19: Santa Saturdays on Old Bellevue's Main Street, 1 to 3 p.m.
This post is general information about city rules and isn't legal advice. If you own property or run a business on Main Street, check with the city and the right professional about how these rules apply to you.
If you have a favorite Main Street shop, or you're wondering what will go into the next storefront that opens up, we'd love to talk about it. Send us a note at Society Northwest and tell us where you're eating, browsing or getting cocoa on Old Bellevue's Santa Saturdays this year.
