Welcome back to Stone Way Rising. Last time we covered the evo corner and the Fremont Collective at the south end of the 3500 block. Now we’re heading north and a bit east into Wallingford, where the block’s newest chapter is still being written.
From fuel to flagship
Before any of this was outdoor retail, the north end of the 3500 block had a more utilitarian story. According to Fremont historian Valarie Bunn, the area was home in the 1930s to Eastern Fuel Company, run by Socrates A. Geftax, a Greek immigrant who arrived in Seattle in 1929 and spent the rest of his life here. By the 1950s, the fuel yard gave way to low-slung commercial buildings. It was a quieter industrial stretch that eventually housed places like SeaOcean Book Berth, a beloved maritime bookshop that closed in 2019 after its founder, sea captain Christopher Flavell, passed away at 81. SeaOcean was, as Seattle Met wrote at the time, “not merely about boats – it’s a shop full of history.”
The present building at 3524 Stone Way, the five-story CornerStone, completed in November 2024, represents what Bunn calls, “the third era in the evolution of this block.”
Brooks Running HQ
CornerStone’s anchor tenant is no mystery if you’ve walked past it: Brooks Running now occupies all five floors. The company, which moved its headquarters from Bothell to Stone 34 in 2014, has more than doubled its employee count since then and needed the room.
“We are excited and proud to expand our footprint in the vibrant and active community in Fremont, the self-proclaimed ‘Center of the Universe,’” said CEO Dan Sheridan in a January 2025 press release. “With access to seemingly endless miles of recreation trails at our doorstep and our focus on runners globally, we like to think of our Fremont headquarters as the ‘Center of the Running Universe.’”
The new offices include a 50-foot mural by artist Shogo Ota, a two-story shoelace pendant light, an interactive wall of local running routes, 104 bike stalls, and Seattle’s largest rainwater cistern – more than 267,000 gallons! CornerStone is fully electric and built to the city’s Living Building Pilot Program standards. (Fremont Neighbor will try to tour the inside of this building soon!)
Black Diamond and Snow Peak (coming soon!)
The ground floor of CornerStone is becoming something of an outdoor gear hub. Black Diamond Equipment, the Utah-based climbing and ski brand, opened its largest retail store to date here in March 2025. The flagship carries the full Black Diamond catalog and features a kiosk for RMI Expeditions, the Rainier-based guiding service, for climbers who want to move from gear to the mountain in one stop. A couple hours of parking validation is available if you visit the store.
Coming this spring next door to Black Diamond: Snow Peak, the Japanese outdoor lifestyle brand known for minimalist camping gear, will open its first Washington state location in the final retail space at the base of CornerStone. Snow Peak CFO Ross Halbach told the Puget Sound Business Journal that the company and Evolution Projects share “a similar ethos.” The brand already has a presence in the state; it operates a campsite on the Long Beach Peninsula
“Curious Community” mural
Don’t miss the large mural on the north face of the building: “Curious Community,” painted by Canadian artist John McPartland (who works under the alias Absen). McPartland’s style blends Renaissance realism with bold graffiti-rooted forms, and the piece was commissioned by Evolution Projects as part of the Campus Seattle public art program. More of his work is at absenarchives.com.
Seattle Bouldering Project and Many Bennies
A half-block east at 3535 Interlake Ave N, the Seattle Bouldering Project anchors another Evolution Projects building: a reimagined warehouse with yoga, strength classes, and youth programming. Sharing the building is Many Bennies, the fresh fruit ice cream shop that’s earned viral status for its edible candy eyes and New Zealand-inspired soft-serve. Expect a long line in summer. It’s worth the wait!
Next time on Stone Way Rising, we cross the street and head north. The first half of the block has a different rhythm – a bank, parking lot, bakery, an old auto shop-turned-event space – and then the new Stone Way rises again.
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