The Running List
What's Coming to Ridgefield in 2026 — The Running List
Ridgefield is growing. You already know this, because you have sat on Pioneer Street watching construction crews multiply like they are being paid by the crane. Rather than scroll through four Facebook groups trying to work out what is actually happening and where, we went to the permit records. Here is everything we can confirm, organized by area, updated as the paperwork moves.
The city's development activity map and permit records are public, and they are a goldmine. What follows is everything we have been able to confirm, broken down by area so you know where to find it when it opens. A sign permit means a business is real and committed. An engineering permit means dirt is about to move. Opening dates are almost never in the paperwork, so we chase those separately and add them here as we get them.
This update covers everything through the city's August 2026 Development Summary, plus what has happened around town since. On paper, August looks sleepy: the city issued exactly zero new commercial building permits. Underneath that number, a lot moved. Dirt started moving at Discovery Station, three site plans got approved, a second credit union showed up on Pioneer, and the rec center finally has a deal.
New as of October 1: Goodwill is open on 65th Avenue. Discovery Station grading is officially under construction. The Recreation Center has an approved development agreement. GESA Credit Union filed a site plan on Pioneer. A Take 5 Oil Change is headed for Royle Ridge East. And Discount Tire, TPI and a downtown business called Center Market all got approvals.
A sign permit means it's real. An engineering permit means it's imminent. And a birdie in a reflective orange vest means we heard about it first.
Discovery Station — The Big One
In July we told you the early grading application was the tell. In August, it did exactly what we said it would: the city now lists MAJ Discovery Station's 20-acre early grading as under construction.
Quick refresher. MAJ Development has a mixed-use project on roughly twenty acres of vacant ground south of Pioneer Street near the Discovery Drive roundabout. You may have seen it going around as "a WinCo might be coming." Here is what the paperwork actually says.
Discovery Station · What the Records Show
Look at how every other project on this list has behaved: Royle Ridge East, Discovery Ridge Phase 2A, the Union Ridge pads, TPI. Each one showed up as early grading under review, then reappeared under construction a few months later. Discovery Station just did the same thing, right on schedule. Nobody grades twenty acres as a thought experiment.
What has not changed: we are still not printing a tenant name we cannot confirm. The city's documents describe a large retail building and stop there. Other outlets have compared the square footage and site layout to recent grocery chain builds, and that inference may well turn out to be right. But an inference is not an announcement. When there is a name on a permit, it will be here the same week.
What we can confirm on that corner is smaller and more caffeinated.
Zoning Confirmation Issued · July 2, 2026
Dutch Bros
Pioneer Street & North Discovery Drive
File PLZ-26-0079 is a zoning confirmation request from Dutch Bros for the Pioneer and North Discovery Drive corner, and the city issued its decision on July 2.
Setting expectations properly: a zoning confirmation letter is a company asking the city "would this use be allowed here," not a permit and not a lease. Plenty of them never turn into buildings. But the site plans for this development already showed a roughly 1,000-square-foot walk-up-and-drive-thru coffee kiosk, and now there is a brand name attached to that intersection in the city's own records. Draw your own conclusions, carefully.
Under Construction
Ridgefield Corporate Park (PacTrust)
5145 Pioneer Street · 19.71 acres
Sharing an address with the MAJ grading work, which is why the Development Activity Map labels this ground with two different project names and why everyone gets confused clicking on it. Two projects, same dirt. Commercial development, already under construction.
Ridgefield Recreation Center — It Has a Deal
For years the rec center has been the thing everyone asks about and nobody can put a date on. On August 27, the City Council voted 6-1 to approve a development agreement with Portland-based Blue Rock Ventures. Now there is a plan, a price tag and a target year.
Rec Center · The Agreement
Before anyone buys a swim cap: several things still have to happen before a shovel goes in. Both sides have to confirm their funding, the ground lease has to be signed, wetland mitigation has to be resolved, and a boundary line adjustment has to split the land between the public and private halves. None of that is unusual. All of it takes time.
But this is the furthest this project has ever gotten. The agreement even requires at least 80 hours a week of facility and pool time, year-round. We checked.
65th Avenue, East of I-5
S 65th Avenue, off Pioneer Street. New to this list as its own section, because it finally has an anchor.
