Walk Cleveland Street from the old downtown core to the Rail District and you cross nearly a century in about half a mile. On one end, Ted Eady is finishing new theater additions in a building that first opened decades ago, and figuring out where a second-floor bar and a rooftop patio will eventually go. On the other, a steakhouse that doesn't exist yet is about to move into a 1,450-square-foot space at 16421 Cleveland St, next door to a Shake Shack and a Joe & the Juice that weren't here five years ago.
Both projects are happening this year. Both are getting real investment. And they represent almost opposite bets on what downtown Redmond should be.
The Old Downtown Is Renovating, Not Replacing
The stretch of downtown around Cleveland Street and Redmond Way has quietly been in construction mode all year. At Odem Theater Pub, owner Ted Eady has already added new theaters to the historic building and is now working on balcony seating for the large theater, an upstairs bar, and an expanded indoor restaurant area where the old patio-seating space used to sit. He's aiming to have the restaurant expansion open by fall, the second-floor bar by winter, and the rooftop patio by next summer.
A block over, Little Bug Play Hub has become the anchor of what Miles Falappino, part of the family behind the business, calls downtown's family quarter. The indoor play space, run by owner Cortney Falappino, shares a wall with Juniper & Sprouts, a secondhand children's clothing shop, sits across the street from Sweet Oasis Sweet Shoppe & Gifts, and neighbors Silvies River Charter School. Cortney started the business after moving to Oregon and finding nowhere to bring her kids during the winter months. She's now planning a second expansion aimed at older children.
None of this is glamorous. It's a theater owner rebuilding around a building he already owns, and a mom-and-pop play space growing one wall at a time. But it tells you something about how the old downtown is choosing to compete: not by tearing down and starting over, but by making what's already there work harder.
A Few Blocks North, Everything Is New
The Rail District is the opposite story. Nothing here is being renovated because almost nothing here predates the light rail station that anchors it. Yukon Standup Steak House, from Beecher's Handmade Cheese founder Kurt Beecher Dammeier, is set to open this September at that Cleveland Street address, joining Shake Shack and Joe & the Juice in a corridor built around transit-oriented apartments, retail, and office space.
Redmond Town Center, a short walk from the Rail District, has been picking up its own additions. Supreme Dumplings opened an outpost there this year sharing space and operations with a second local ComeBuyTea, adding to a food court that already includes the ramen brand Kizuki. A Te-Hand Roll Bar from the owners of Bellevue's Kuro Sushi was penciled in for August or September.
Here's the shape of it side by side:
| Cluster | What's arriving | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Historic downtown (Cleveland St / Redmond Way) | Odem Theater Pub bar and rooftop patio, Little Bug Play Hub expansion | Restaurant space by fall 2026, bar by winter, patio by summer 2027 |
| Rail District (Cleveland St, near Downtown Redmond Station) | Yukon Standup Steak House | Opening September 2026 |
| Redmond Town Center | Supreme Dumplings, ComeBuyTea, Te-Hand Roll Bar | Supreme Dumplings and ComeBuyTea open now, Te-Hand Roll Bar penciled in for August or September |
Two clusters, two completely different models of growth, both funded and both moving forward in the same calendar year.
Why Redmond Is Building Both at Once
The reason this works instead of one side cannibalizing the other comes down to what sits between them: the Downtown Redmond light rail station.
Sound Transit opened the Redmond Technology Station in April 2024, then extended the 2 Line another 3.4 miles to open the Marymoor Village and Downtown Redmond stations on May 10, 2025. Sound Transit board vice chair Claudia Balducci described what that connection would mean for a typical day in the city, saying riders could "catch a concert at Marymoor Park, enjoy a day of shopping at Redmond Town Center" and reach downtown Redmond's restaurants all on one trip.
That station sits at the literal seam between the two downtowns, which means neither one has to pull foot traffic away from the other. A resident heading to the Rail District for a new steakhouse and a resident heading to Cleveland Street for a renovated theater are getting off at the same platform.
It also explains why the growth has been so lopsided in where it lands. Reporting from The Urbanist found that builders have added more than 6,000 homes in downtown Redmond over the past few decades under increasingly generous zoning, while Marymoor Village, still catching up, has added roughly 1,400. The same reporting noted that Redmond has been more cautious about loosening zoning away from its transit nodes, where single-family development remains the norm. Redmond isn't spreading its growth evenly across the city. It's stacking almost all of it within walking distance of the two train stations, which is exactly why both the old downtown and the Rail District can expand together instead of at each other's expense.
What This Looks Like If You Live Here This Fall
If you've been to Marymoor Park this summer, you've already felt the effect. The 2026 concert season brought Slightly Stoopid on July 31, ZZ Top with Cheap Trick on August 11, Trombone Shorty with St. Paul and the Broken Bones on August 19, and NEEDTOBREATHE on August 21, and a meaningful share of that crowd could get there on the 2 Line and step off at the Marymoor Village station instead of hunting for parking. The season isn't quite finished. Marymoor Live has Adam Ant and Haircut 100 closing things out on September 11.
That same train also makes it realistic to treat downtown Redmond as one continuous evening out rather than two separate errands. Grab dinner in the Rail District, walk or ride the short distance to catch a movie at Odem Theater Pub, and you've covered both halves of downtown without moving a car.
A few things worth putting on your radar over the next couple of months:
- Yukon Standup Steak House opens in the Rail District at 16421 Cleveland St this September, joining Shake Shack and Joe & the Juice.
- Odem Theater Pub's restaurant expansion is targeted for this fall, with the second-floor bar following by winter.
- Little Bug Play Hub continues building out its second children's space in the downtown family quarter near Juniper & Sprouts and Sweet Oasis Sweet Shoppe & Gifts.
- Marymoor Live's summer concert series closes September 11 with Adam Ant and Haircut 100, still reachable by train via the Marymoor Village station.
- Redmond Town Center's food court keeps adding options, with a Te-Hand Roll Bar from the team behind Kuro Sushi penciled in for August or September.
None of this required picking a side. Redmond's downtown isn't choosing between its old character and its new density. It's running both experiments at the same time, with a train line holding them together at the middle.
If you're curious about what any of this means for property values or timing in downtown Redmond specifically, the team at Trey Danna Real Estate Group tracks these shifts block by block across the Eastside. Reach out to schedule a private consultation whenever you're ready to talk specifics.
