The kettle corn is back on Front Street. That is the first thing you notice on a Wednesday afternoon in Mukilteo this summer, walking down from the Speedway with the ferry horn sounding behind the lighthouse. What you may not notice, unless you have been reading Port Commission minutes, is that the ground under your feet is in the middle of changing owners. Two parcels that define the character of the waterfront moved this winter. A third has been quietly held since 2022. The returning Farmers Market is the first visible signal that the long-planned Mukilteo waterfront rebuild has left the visioning phase and started to move.
If you live here, that is the piece of context worth carrying into the rest of the summer. The Wednesday market, the Lighthouse Festival, the Diamond Knot patio, the Ivar's clam basket at sundown, all of it is happening on top of a Front Street that will not look the same in five years. This is the summer to walk it as it is.
The market came back, and where it came back matters
The Mukilteo Farmers Market reopened at Lighthouse Park on June 3, 2026 after an extended hiatus. City Councilwoman Donna Vago and Mukilteo Lighthouse Festival Board President Megan Reed cut the ribbon at 2:45 p.m. to reopen the market at 609 Front St., and the market now runs from 3 to 7 p.m. every Wednesday from June 3 through August 26.
The hiatus itself is the interpretive piece. The last time this market went dark, in 2019, it was a labor and volunteer story rather than a lack of demand. The revival this year is being run by the Lighthouse Festival volunteer corps, which is the same operation staffing the September festival. That is why the calendar reads the way it does: Wednesday market through late August, then the festival caps the season two weekends later. It is one crew, one continuous ramp.
Who is actually in the booths matters more than the ribbon cutting. From opening day:
- Reham's Cake Gallery, offering Egyptian holiday cookies known as kahk, apricot jam cookies, baklava with a hint of cinnamon in the walnut filling, kanafeh with a milk-pudding filling, and a Dubai chocolate cake layered with pistachio-filled kanafeh and chocolate ganache
- Hayton Farms Berries out of Mount Vernon, with Shusetsin strawberries, a soft, sweet June-bearing variety developed at Washington State University in 1970, and firmer, sweeter Albin everbearing strawberries
- Little Prague Bakery, a Mukilteo business on Second Street, with European strudels and a poppy-seed cream cheese cake
- Amador Farms out of the Yakima Valley for cherries, apples, and oranges
- 2 Guys Grilling Wheels for Filipino skewers
- The Gypsy Rows school bus, Darren Wright's rolling produce stand
If you have driven to the Edmonds market on Saturdays for the last few summers, this is the pitch worth listening to: the Mukilteo lineup is smaller, but the walk from a Front Street parking spot to a strawberry flat is measured in yards, and the view is the Sound.
Two parcels changed hands in February. Now watch Front Street.
On February 3, 2026, the Port of Everett Commission took two actions that residents should file away. First, the Port Commission authorized the transfer and acceptance of the former NOAA site from the federal government via quit claim deed, a 1.1-acre stretch east of the Silver Cloud Hotel that had been conveyed to NOAA by the U.S. Air Force in 2013 for a research facility that NOAA ultimately declined to build. Second, the Commission unanimously voted to authorize a Purchase and Sale Agreement for an additional 0.55-acre property at 710 Front Street, the site of Ivar's Mukilteo Landing, including the 9,637 square foot building and a long-term lease with Ivar's, which will continue operating for decades to come.
The Port anticipates closing on the Ivar's sale in July 2026, pending a due diligence period now underway. That is this month. If you eat a clam chowder on that deck between now and Labor Day, you are eating on a parcel that is mid-transaction.
The Ivar's, the NOAA site, and the former WSF terminal and holding lanes acquired back in 2022 now sit together as one contiguous stretch under Port control. The Port has said the goal is a cohesive redevelopment aligned with a community vision established with the City of Mukilteo in 2022, and the Port will begin a formal process to seek a development partner for its Mukilteo properties this spring.
