"It's a wrap!" That is how Marie Harris began the Instagram post announcing that Veritables, her home furnishings and gift shop at 10220 Main Street, will close on Oct. 15 after 18 years in Old Bellevue. Her store's closing wasn't up to her. According to Downtown Bellevue Network, the building's owners decided to redevelop the property. Next door, Glassybaby left 10230 Main Street after nearly 17 years.
Around the corner on Bellevue Way SE, a South Indian restaurant and a 7-Eleven have closed too. Taken together, the closures can look like the whole district is emptying. The city's permit records and the business announcements show something narrower. Two apartment projects, about a block apart, are rebuilding the western entrance to Old Bellevue, and each one is on its own timeline.
Two corners where Main Street meets the high-rises
The first site is North of Main, a project from Vander Hoek Corporation at Main Street and 103rd Avenue Northeast. Plans submitted to the city show an eight-story building with 176 market-rate apartments, 10,363 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and 154 parking stalls. The site covers about 0.71 acres, and every existing structure on it is set to come down.
The second site is 12 Bellevue Way SE, on the southeast corner of Bellevue Way SE and Main Street. SRM Development plans a seven-story building there with 376 market-rate apartments and retail on the ground floor. Runberg Architecture Group designed it, and the firm calls it a gateway for people coming into downtown from the south. It sits where the high-rise core gives way to the smaller-scale neighborhoods east and south of Main Street.
Between them, the two projects would add a little over 550 apartments at the corners where Old Bellevue meets the downtown core. The low-rise shops on the rest of Main Street, farther east, are not part of either project.
North of Main has its permits, but in two pieces
When the project cleared design review in 2025, Downtown Bellevue Network reported it would be built in a single phase. The city's building permits now split it in two. Here is the sequence from Bellevue's permit portal:
- July 31, 2025. The land-use permit for North of Main, filed under the address 21 103rd Ave. NE, is issued. It was finaled on Dec. 2, 2025.
- Aug. 26, 2026. The city issues the demolition permit for four existing structures. When the record was checked, no inspections had been posted.
- Sept. 10, 2026. The Phase I building permit is issued for a 40-unit podium with the 154 parking stalls.
- Still pending. The Phase II tower permit shows review requests dated Aug. 31 and Sept. 4, 2026.
So the city has authorized the owners to clear the block and build the parking podium plus the first 40 units. The remaining apartments are still in review. Nothing in the record shows that demolition has finished or that construction has started. Some older filings describe 137 units. The current permits say 176.
The Bellevue Way corner is closed and waiting on one permit
On this site, the businesses left before the building permit arrived. Shri Krishna Bhavan opened at 13 Bellevue Way SE in January 2026, according to Downtown Bellevue Network. By late August, it and the 7-Eleven in the strip mall next door at 100 Bellevue Way SE had both closed.
The city issued the demolition permit for 12 Bellevue Way SE on July 22, 2026. The record shows pre-construction conferences on Aug. 14 and Aug. 17 and erosion-control work marked ongoing as of Sept. 8. There is no completed demolition inspection. The building permit shows "Ready to Issue" with no issue date. In August, an SRM representative told Downtown Bellevue Network the company was aiming to start construction "late in the fourth quarter of this year." That is a target, and it may change.
The unit count is a little unsettled. Some permit descriptions mention a 299-unit version. The design the city approved in July 2025 calls for 376 apartments. That approved design also includes three levels of underground parking with 438 stalls, 338 of them for residents.
Two parts of the approved design matter most to anyone who walks Main Street. One is a 3,000-square-foot public plaza facing Bellevue Way SE with sculptural lighting. The other is a 3,055-square-foot plaza on Main Street at 105th Avenue SE with public art, seating, landscaping and open paved space. Today that corner is a strip mall and parking. A central courtyard will connect to the retail spaces, and the corner of the building takes its shape from the fire lookout towers on Cascade foothill trails.
Where the departing shops went
Several of the businesses leaving these blocks have moved rather than closed for good:
- Glassybaby moved its Bellevue store to Design Market at 1048 116th Ave NE, across the street from Overlake Hospital, with an announced opening on Oct. 1. The new space sits between California Closets and Marci Jewelry and is larger than the Main Street shop.
- Veritables is open daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Oct. 15. Its closing sale started Sept. 14 with everything marked down 50 percent or more. Harris plans buying trips for pop-ups and is looking for a new location. "This is not the last chapter," she wrote.
- La Ree Boutique left first. Its last day was Sept. 25, 2025, after 20 years in Old Bellevue.
- Araya's Place, Matcha Magic and Lavender Spa are also on the North of Main site, according to Downtown Bellevue Network. Araya's Place and Matcha Magic both list 10246 Main St. as their address. The sources reviewed for this post don't say what any of the three plans to do, so check with them directly before assuming anything.
East of the redevelopment sites, Main Street keeps changing hands as usual
East of these two corners, storefronts are changing hands for ordinary reasons. Makkee Dessert, a Chinese dessert chain opening its first Washington location, began a soft opening at 10797 Main St. on Sept. 3. It took over the Surrey on Main space where Sugar n Flakes Bakery & Cafe had operated since July 2024.
The district's recurring events are also continuing. The Old Bellevue Merchants Association held its Spring Wine Walk on May 14 and its Fall Wine Walk on Sept. 17. Veritables was a regular Wine Walk stop, most recently in May. Next spring's map will be missing that stop. The route itself remains in place.
Dates to watch through the end of the year
- Oct. 15: Veritables' last day at 10220 Main Street.
- Any week now: Demolition inspections on the North of Main permit, which would be the first public sign that the block is coming down.
- Pending: A decision on North of Main's Phase II tower permit, which covers the apartments beyond the first 40.
- Late Q4 2026: SRM's target construction start at 12 Bellevue Way SE, which depends on the building permit moving from "Ready to Issue" to issued.
Bellevue's permit portal is public, so you can follow any of these yourself by searching the address.
If you own a home near Main Street and want to know how two large projects at the western edge of the district could affect your block over the next few years, Tarek Moghrabi keeps track of these permits and can walk you through what the records show. Let's find a time to chat.
