Cle Elum's First Holiday Season on a Finished First Street

What does $11.92 million buy on a small-town main street? In Cle Elum it paid for Phase 3 of the First Street rebuild. That one phase cost about four and a half times as much as the first two phases combined. HLA Engineering, the firm that designed and managed the project, says Phase 3 construction was completed in May 2026.

So the costliest part of the downtown project is also the newest, and it opened just in time for the busiest stretch of the downtown calendar. Boo-Elum, the tree lighting and Christmas in Cle Elum all fall between now and early December. Those dates will be the first real test of the finished street.

Three Phases, One Lopsided Bill

The City started the Downtown Revitalization project to support economic development and make First Street safe, walkable and attractive. The work came in three stages, and the final one was by far the largest.

The early phases fixed what sits underground and at the corners. Phase 2 alone added 55 new catch basins and more than 3,800 feet of storm drain pipe. Phase 3 took the full corridor between Oakes and Peoh. Under the region's 2022 transportation plan, it was set to be funded by a $6,011,750 federal BUILD grant plus $938,250 from the state Public Works Trust Fund, a planned package of about $6.95 million. HLA's later figure for Phase 3 is $11.92 million. The firm says the whole project drew on 25 funding sources and needed approvals from FHWA, WSDOT, TIB, CDBG, USDA, the Public Works Board and Kittitas County. The gap between the 2022 plan and the finished total is roughly $5 million. No public source we found itemizes it.

What the Last Phase Put in the Ground

HLA lists the work as:

• Bulbouts at crossings, which narrow the roadway to slow traffic and shorten the walk across
• Angled parking along the corridor
• Patterned sidewalks, new curb and gutter, and ADA-compliant curb ramps
• Street and pedestrian lighting, plus signage on decorative poles
• Undergrounded utilities, with overhead lines moved below the street
• Planters, shrubs, hanging baskets and an irrigation system
• Benches, trash receptacles and bicycle racks
• Street trees with GFI receptacles for lighting

The last item on that list matters most for the next three months. The street trees now have built-in electrical outlets for lights. In January 2026, Cle Elum City Council approved a Holiday Lighting lodging-tax application from the Downtown Association for $72,783.98. That same night, it approved $7,750 for the Christmas Parade and Fireworks. The lighting award is nearly ten times the parade and fireworks award. So this season, the holiday lights are the largest piece of downtown event spending, on a street that now has power at the trees.

HLA also says the earlier intersection work has spurred private investment in nearby buildings. The firm does not name those buildings or say when the work happened.

The Street, Address by Address

The Cle Elum Downtown Association's business directory, current as of April 2026, puts a dense run of food, drink and retail along East First Street. Here it is in street-number order, for anyone planning a walk between events:

1. Troutwater Fly Shop, 102 E First St.
2. Cavallini's + CO, 106 E First St.
3. Hawk American Outdoors, 108 E First St.
4. Coal Mountain Caboose, 115 E First St.
5. Ruby's, 116 E First St.
6. Miner's Pizza & Pastry, 121 E First St.
7. Beau's Pizza and Pasta, 124 E First St.
8. Upsidedown Wine, 205 E First St.
9. 509 Bake House, 207 E First St.
10. Jensen Farms Outpost, 211 E First St.
11. Orchard Restaurant, 212 E First St.
12. Bright & Day, 213 E First St.
13. Cle Elum Taps and Tapas, 311 E First St.
14. Mule and Elk Brewing, 418 E First St.
15. Cle Elum Bakery, 501 E First St.
16. Owens Meat Market, 502 E First St.

The 100 and 200 blocks hold most of the list. Between them you can find coffee, pastry, pizza, wine and a sit-down dinner, plus outdoor gear and gifts. An April 2026 travel guide to Cle Elum also features Orchard, Upsidedown Wine, 509 Bake House, Cle Elum Bakery and Owens Meats as First Street food and drink stops. At the east end, Cle Elum Bakery and Owens Meat Market sit across from each other at 501 and 502 East.

Pioneer Coffee's main shop is around the corner at 121 N Pennsylvania. It also lists a drive-through at 901 W First St. for anyone coming into downtown from the west.

None of the public sources map individual storefronts to the Phase 3 boundary or to the earlier phases. Some of these addresses sit on the newly rebuilt frontage and some may sit on the Phase 2 side. In either case, they now share one continuous, finished First Street for the first time.

The Calendar the New Street Will Carry

These are the dates on the books for fall and winter. Most of them come from the City's 2026 event tracker, updated in August. The tracker lists the Downtown Association's events as "pending" at the committee level and leaves their locations blank. Treat the times as scheduled, and expect final details to come closer to each date.

Last year, Boo-Elum's Trunk-or-Treat ran on First Street between Pennsylvania and Wright. No 2026 location has been posted. The Downtown Association's own online calendar showed no upcoming events as of this writing, so the City tracker is currently the more complete list.

The Kittitas County Chamber describes Ladies Night Out as an evening of shopping, dining, pop-up vendors and in-store offers across downtown Cle Elum. That makes it the event on this list most closely tied to the storefronts above, and it falls on a Thursday between Halloween and the tree lighting.

The three December 5 and November 28 events are all early-evening events after dark in late fall. That is when the new pedestrian lighting, the tree outlets and the $72,783.98 lighting budget all come into play at once. With Phase 3 completed in May, these are the first holiday events since the finished street opened.

The Northern Kittitas County Tribune listed "First Street gets makeover in Cle Elum" among its September 24, 2026 stories. Its print edition is the place to look for local coverage of the finished project.

If you'd like to talk about how downtown's new walkability might shape your plans for a home nearby, or how a property close to First Street might be presented this season, Colette Graham and Tony are glad to meet you over coffee on the street itself. Contact Us.