The community vision itself, drawn from a wide public outreach process, is worth reading in its plainest form:
The Mukilteo community wants a vibrant waterfront with access to the water, walking trails, dining, culture, and a place to enjoy magnificent views of the sea, islands and mountains.
Source: the Port of Everett's Mukilteo Waterfront Development page, which is the document to bookmark if you want to track what actually gets built. The study area stretches from Mukilteo's Lighthouse Park to Edgewater Beach, roughly the length of a comfortable evening walk.
What this means for a resident: the current summer is the last one where the layout of Front Street is a given. When a development partner is announced and the design phase begins, the parklet, the interim parking lot, the row of buildings between the ferry and the lighthouse all become moving pieces. Photograph what you love about the walk right now.
The ferry is back on schedule, which changes the evening
If you sat out Front Street this past winter because the ferry was on a construction schedule, this is worth noting. Washington State Ferries did in-water work at the Mukilteo terminal beginning January 2026 to repair and reposition a key ferry landing structure, requiring midday shutdowns of four hours over nine days and overnight schedule changes in January and February. That project was tied to a hard ferry landing in 2022 that damaged the left/west wingwall. The midday closures ended in February. Summer sailings are on the normal schedule, which is the reason the Wednesday market's 3 to 7 p.m. window actually works: you can catch the tail end of a Whidbey day trip, walk off the boat at the new terminal, and be at Reham's booth in under five minutes.
The new terminal itself, which opened as a $187 million project replacing the 63-year-old terminal nearby, is now the reference point residents use to describe the waterfront. If you have been giving directions using "the old terminal" as a landmark, this is your reminder that most of the old terminal has been gone for years.
A Wednesday, walked in order
For someone who has lived here long enough to have a default Wednesday, here is a version that uses this specific summer's alignment:
- 4:15 p.m. Park up at Rosehill Community Center and walk down. Front Street parking fills fast after 5.
- 4:30 p.m. Start at the west end of the market, at Lighthouse Park, 609 Front Street. Get produce before the after-work rush at 5:30.
- 5:15 p.m. Cut across to Diamond Knot Brewery & Alehouse at 621 Front Street. Diamond Knot is the first microbrewery in Mukilteo and the oldest in Snohomish County, and the outdoor tables face the water.
- 6:30 p.m. Walk east along the promenade past the interim parking lot, which is the parcel the Port acquired in 2022. This is the stretch that will be redeveloped.
- 7:00 p.m. Dinner at Ivar's Mukilteo Landing, 710 Front Street. This is the parcel closing this month.
- 8:30 p.m. Sunset from the lighthouse lawn, or catch the 8:30 sailing to Clinton for the round trip.
The point of walking it in that order is that every stop has changed status in the last twelve months. It is not a nostalgia tour. It is a snapshot of a moment.
What is already on the calendar
The next set of dates residents should have written down:
- August 7, 1 p.m., Annual Mukilteo Fire and Police Golf Tournament at Harbour Pointe Golf Club, a four-person team scramble.
- August 22, 9 a.m., Heroes vs. Villains Fun Run, a 5K and 10K starting at Rosehill Community Center.
- August 26, final Wednesday of the Farmers Market at Lighthouse Park.
- September 11 to 13, Mukilteo Lighthouse Festival, with the parade downtown on September 12.
The festival is the seam between summer and fall for most families here, and it is worth planning around. If you have out-of-town guests visiting in September, this is the weekend to invite them for.
Living here on a moving map
Front Street in July 2026 rewards paying attention. The market is back because volunteers stitched it back together. The ferry is running normally because a wingwall got fixed. Two parcels that define the waterfront moved in a single Port Commission meeting in February, and the closing on Ivar's is happening this month. None of these are dramatic on their own. Stack them and the picture is a neighborhood that is quietly setting up for a bigger change, and residents who walk the Wednesday market this summer are watching the last version of it before design work begins.
If you own a home in Mukilteo and you are thinking about how this longer arc affects your timing on a sale, a purchase, or a hold, that is the conversation Pete Keating is set up to have. Call or text Pete for a local market consultation.
