What New Construction and Major Development Projects Are Currently Underway in Bellevue, Washington in 2026

Downtown Bellevue is the epicenter of new construction activity in 2026. Several high-rise and mixed-use projects are simultaneously in various stages of permitting, construction, and near-completion, making the downtown core look and feel meaningfully different than it did even two years ago. The skyline between NE 4th Street and NE 12th Street is the most visually active stretch in the city.

The Onni Group Megaproject on NE 10th

The single largest residential development currently underway in Bellevue is the Onni Group project near NE 10th Street and 106th Avenue NE. This development will deliver approximately 1,300 homes across multiple towers, along with amenity spaces that include pools, a daycare facility, and ground-floor retail. According to Downtown Bellevue's April 2026 report, this is the Onni Group's largest project in Washington State. The scale here is significant: adding 1,300 units to a city where the total housing supply has historically been constrained puts real downward pressure on rent growth in the immediate vicinity, even as for-sale prices in the broader market hold firm.

The project's location places it within a short walk of the Bellevue Transit Center and the East Link light rail stations that opened along the 112th Avenue NE corridor. That proximity to transit is a deliberate design choice. Residents will be able to reach downtown Seattle in roughly 20 minutes by rail, and the surrounding street grid connects easily to the Bellevue Collection shopping district, Bellevue Square, and Lincoln Square. For buyers evaluating new construction condominiums in this part of downtown, this project will set the benchmark for amenity expectations and price-per-square-foot comparisons through at least 2027.

The Washington Square Superblock Office Tower

On the commercial side, a 12-story office tower has been proposed for the Washington Square superblock, one of the most closely watched development sites in the city. The superblock spans a large area bounded by NE 8th Street, NE 10th Street, 106th Avenue NE, and 110th Avenue NE, and has been a subject of planning conversations for years. The proposed tower would add significant Class A office square footage to a downtown core that has seen major tech and professional services employers expand their Bellevue footprints since 2020. You can read the full proposal summary at Downtown Bellevue's December 2025 coverage.

More office space in downtown Bellevue matters to home buyers because it signals continued employer demand for the area. When large employers anchor themselves in a submarket, housing demand in walkable proximity tends to stay durable. Buyers who purchase near the superblock today are positioning themselves in a corridor that will look very different in three to five years.

What the Downtown Pipeline Looks Like Overall

Beyond these two headline projects, the broader downtown development pipeline in 2026 includes multiple additional residential towers in permitting or early construction. The Bellevue Downtown Association tracks this pipeline in detail, cataloguing projects by phase: proposed, permitted, under construction, and recently completed. As of September 2026, the pipeline includes thousands of additional residential units at various stages, plus hotel rooms, structured parking, and ground-floor retail. The cumulative effect is a downtown that is adding density faster than almost any comparable suburban city center in the Pacific Northwest.

2. Residential Development Beyond Downtown

New construction in Bellevue is not limited to the downtown core. Several corridors outside the central business district are seeing meaningful residential and mixed-use activity in 2026, each with its own character, price point, and timeline. If you are comparing where to buy in Bellevue right now, understanding these submarkets is essential. For a broader look at pricing across the city, see this overview of average home prices in Bellevue in September 2026.

Bel-Red Corridor Growth

The Bel-Red corridor, running roughly along NE 24th Street between 120th Avenue NE and 140th Avenue NE, has been one of Bellevue's most active rezoning and redevelopment zones for several years. The city's Bel-Red subarea plan encouraged the transition of older light industrial and auto-oriented commercial parcels into mixed-use residential nodes, and that transformation is clearly visible on the ground in 2026. Several mid-rise apartment and condominium buildings have opened in the past two years, with additional projects currently in construction or permitting.

