Since August 29, a rider can board a King County Metro bus in North Bend and stay on it until Mercer Island Station. That is new. Route 215 replaced Route 208 and now runs between Mercer Island, Eastgate, Issaquah Highlands, Snoqualmie and North Bend. Route 269 was extended from Issaquah Highlands to the station over I-90, and Route 218 stopped going to downtown Seattle so it could end at the same platform.
Nearby, Town Center's newest building tells a slower story. Lunara at 7750 SE 29th St. opened July 14. As of October 20, its glass-fronted commercial space was still empty, according to The MIHS Islander. In seven months, light rail has changed how people get through Town Center more than it has changed what's there when they stop. A permit filing and a Halloween map show where that could start to change.
The bus map now points at 77th and 80th
Sound Transit opened the 2 Line across Lake Washington on Saturday, March 28. The city held its opening-day celebration on the top deck of the Park-and-Ride garage, and the City of Mercer Island's own account says the trains were packed that day. The station sits between 77th Avenue SE and 80th Avenue SE.
Metro's fall service change took effect August 29. It treated the station as a transfer point, and four routes that Islanders or their neighbors use changed:
| Route | What changed August 29 | What it means at the station |
|---|---|---|
| 215 | New; replaces deleted Route 208 | Links Mercer Island to Eastgate, Issaquah Highlands, Snoqualmie and North Bend |
| 218 | Now starts and ends at Mercer Island Station | No longer goes to downtown Seattle; riders transfer to the 2 Line |
| 269 | Extended from Issaquah Highlands via I-90 | Weekday peak buses every 15 minutes, plus new weekend service |
| 111 | All-day, all-week, based at South Bellevue Station | No longer goes to downtown Seattle |
The Mercer Island Reporter's August roundup called Route 215 an all-week connection between North Bend, Snoqualmie, Issaquah and Mercer Island Station. Taken together, the changes make the Island a stop where people from much of the I-90 corridor change from bus to train. Those transfers happen across the street from Town Center's shops.
The city has already had to manage that kind of crowd once. During the World Cup this summer, Island residents parked for free at the Mercer Island Community and Event Center while nonresidents paid. Paid parking there and at the Town Center Parking Area brought in $17,590, which was meant to cover event staffing and police overtime, the Reporter wrote in July.
A restaurant shows up in a design-review filing
Lunara has 146 apartments. The Reporter's August 28 story said the first residents moved in July 20 and that seven retail spaces were planned, though it named no tenants. The Islander's October piece counted more than 14,000 square feet of commercial space. It also listed what used to be on the site: Mud Bay, King Insurance and Tiger Garden Chinese Restaurant.
An application dated October 12, posted on the City of Mercer Island permit bulletin, proposes exterior changes "to accommodate a specific restaurant tenant" in the space facing 77th Avenue SE. The filing does not name the restaurant. It does show its size. Two neighboring retail spaces would become one, with a 70.9-foot frontage on the 77th Avenue sidewalk and three entrance doors.
That frontage is why the plan needs design review. Town Center zoning limits any single ground-floor use to 60 feet of continuous street frontage. The design commission can approve up to 20 more feet if the use adds something that brings people onto the sidewalk, such as an extra entrance. The applicant adds a door to stay under that cap. Restaurants are also on the list of required ground-floor uses for that zone. The interior work is filed separately under a tenant improvement permit. The restaurant is still a proposal and has not opened.
The space fronts 77th Avenue SE, the same street as the station's west entrance.
What business owners said in the first weeks
The only accounts of how light rail affected Town Center businesses come from the first weeks of service. On opening day, Hap's Burgers and Taps saw about 50% more business than on a typical day, owner Daniel Brawer told KOMO News. He noted that the good weather helped, and staff said many of the customers looked new. About ten days later, David Huffman of Shawn's Cafe and Bakery told KIRO 7, "I see one or two every day who said they came on light rail." Those are early, one-off reports from one restaurant and one bakery. No one has published a longer-term count.
Before the trains started, a few business owners made predictions to the Mercer Island Reporter. Ginny Clarke of Clarke & Clarke Art + Artifacts in the Boyd Building expected restaurants to benefit first, with riders exploring the rest of Town Center later. Joshua Wojcik of Barrels Wine Bar said he wasn't sure whether the trains would bring people to the Island or take them away. Jim Eanes, an Islander who works at Barrels, offered a different idea:
"The key is not bringing people from off island. The key is bringing people on Island to the Town Center (to take trains). So it may work in reverse of what people are thinking, and the gold mine might be all of a sudden our own residents say, 'OK, now we have a reason to go to Town Center.'"
Seven months in, that is the idea to watch. The planned restaurant fits it, and so does what's on the Town Center calendar this week.
This week on 77th Avenue SE
Town Center Trick or Treat is Friday, October 30, from 4 to 6 p.m. Participating businesses have a poster of two little ghosts in the window. The city's participant list is mostly businesses that were open before the trains: Island Books, Macrina, Pagliacci, Mioposto, Vivienne's Bistro, Crawlspace Gastropub, Sushi Joa, Hub Boba & Creamery, Barrels, Hap's and MercyVet. None of Lunara's storefronts are on it.
On the same block, Sound Transit's sidewalk work outside the station's west entrance on 77th Avenue SE runs through Saturday, October 31, from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. During work hours, the northbound sidewalk and the pick-up and drop-off spot there are closed. The sidewalk north of the entrance is closed for the whole project, so that entrance can only be reached from the south. On Friday, the first hour of trick-or-treating overlaps the last hour of the workday, so anyone meeting a train near 77th that afternoon will need to come from the south side.
The parking rules from before the trains are still in place too. The city ended the Town Center Commuter Parking Permit Program in September 2024. The North Mercer Restricted Parking District, created in 2003 to keep Park-and-Ride overflow off neighborhood streets, is still active. According to the city's parking permit page, resident permits there cost $25 a year, guest and temporary contractor permits cost $10, and all of them expire December 31. The resident application posted now is for 2026–2027. This is general information, not legal advice. Check your own eligibility with the city.
The rest of the calendar through December
The Mercer Island Farmers Market ended its season on Sunday, October 11. Most of the city's events through December are at the Mercer Island Community & Event Center, 8236 SE 24th St.:
- Wednesday, November 4, 5–7 p.m. Opening reception for the Mercer Island Art Gallery's holiday show and pop-up sale, curated by the Mercer Island Visual Arts League.
- Friday, November 20, 10–11:30 a.m. Open Art Studio, a free session run with Island resident Irene Rajagopal.
- Thursday, December 3, 5:30 p.m. The city's Holiday Tree Lighting, with performances by the high school choir and Creation Dance Studio. Check the event page for the location.
- Saturday, December 5, 10 a.m.–3 p.m. The Holiday Makers Market, run by the city and the Mercer Island Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber says admission is free.
- Friday, December 11, 6–8:30 p.m. The city's Community Holiday Party.
On the south end, the QFC at 8421 SE 68th St. opened a pharmacy on October 21. It is open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and offers prescriptions and flu shots. The Reporter says QFC added it after Island residents asked for one at that store. The next thing to watch in Town Center is whether Lunara's 77th Avenue restaurant gets through design review. The October 12 filing is the first item in that file.
If you own near the station and want to know how the new bus routes, the North Mercer parking district and the leasing on 77th Avenue SE affect what your home is worth, The Greely Group is glad to walk you through it. Schedule a free consultation, and we'll go over what is changing on your block.
