The latest & greatest on all things Bellevue, Eastside, and Chamber-member-related.
The Bellevue Chamber Board of Directors gathered at the Brazen family home for our annual Summer Social. A thank you to the Brazens for hosting, and an invitation to meet the members who lead the Chamber. Continue Reading
San Francisco Fed research director Sylvain Leduc joined a Bellevue Chamber Lunch to explain the shift from demand to supply shocks, why energy- and tariff-driven inflation is easing, and how AI investment is powering both economic resilience and risk. Continue Reading
Bellevue City Council sent the MFTE Catalyst housing ordinance to a future consent calendar and studied a Transportation Benefit District that could add about $250 million against a $1.5 billion, 20-year transportation need. Chamber-convened coalitions testified on both items. Continue Reading
Bellevue's Parking Reform LUCA retires outdated ratios and moves to a single citywide commercial standard. Our July 21 letter to the Planning Commission credits that progress and flags five recommendations the strike draft left unaddressed, from visitor parking to departure pathways. Continue Reading
Bellevue's MFTE Catalyst program for HOMA is down to code language. Our July 20 joint letter with the Housing Development Consortium backs fee-in-lieu eligibility for MFTE, clearer application timing, and striking the sentence that disqualifies fee-paying projects. Continue Reading
Bellevue Chamber President & CEO Joe Fain joined a panel with Steve Mullin at AWB's Economic Future Solutions Summit, where speakers raised concerns about state budgeting, taxes, regulations, and cost pressures on small and midsize businesses. Continue Reading
Bellevue Chamber CEO Joe Fain on what Seattle's World Cup summer taught him about hope, pride, and joy, and why fighting cynicism, not just bad ideas, is the region's next great civic project. Continue Reading
Bellevue City Council adopted Ordinance 6929, renewing Old Bellevue's Main Street design controls with a reworked facade incentive, reviewed a draft business improvement area policy, and started the Bellevue College rezone. Continue Reading
The Bellevue Children's Business Fair returned to Downtown Park for 2026, with over 75 kid businesses and 120 young entrepreneurs selling their wares. New this year: a five-week workshop that helped participants sharpen their products and pitches. Continue Reading
Inside the July Policy Council: AWB's Morgan Irwin maps the 2026 legislative races and the income tax repeal fight, while PSE's Matt Perry details Bellevue's grid capacity study, the planned Vernell substation, and the Oregon-sized power gap coming in 2030. Continue Reading
On July 7 our PLUSH Committee and the BelRed Property Owners Group gave the Planning Commission a consolidated record of what remains unresolved on the BelRed Look Forward LUCA: the mandatory street grid, the 26-foot path standard, and new costs without offsets. Continue Reading
Fifteen new businesses joined the Bellevue Chamber in June 2026, spanning real estate and development, technology, hospitality, professional services, and education. Meet them all. Continue Reading