New homes in the Bel-Red corridor tend to be priced below comparable square footage in downtown Bellevue, making this corridor attractive to buyers who want new construction without the full downtown premium. The area sits roughly 2.5 miles northeast of downtown Bellevue and connects easily to SR-520 via 124th Avenue NE. The two East Link stations at 120th and 130th serve this corridor, which means car-free commuting to Seattle or Redmond is genuinely practical from here.

Wilburton and the Spring District

The Spring District, located on the former PACCAR Parts distribution site along NE Spring Boulevard between 116th and 124th Avenues NE, is Bellevue's most ambitious mixed-use master-planned development outside of downtown. The project is designed to deliver approximately 3,000 residential units, 3 million square feet of office space, and 200,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space when fully built out. As of September 2026, several phases are complete or under construction, with Global Innovation Exchange (GIX), a graduate school partnership between University of Washington and Tsinghua University, already operating on site.

The Spring District has its own East Link light rail station at 130th Avenue NE, which opened as part of the 2024 extension. Residential buildings in the Spring District have ranged from approximately 600 square feet for one-bedroom units to over 1,200 square feet for two-bedroom layouts, with pricing that reflects the new-construction premium and the transit access. The adjacent Wilburton area, just west of the Spring District, is also seeing infill development on formerly commercial parcels as the surrounding land values have risen.

Eastgate and Factoria Area Activity

Southeast Bellevue, including the Eastgate and Factoria areas, has seen more modest but steady residential development compared to the downtown and Bel-Red corridors. Much of the new construction here takes the form of smaller townhome projects and infill single-family builds on subdivided lots, rather than large tower developments. Lot sizes in this part of Bellevue typically range from 6,000 to 10,000 square feet for single-family parcels, and the housing stock mixes mid-century ranches with newer two-story builds. The Factoria area borders the I-90 corridor and sits roughly 4.5 miles from downtown Bellevue, with direct freeway access to Mercer Island and Seattle.

3. Infrastructure and Transit Projects Reshaping Bellevue in 2026

New buildings tell only part of the story. The infrastructure projects running alongside Bellevue's construction boom are equally important for anyone evaluating where to buy or how to time a sale. Roads, utilities, and transit shape how livable new development actually is once people move in.

East Link Light Rail: Open and Running

The East Link extension, Sound Transit's 2 Line, has been operating through Bellevue since its 2024 opening and continues to influence development patterns in 2026. The line connects downtown Seattle to Redmond via Mercer Island, South Bellevue, downtown Bellevue, the Spring District, and the Bel-Red corridor. Travel time from the Bellevue Transit Center station to Westlake Station in downtown Seattle runs approximately 25 minutes. For buyers relocating from Seattle, this changes the calculus on Bellevue entirely: a home in Bellevue no longer requires a car for a Seattle commute.

Road and Streetscape Improvements

The City of Bellevue has been running concurrent streetscape and road improvement projects in the downtown core to accommodate the pedestrian and vehicle volume that new development brings. NE 6th Street between Bellevue Way NE and 110th Avenue NE has been a focus of pedestrian realm improvements, including wider sidewalks, new street trees, and enhanced crosswalk infrastructure. These projects often cause short-term construction disruption but result in measurably improved walkability scores in the areas where they complete.

On the arterial network, 112th Avenue NE has seen lane and signal modifications tied to the light rail alignment. Buyers purchasing near the downtown stations should be aware that construction-related lane restrictions may persist through late 2026 as final utility work wraps up. This is temporary, and the finished streetscape will be a significant upgrade over what existed before.

Utilities and Green Infrastructure

Large-scale development in Bellevue has required parallel upgrades to water, sewer, and stormwater infrastructure, particularly in the Bel-Red and Spring District areas where density is increasing rapidly on formerly low-intensity land. The City of Bellevue's utilities department has been running capital projects to upsize mains in these corridors. Additionally, several new developments are incorporating green stormwater infrastructure including bioretention planters and permeable paving as part of Bellevue's stormwater code requirements. These are not glamorous details, but they matter for long-term maintenance costs and flood risk in areas where impervious surface coverage is increasing.

