The Sears building at Shoreline Place came down between mid-August and the first days of October 2026. It had opened in 1967 and closed in spring 2018, so it stood empty for about eight years. Over those years the rest of the property kept going. A new strip of storefronts opened along Westminster Way, a thrift store moved into a vacant retail building, a dim sum restaurant took over an old buffet space, and the grocery store stayed put. By early 2026, the City of Shoreline reported that the retail space at Shoreline Place was almost fully leased, with one shop space left. The building everyone pictured when they thought of the site was the last empty piece left.
| Piece of the site | What used to be there | What's planned | Status in the latest reports |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blocks E1 and E2 | Lot on Westminster Way N | Small-shop storefronts | Four businesses opened in 2025, one space left |
| Block E4 | U.S. Bank building | 9,179 sq ft retail building with five storefronts | Under construction by Aug. 9, 2026, openings expected in 2028 |
| Block D | Sears Auto Center | About 370 homes and 16,200 sq ft of ground-floor retail | In building permit review, construction expected later in 2026 |
| Block C | Sears store | New development, design underway | Building demolished by early October 2026 |
Eight weeks of drone photos
Shoreline Area News followed the teardown in a series of posts, most with drone photos by David Carlos. On Aug. 16, piles of rubble surrounded the building while crews gutted the interior. By Sept. 2, walls and sections of roof were coming down, and the section on the 160th Street side was gone. That opened up a level under the back parking area that editor Diane Hettrick wrote she had never known was there.
Carlos had a name for the building's shape. When it went up in 1967, he wrote, it looked like a giant sheet cake with "Sears" lettered across it. By Sept. 28, only "an edge piece and a corner piece" were left. The Oct. 3 post, titled "The final moments at Sears," confirmed that the buildings next to the store had their own walls and were still standing. It also said reader comments made clear how big a part the store played in local life, both as a place to buy just about everything and as a major local employer.
Those still-standing buildings next door are why this demolition plays out differently from most big-box teardowns. The Sears came down in the middle of a center that was open for business the whole time.
What kept running beside it
The center filled in around the empty store over several years. Here's what's operating near the old Sears footprint, based on the most recent reports.
The grocery anchor. Town & Country Markets runs its Shoreline store at 15505 Westminster Way N. The chain's website lists it as Shoreline, and Shoreline Area News calls it Central Market. Both names refer to the same store. The Sept. 2 demolition report described Central Market and the small business in its wing as unchanged.
The Westminster Way storefronts. Blocks E1 and E2 were the first new construction to open. The City lists four businesses that opened there in 2025: T'Zen Nails, Mustache Tea, Waxing the City, and Five Guys. Their opening dates show how gradually the block filled:
- Mustache Milk Tea held a soft opening at 15525 Westminster Way N on March 12, 2025.
- T'Zen Nails opened sometime in 2025. The City confirms the year but no date has been published.
- Waxing the City opened Aug. 28, 2025, at 15515 Westminster Way N.
- Five Guys opened Sept. 12, 2025, at the same address.
In January 2025, the developer expected all four to open by the second quarter of 2025 and said permits and inspections had taken longer than planned. In the end, the openings stretched across about six months. MOD Pizza had also been on the tenant plan, but the developer said it decided not to open because of corporate challenges.
Dim sum. Triumph Valley opened on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, in the space that used to hold the Chinese Buffet. Its online ordering page lists the address as 15323 Westminster Way N.
Thrift. Magpie Thrift opened at 15403 Westminster Way N in summer 2025, in the former Salvation Army store near Town & Country. It's the second Magpie, after the original on Capitol Hill, and both stores carry clothing, furniture, and household goods. Magpie is independently owned, and its profits go to its partner nonprofit, Everly Seattle.
Chipotle. Chipotle Mexican Grill's blue roof shows up in the corner of one of Carlos's September drone shots.
None of these openings needed the Sears building to come down first. That's the pattern across the whole site: the redevelopment started at the edges and the old anchor came last.
The order of what comes next
The next phases follow the same outside-in sequence.
Block E4, the old U.S. Bank corner
The U.S. Bank building at N 155th Street and Westminster Way had been vacant for some time. By Aug. 9, 2026, construction was well underway on its replacement, a single-story, 9,179-square-foot retail building near Town & Country with five storefronts. The developer's leasing materials list spaces from about 1,465 to 2,535 square feet. No tenants have been named, and the stores are expected to open in 2028. If you banked at the old branch, U.S. Bank's current branch is inside the Shoreline Safeway on 15th Avenue NE in North City.
This block moved faster than the City projected. Its early-2026 update planned demolition for the second quarter and permits later in the year, and crews were already building by August.
Block D, the old Sears Auto Center lot
Block D is the 3.2-acre empty lot west of the Sears building, along Westminster Way, where the Sears Auto Center used to be. The plan, designed by Urbal Architecture, calls for a seven-story building with about 370 homes, about 16,200 square feet of ground-floor retail, and two levels of underground parking. It finished administrative design review in October 2025. In the City's early-2026 update it was in building permit review, with construction expected later in 2026. The most recent coverage we found, from April 2026, repeated that timeline. We haven't found a published permit issuance or groundbreaking since then.
Block C, the Sears footprint itself
The space the Sears just cleared comes after Block D. The City says design work for the new Block C development is happening at the same time as the other phases, and that Block C will begin after Block D. That makes the most visible empty lot at Shoreline Place the last piece in line to be built.
The 160th Street entrance
One more change could affect how you get to the store. The City is working with the Washington State Department of Transportation on updated access plans from 160th Street, and hopes to finalize an easement and approve the plans later in 2026. The reports we reviewed don't mention any current parking loss, road closure, or detour for shoppers.
How big the site was, and how big it's getting
The scale explains why this has taken so long. The Daily Journal of Commerce described the larger Aurora Square area as a roughly 70-acre trapezoid. Merlone Geier Partners bought the nearly 17-acre Sears property in summer 2017 for almost $15 million, a few months before the store closed. The City and the developer signed a development agreement in 2019.
Estimates for the final size differ. The developer's leasing package describes nearly 1,500 homes at full build-out. The Interurban Canopy's April 2026 report, republished by My Edmonds News, puts the total at 1,358 apartments. Either way, the roughly 370 homes on Block D make up about a quarter of the total. The rest of the planned homes are still in later phases, including Block C, which is still in design.
The developer's brochure also shows an East Plaza, a farmers market, and open-air community space. Those images are labeled "conceptual rendering," and we haven't found any report that a plaza has opened or that an event series is scheduled. For now, what you can visit on the site is the grocery store, the Westminster Way storefronts, Triumph Valley, Magpie, Chipotle, and the tenants in the buildings that stood next to the Sears and are still standing.
If you own a home near Shoreline Place, Block D's permit and the 160th Street access plan are likely the next updates to follow. If you're wondering how the build-out could affect your property's value, Chris Haynes follows the redevelopment block by block and can walk you through it. Get your free home valuation.
