Market Overview
Cle Elum is a unique community of about 2,000 residents at a key location along Interstate 90 in the Cascade Mountains. As the largest Upper Kittitas County community, Cle Elum has thrived as a destination for visitors and a retail center for smaller nearby communities. It serves as a basecamp for the many outdoor recreational activities available in the northern Cascades. Cle Elum has a singular opportunity to curate the community in an authentic way that reinforces its history, enhances the walkability of the community, and cultivates community pride that continues to welcome visitors and new residents to the community.
STEADY POPULATION GROWTH
Cle Elum’s population is steadily growing. The population living within a 15-minute drive to Downtown Cle Elum grew 6.7% from 2010 to 2017.
EASILY ACCESSIBLE
Downtown Cle Elum is just off of I-90 and within an hour and a half of Seattle.
OUTDOOR RECREATION MECCA
Cle Elum is known as a recreation hub of the Pacific Northwest, boasting an extraordinary four-season climate, nearly 260 sunny days a year, and wonderful, warm summers. Cle Elum is an ideal destination for hiking, camping, biking, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, and more.
Check out Cle Elum’s Market Overview to learn more about Downtown Cle Elum and why you should join our community.
Master Plan
The Cle Elum Downtown Association is part of the Washington Main Street program and has emerged as a key partner with the City of Cle Elum, Kittitas County Tourism, and others as a vehicle to enhance and embrace the ongoing success of downtown as a commercial hub of the community. This report forms the foundation of a downtown plan that includes several components that complement the plan to make 1st Street a more inviting place for visitors to browse the shops, restaurants, accommodations, and businesses downtown.
The downtown planning concepts presented in the Master Plan explore opportunities for the community to enhance private, public, and semipublic spaces (the transitional space between a building and sidewalk). Semi-public spaces can be handled in a variety of ways including access easements, a public access agreement, or a memorandum of understanding. These improvements will complement the City’s Downtown Revitalization Plan, which endeavors to create a more pedestrian-friendly environment along 1st Street that will enhance the visitor experience, calm through traffic, and set the stage for additional private sector investment in the core of Cle Elum.
