This Fall, Downtown Renton's Calendar Lives on South Third Street
Late this summer, a new sign went up on the building on the north side of Third between Burnett and Logan. People shopping the Renton Farmers Market noticed it first. The market itself ran its last Tuesday of 2026 on Sept. 29, ending a season of 3 to 7 p.m. afternoons at Piazza Park, 233 Burnett Ave. S. The building under the sign is the Renton Market, a year-round indoor public market. In the city's Sept. 4 update it had passed its electrical inspection and was still waiting on mechanical and fire inspections and a Certificate of Occupancy before the keys could go to the operator. KIRO reported on Sept. 7 that the city had not announced even a tentative date for handing over the keys.
That leaves downtown with a fall that belongs to neither of its markets. Most of what is happening between now and Christmas sits on a short stretch of South Third Street and a couple of blocks around it. Most of it is hosted by places that were open long before the new public spaces were finished.
Five downtown venues account for most of the fall and holiday calendar. Three are on S. 3rd St. One is on S. 2nd St., and one is on Wells Ave. S., just off Third.
| Venue | Address | What is on this fall |
|---|---|---|
| Renton Civic Theatre | 507 S. 3rd St. | Noises Off through Oct. 18, Scrooge! Dec. 4 to 20, Santa House on Saturdays in December |
| Legacy Square | 510 S. 3rd St. | Halloween Party Oct. 24 |
| Wyldwood Creative | 822 S. 3rd St. | Art Lounge paper marbling, Nov. 18 |
| Luther's Table | 419 S. 2nd St. | Free weekly meals, city workshops |
| Four Generals Brewing | 229 Wells Ave. S. | What's Brewing with Ed?, Oct. 13 |
Only one of these is new. Legacy Square opened with the city's "Hat Trick" celebration on June 6, along with the renovated Piazza Park and the market building, which at that point still needed its vendor build-out. The square has a futsal court, a play structure, a stage with a large-format screen, a lawn and parklets. This October is its first fall on the calendar.
The Olde Fashioned Halloween Party on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 1 to 4 p.m., is the square's main fall event. Renton Downtown Partnership organizes it as a trick-or-treat route through downtown businesses that ends at Legacy Square. The city's listing for the square includes a zombie makeup and photo booth, games and prizes, community vendors, an all-ages costume contest and the Movies & Shakers! show from Inspired Child. At 3 p.m., Inspired Child teaches the "Thrill the World" choreography for a group Thriller performance on the Legacy Square stage.
The event is built around storefronts, and the square is where it finishes. Renton Downtown Partnership's page sends trick-or-treaters to local downtown businesses but doesn't list which ones are taking part. Families planning a route can expect to cover the blocks between the theater and the square rather than a single lawn.
Part of the reason the square and its surroundings work as one walk is a street closure. Logan Avenue was scheduled to close between Transit Access Center Road and S. 3rd St. from May 26 to Oct. 2 to make it safer to walk between the Pavilion, the Renton Market and Legacy Square, with traffic detoured to Burnett and Morris avenues. No public update since Oct. 2 has said whether that stretch has reopened, so it's worth checking before you drive in.
Most of the city's own programming this fall happens inside businesses that already exist. The Renton Municipal Arts Commission's monthly Art Lounge has switched to a pop-up format that moves between artists' studios and local spaces around the city. The November session, on Wednesday, Nov. 18, from 4 to 7 p.m., is a paper marbling class at Wyldwood Creative. It's free, and registration is required. Wyldwood is a fabric and sewing shop that doubles as a makerspace. It offers classes with sliding-scale pricing and scholarships, plus a community exchange for donated craft supplies.
City leadership's monthly drop-in follows the same pattern. On Tuesday, Oct. 13, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Chief Administrative Officer Ed VanValey and other city leaders hold What's Brewing with Ed? at Four Generals Brewing. It's free, open to all ages, and the city asks for an RSVP. Four Generals has brewed German-style lagers and ales downtown since 2015. It serves pretzels and chips, welcomes outside food and sells beer to go in bottles, growlers and kegs.
Luther's Table at 419 S. 2nd St. hosts more city sessions than any other venue this fall. It's an ELCA outreach ministry and community space with a stage and a professional sound board, and it hosts free meals, live music, lectures and meetings. Its current schedule lists a free Saturday meal from 8 to 10 a.m., a free Monday breakfast from 10 to 11 a.m., and a free pantry open during events. The city has booked it for the three-part Creative Entrepreneur workshop for local artists, which meets the first Sunday of October, November and December, and for an Oct. 20 Startup425 session that helps small businesses prepare for holiday traffic.
Renton Civic Theatre covers both ends of the season. It's a volunteer-run historic community theater with 238 reserved seats, concessions and a full bar. Noises Off runs through Oct. 18, and Scrooge! follows Dec. 4 to 20. On Saturdays Dec. 5, 12 and 19, from 1 to 4 p.m., the building also hosts Santa House, with free Santa photos. Pets are welcome.
Farther down the same street, Bindaas Indian Restaurant Sports Bar & Dukaan at 811 S. 3rd St. offers Indian food, sports watch parties and DJ nights. It opened in summer 2025 and held its official ribbon cutting in January 2026. Bindaas and Wyldwood are a few doors apart, which makes the Nov. 18 marbling session an easy dinner stop.
The city's free Holiday Bazaar on Nov. 20 and 21 and the Senior Holiday Craft Bazaar on Oct. 24 are also at Renton Community Center on Maple Valley Highway, not downtown. The Senior Bazaar runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., so it's possible to shop there in the morning and still make the downtown Halloween party at 1.
Downtown's fall still happens one event at a time, and the city has said in writing that it wants something different. At its March 23 meeting, the City Council authorized the mayor and city staff to sign a planned 10-year lease with Logan Market LLC to run the market. The plan is for it to operate seven days a week with year-round programming, moving the site from an "intermittent, event-based use to a dependable, regularly occupied destination." The building has 11,783 square feet of indoor market space and 1,766 square feet outside. Plans call for small incubator stalls for food producers, makers and early-stage entrepreneurs, larger anchor tenants at each end, and a kitchen classroom for chef-led classes, storytime and kids' cooking programs.
The person behind the operator is Dave Brethauer, who also renovated the Cortona Building downtown, now home to Boon Boona Coffee, Urban Sprouts, The Pencil Test and Ascendance. He told the Renton Reporter how he chose tenants there:
"My requirement for every tenant was simple: it had to be experiential. It needed to give people a reason to come downtown, linger and connect."
He has said he hopes successful market vendors will eventually move into brick-and-mortar storefronts around downtown. The market's own site says the vendor lineup is still being chosen. As of the city's September update, Piazza Park still needed its stage installed, its benches finished and its final plantings in the ground. Until the market opens, most of downtown's seven-day activity comes from the theater, the brewery, the fabric shop, the restaurant and the community table on and around Third.
Your calendar may not be the only thing changing this fall. If you're also wondering what a busier downtown could mean for your own plans, Diana and Cory are happy to talk it through with you, calmly and with no pressure. You can reach Diana Patterson anytime.
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