Early excavation is under way at Onni 606 — and Bellevue's record explains the permit boundary

A broad shallow excavation with exposed soil and several excavators across the southern part of the Onni 606 site in Downtown Bellevue. — By 12:45 p.m. on July 17, exposed soil and a broad shallow cut occupied much of the southern work area. Onni 606 construction camera.

Excavation has begun at Onni 606 — with an important qualifier. Construction-camera frames from Friday, July 17 show several excavators working across a broad shallow cut, large areas of exposed soil and dump trucks moving through the cleared block. That is more than slab removal: crews are now removing and redistributing earth below the former surface.

The authority for that work was already hiding in plain sight. Bellevue issued clear-and-grade permit 21-133872-GD on December 23, 2025 with the description "Early works clear and grade permit for mass excavation for future two residential towers and one office tower." The permit remains Issued through December 2028, and the city completed preconstruction conferences on April 1 and June 17, 2026.

Bellevue has also begun inspecting the work under that permit. On July 14, a city inspector recorded the initial erosion-control inspection as "Partial with Corrections" and directed the contractor to install catch-basin inserts along 106th Avenue NE. The result is not a final approval of every grading operation, but it is direct evidence that the city knows early grading is active and is enforcing the issued permit's site-control requirements.

The same record draws a boundary around what has been released. A December 16, 2025 transportation review note says the permit is "for early grading only" and that "full on-site grading has not been approved at this time." That distinction matches the camera: a shallow open cut is visible, but there is no perimeter shoring wall and no full-depth, block-wide garage excavation.

The permits for that later phase have not changed. Dedicated mass-excavation and shoring permit 21-134212-BV remains Pending after structural and geotechnical reviewers requested another revision July 10. Below-grade building permit 24-104362-BB, covering garage levels P2 through P5, also remains Pending with structural and fire reviews unfinished. No new project-scale permit appeared on the parcel through July 17.

The most accurate construction status is therefore no longer "excavation pending." Limited early excavation is under way under the issued clear-and-grade permit; full shored excavation and construction of the five-level underground structure remain behind separate approvals. The hole has started in an early-works sense, even though the much deeper garage dig has not.

Sources

Independent and unaffiliated with Onni Group. Written from the public City of Bellevue record; corrections via the contact form.