Now Open · September 3, 2026
Goodwill Ridgefield Tri-Mountain
121 S 65th Avenue
Goodwill opened on September 3 to a line of more than 500 people standing in the rain, which tells you everything about Ridgefield's relationship with a good thrift find. The mayor cut the ribbon, and staff clapped every single shopper through the door. That took about fifteen minutes.
The building permit was issued last October for a 25,518-square-foot building valued at about $2.9 million, and it anchors the new Tri-Mountain Station development. It is also more than a store. The location includes a Job Connection center with free job training, ESL classes, citizenship prep and computer classes.
Donate, shop, or take a class. All three count.
Sign Permit Under Review
PC Smiles
109 S 65th Avenue, Suite 104
Sign permit filed July 13 and still under review in August. The name suggests dental. We are confirming before we say so.
Open · Per Community Reports
Men's Barber at Ridgefield Crossing
110 S 65th Avenue, Suite 116
Permit closed, community reports say open. Go get a haircut.
Royle Ridge & the Pioneer Corridor
Pioneer Street, west of I-5. The stretch that has gone from farmland to a full commercial corridor in about four years.
Sign Is Up · Opening Looks Close
Grocery Outlet
4618 Pioneer Street
The 16,900-square-foot shell was permitted in January and the tenant improvement was issued in March. The sign is up on the building, which is usually one of the last visible steps before an opening date gets announced.
One small August item at this address: a post-decision review on the Royle Ridge commercial master plan got its Notice of Decision on August 20. We read that as late-stage housekeeping rather than anything dramatic.
Discount grocery, name brands at lower prices, rotating inventory that keeps things interesting. Still no official date, and we are still asking.
Lease Listed · Site Under Construction
Take 5 Oil Change
Royle Ridge East · 4784 Pioneer Street
New to the list. A commercial real estate sale listing for this parcel says it is fully leased to Take 5 Oil Change, the quick-lube chain. The city's records back up that something is happening here: engineering on the just-under-one-acre Royle Ridge East site is under construction, a freestanding sign permit is awaiting resubmittal, and the final plat was filed August 28.
No city permit has the Take 5 name on it yet, which is why this says "lease listed" and not "confirmed." But a signed ground lease being marketed to investors is not nothing. Oil changes without leaving your car, on the corridor where you were already sitting in it anyway.
Permits Issued · Under Construction
Royle Ridge Convenience Store
4500 Pioneer Street
Building permits were issued in July for a 4,492-square-foot convenience store plus a separate 3,612-square-foot fuel canopy. In August the engineering was approved and moved to under construction.
So: another gas station on Pioneer, and it is happening. Reactions in this town will vary and both of them are valid.
Engineering Under Review
Fibre Federal Credit Union
4610 Pioneer Street · 0.35 acres
A small pad next to the Grocery Outlet building. Back under review in August after sitting at awaiting resubmittal in July, which means the ball is in the city's court again. Fibre Federal is a Longview-based credit union with branches across southwest Washington.
Between this, iQ, and GESA's brand-new filing further down Pioneer (see below), "banking row" is no longer a joke. It is a description.
Awaiting Pre-Construction Meeting
Royle Ridge Multi-Family
180 N Royle Road · 5.82 acres
Apartments, and they moved forward in August. Grading is done, and the development engineering went from awaiting resubmittal to awaiting precon, the meeting between the city and the builders right before the real work starts. More housing on the Pioneer corridor drives demand for roughly everything else on this list. That is how the loop works.
Pioneer Village
S Settler Drive. A pediatric dentist, a pottery studio, a chocolate shop we have been chasing since spring, and a realtor who outgrew Main Street.
Now Open · August 18, 2026
Happy Kids Dentistry
4312 S Settler Drive, Suite 100
Open as of Tuesday, August 18. The pediatric dental practice got three illuminated signs approved across the northern, eastern and western elevations, which is to say they would like to be visible from every direction in Clark County, which is peak dental marketing energy and honestly kind of respect it.
If you have been driving a kid to Vancouver for cleanings, that is over. Go make an appointment.
