606Onni 606 · Bellevue

Onni 606 · July 21, 2026

July 2026 progress report: Onni 606 moves into early earthwork

A month-to-date visual record shows the cleared Bellevue block advancing from slab removal to broad shallow grading, while the permits for shoring and the deep garage dig remain pending.

Six excavators, a dozer and a water truck spread across the graded Onni 606 construction site in Downtown Bellevue on July 21, 2026.
By July 21, six excavators and a dozer occupied a broad early-works area across the former Barnes & Noble and John Danz Theatre block. Photo provided to onni606.com.

Visual comparison

Three excavators breaking and clearing remaining concrete slab at Onni 606 on July 13, 2026.
July 13 — three excavators break and sort a bounded strip of remaining slab.
Six excavators across a broad graded early-earthwork area at Onni 606 on July 21, 2026.
July 21 — the active area spans most of the visible block, with six excavators present.

July is the month Onni 606 visibly crossed from clearing a demolished block into early earthwork. At the start of the month, much of the camera-facing surface still read as a continuous pale slab. By July 13, three excavators were breaking and sorting a sharply bounded strip of concrete. Over the following eight days, that opening spread across most of the visible site and the working fleet grew to six excavators plus a tracked dozer.

The sequence is clearest in the fixed visual references. Photographs from July 13, 14 and 15 show the break-sort-clear operation moving south: intact foreground sections disappear, broad rubble bands become distinct stockpiles and shallow subgrade replaces the former hard surface. A July 17 camera frame then shows a wider exposed-soil cut and dump-truck activity. By July 21, the central and southern grade is broader and smoother, while broken material is concentrated mainly near the northeast and foreground edges.

Bellevue's inspection record confirms active work under issued early-works clear-and-grade permit 21-133872-GD. The city marked an initial erosion-control inspection Partial with Corrections on July 14, directing catch-basin protection along 106th Avenue NE, then recorded a second inspection as Ongoing on July 20. Those entries document continued grading oversight; they do not issue a new phase of work.

That permit distinction matters. The visible cut remains shallow, no perimeter shoring wall appears in the photographs, and the dedicated mass-excavation and shoring permit and below-grade building permit are still Pending. The future five-level garage requires a much deeper, supported excavation. July's work is the physical prelude to that hole, not evidence that the full garage dig has been released.

The next decisive milestones are documentary as much as visual: issuance of the shoring and below-grade permits, followed by perimeter support and a block-wide descent below the current grade. Until then, the most accurate status is early excavation under the issued grading permit. This report will be followed by a new monthly comparison as the site changes.

Sources

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