4. What All This Development Means for Home Buyers and Sellers

Understanding the development pipeline is not just background reading. It directly affects how you should approach buying or selling a home in Bellevue right now. Whether you are purchasing a resale single-family home in Crossroads, a new condominium downtown, or evaluating a townhome near the Spring District, the construction activity around you shapes your experience and your investment.

How New Supply Affects Pricing

Adding thousands of new units to a market over a short period creates a more competitive rental environment, which can moderate rent growth and put some pressure on investor-owned condominiums. For buyers of single-family homes, the impact is more nuanced. New construction condominiums compete directly with resale condominiums for buyers who want low-maintenance living, but they do not directly compete with detached homes on lots. In Bellevue, where single-family land is genuinely scarce and zoning changes have been incremental, the supply of detached homes remains tight relative to demand. For a detailed look at what homes are selling for right now, see the current Bellevue buyer's guide.

Noise, Construction Timelines, and What to Expect Near Active Sites

Buyers considering properties within a few blocks of a major active construction site should factor in noise, dust, and truck traffic during the construction period. High-rise construction in downtown Bellevue typically runs from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, with limited Saturday activity permitted under city noise ordinances. Concrete pours and pile driving are the loudest phases and are generally concentrated in the early months of a project. If a tower is already in its upper-floor framing stage, the loudest work is likely behind it.

On the other side of the timeline, buying near a construction site that is 12 to 18 months from completion means you may be purchasing at a temporary discount relative to what the finished neighborhood will look like. Sellers in these corridors should also understand that buyers will factor construction proximity into their offers, and pricing strategy needs to reflect that reality. This is exactly the kind of local nuance that a Bellevue-focused agent can help you navigate.

Opportunities in Emerging Corridors

The Bel-Red corridor and the blocks immediately east of the Spring District represent areas where buyers in 2026 are purchasing ahead of the full buildout. Retail, restaurants, and services follow residential density, typically with a lag of two to four years. Buyers who move into these corridors now will see the neighborhood around them fill in over the next several years. That trajectory is already visible in the Spring District, where ground-floor retail that was vacant in 2022 is now occupied by coffee shops, fitness studios, and restaurants.

Property taxes are another factor worth examining carefully if you are buying new construction, since assessed values on newly completed buildings are updated more quickly than on long-held resale properties. For a detailed breakdown of how Bellevue property taxes work at various price points, see this article on property taxes on a $2 million home in Bellevue.

5. How to Track Bellevue Development Projects Yourself

The development landscape in Bellevue moves quickly, and the best way to stay current is to go directly to the sources that track it in real time. Whether you are monitoring a specific neighborhood or trying to understand the city's overall trajectory, several reliable resources make this straightforward.

City of Bellevue Permit Portal

The City of Bellevue's online permit portal allows anyone to search active building permits by address, parcel number, or permit type. If you are considering a purchase near a specific address and want to know what is permitted on adjacent parcels, this is the most authoritative source available. You can filter by permit status to see what is under active construction versus what is in plan review. The portal is publicly accessible at no cost and updated regularly by city staff.

Downtown Bellevue Association Pipeline

For a curated, visual overview of downtown-specific projects, the Bellevue Downtown Association maintains a development pipeline page that maps projects by phase and includes square footage, unit counts, and status updates. This is a practical starting point for anyone who wants to understand the downtown core without digging through permit records. The pipeline page is updated periodically and covers both residential and commercial projects.

Working with a Local Agent Who Watches This Closely

Public data sources tell you what is permitted. A local agent tells you what it means for your specific purchase or sale. Marianna Caba of Coldwell Banker Bain works specifically in Bellevue and the surrounding Eastside communities, and she monitors the development pipeline as part of her ongoing market analysis. Knowing that a proposed tower is in early design review versus actively under construction, or that a specific block is being assembled for a future project, changes how you price, time, and negotiate a transaction.