Confirmed by Owner · Opening Soon
Whimsy Chocolates
Former Juxtaposition space, Pioneer Village
Owner Pamela Wanous tells us Whimsy Chocolates is taking half of the former Juxtaposition space, which means a chocolate shop is opening roughly forty feet from a yoga studio and we are choosing to see that as balance rather than sabotage.
Pamela wants you all to know that this will be much more than your regular chocolate shop. I saw the plans, my beautiful people. Think Parisian pâtisserie and you would be right on track.
They also run a storefront in the Mountain Timber Market up in Kalama, which they will be keeping.
Now Open · Relocated
John L. Scott Real Estate
4403 S Settler Drive, Suite 120
Open and considerably larger. They moved out of the Main Street office and into a bigger space in the Pioneer Village cluster, near Yoga Ridge. The freestanding sign permit filed in mid-July got its approval on August 28, so expect the sign to go up shortly.
Worth noting for what it says about downtown: a business outgrowing Main Street and moving east is a pattern, not a one-off. We will come back to that.
Now Open
Clayvana Studio
4411 S Settler Drive, Suite 110
Paint-your-own pottery, next door to Yoga Ridge. Pick a piece off the shelves (there are hundreds), make it entirely your own, and the price on the piece covers everything. No studio fee showing up at the register, which anyone who has done paint-your-own before knows is not a given.
Walk-ins are welcome. They also host birthday parties, private events and workshops, and groups of seven or more should book ahead. Open until 9 on Fridays and Saturdays, so this works as a date night, not just a rainy afternoon with the kids.
Hours: Wednesday and Thursday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.
Closed Monday and Tuesday.
Sign Permit Approved
Columbia River Pilots Association
4419 S Settler Drive, Suite 110
The professional organization that guides commercial vessels along the Columbia is setting up a Ridgefield office, likely dispatch and operations. A quietly interesting piece of this town's connection to the river corridor, and yes, the orange vest called this one first.
Still Rumored
Acupuncture Practice
Name unconfirmed · near Yoga Ridge
Still hearing this one, still nothing on paper. Staying in the rumor column until there is a permit or a name. If you know something, you know where to find us.
Union Ridge Town Center
N Pioneer Canyon Drive & N 56th Place. Already home to Costco, In-N-Out, Chipotle, Starbucks, Jersey Mike's, Heartland Dental, Verizon, Wanpo Tea Shop, The Barbers, Blanc Nail Boutique and OnPoint. Here is what is still coming.
Engineering · Awaiting Resubmittal
Chick-fil-A
430 N 56th Place · 1.57 acres, directly north of In-N-Out
Engineering file ENG-26-0020 is still listed as awaiting resubmittal in the August summary, same as July. That is a normal back-and-forth in the permit process and not a red flag, but it does mean the ball has been in the applicant's court for two months running.
Still coming. Still not soon.
Under Construction
The Goddard School
5310 N Pioneer Canyon Drive · 12,789 square feet
Building permit issued in May, vertical construction underway, engineering on an 11-acre site under construction as well. A national early learning brand landing here is a real addition for families who have been driving to Vancouver or Battle Ground for childcare.
Hillhurst Commercial Center
2205–2209 S Hillhurst Road. The south-side center that is turning into its own destination, serving the neighborhoods around it rather than the freeway crowd.
Name Confirmed · Sign Approved July 22
Mahoney's Public House
2205 S Hillhurst Road, Suite 110
The sign permit decided on July 22 reads Mahoney's Public House, which answers the only question anyone was actually asking.
A public house. On the south side. Walkable from a genuinely large number of houses. The tenant improvement came in at over half a million dollars, which is a serious build-out and not a soft-open-and-see-how-it-goes situation. No opening date yet.
Now Open
FIKA Coffee
2209 S Hillhurst Road, Suite 110
Named for the Swedish idea of a coffee break as a social ritual, less about caffeine and more about the pause, which is a very nice thing to name a business in a town this busy.
The walk-up window came first. Now the whole café is open, so you can finally do the thing the name is actually about: sit down, drink it there, and not be in a hurry for once.
Post-Decision Review
Hillhurst Commercial Building C
2201 S Hillhurst Road
The third building in the center, still awaiting resubmittal on its post-decision review in August. No tenants attached yet. Given how fast A and B filled, worth watching.
Legacy Trails Retail
536 S Royle Road. Quietly one of the more interesting clusters in town. Pure Barre and Urban Tails are already open here.
Open
Zaiqa Indian Cuisine
536 S Royle Road, Suite 7
Permit Issued · May 2026
Niyom Thai Kitchen
536 S Royle Road, Suite 9 or 10 (end of building)
Sign is up, information is scarce. The space is large and there are murmurs of a proper sit-down concept rather than a counter-service one. More Thai Orchid than Ichi Teriyaki, if the murmurs are right. We are working on confirming.
Now Open · Build-Out Complete
Legacy Health
536 S Royle Road, Suite 120 · 8,386 square feet
Open and seeing patients. A sign permit for Legacy Medical Group was filed August 13 and is under review, so proper signage is on the way.
Also on the Radar
Everything else worth knowing from the August records, in less detail because there is less to say so far.
GESA Credit Union
New to the list. A site plan and boundary line adjustment were filed August 26 for 5714 and 5724 Pioneer Street, under review. That makes Fibre Federal, iQ and now GESA all on or headed for Pioneer.
Discount Tire
Site plan approved. The Notice of Decision for 5824 Pioneer Street was issued August 21, moving it off review and toward building permits.
TPI
A 16.66-acre commercial development at 5924 N 10th Street. The site plan was approved August 21, engineering is approved, and early grading is under construction. The city's files call it TPI and do not say much more. We are asking.
Discovery Ridge Phases 2A and 3
Phase 2A has three shell buildings permitted in June at 11, 101 and 145 S 48th Place, with site engineering under construction. Shell permits mean the buildings go up first and tenants get signed later, and none have been named. Phase 3 moved in August: early grading at 448 S Royle Road was approved and is now under construction, for three planned commercial buildings between 5,000 and 6,000 square feet. Still no tenants named there either.
O'Reilly Auto Parts
Site plan still under review at 205 S 48th Place, and a sign permit was filed August 7. A brand filing for signs while its site plan is still in review is a decent sign of intent. Not glamorous, genuinely useful if you do your own maintenance.
Legacy Trails III
New to the list. A 10.17-acre mixed-use development at 4768 S 8th Way, engineering awaiting resubmittal. Judging by the name, the next chapter of the Legacy Trails area. No details on what goes in it yet.
Chevron Site Expansion
An expansion at 5801 and 5901 Pioneer Street, site plan still under review since April.
Ace Hardware
Still no address in the permit records, but they have been posting Ridgefield job openings including Store Manager. A brand hiring for a location it has not announced is about as strong a signal as you get without paperwork.
Ridgefield Travel Center
Sign permit decision issued July 27 at 5704 Pioneer Street.
Questions We Get Asked
What does it actually mean when you say a permit is "issued"?
It means the city has approved the work and construction can legally begin. That is different from "under review," which means the application is being evaluated, and different again from "awaiting resubmittal," which means the city asked for changes and is waiting on the applicant. Issued is the one that means something is about to happen.
And "awaiting precon"?
Engineering is approved and the project is waiting on its pre-construction meeting, where the city and the builder go over the plan before crews start. It is the last stop before "under construction."
Why won't you just say who the big retail anchor is?
Because the city documents do not say, and we are not going to be the outlet that put a name in print and got it wrong. When there is a signed permit, a corporate confirmation or a leasing announcement, it goes here immediately.
How often does this get updated?
Roughly monthly, when the city releases its Development Summary, plus any time something opens or a business confirms directly. Bookmark it rather than hunting for the newest version.
Something on here is wrong. Now what?
Tell us. Business owners especially: if we have your suite number, your opening date or your concept wrong, we would much rather hear it from you than keep publishing it.
More from Meanwhile in Ridgefield
Know something we missed? A new tenant, a rumored opening, something someone mentioned in line at Carts by the Park? We want it. This is Ridgefield's story. We are just the ones writing it down.
Sources: City of Ridgefield Community Development Department August 2026 Development Summary, Development Activity Map and individual Notice of Decision documents; Washington Department of Ecology permit records; reporting from The Columbian, Clark County Today and The Reflector; a commercial real estate listing for 4784 Pioneer Street; and direct confirmation from business owners.
