Berry discussed the hierarchy of central places (1958) and the ribbon developments (1959a, b) in Snohomish County, in which Lynnwood and Alderwood Manor were ranked as central places of village class, and arterial strips characterized Lynnwood. Morrill (1987) analyzed the suburbanization of retail trade (1954–82) in the Seattle metropolitan area. Lynnwood had grown up to be one of the major suburban retail cores in the Seattle metropolitan area until the 1980s. This paper aims to clarify how some retail / business districts have been developed in Lynnwood.

When Lynnwood was incorporated in 1959, in addition to Lynnwood Center, the earliest shopping center in Snohomish County, the secondary shopping centers were developed along Highway 99 about 2 miles west of Alderwood Manor. Lynnwood City merged with Alderwood Manor, and the town center changed into a planned shopping center in 1963. While Interstate 5 (I-5) was constructed as a freeway during the 1960s, some planned centers and unplanned urban arterial businesses grew to be the city center of Lynnwood around the crossroads of two urban arterial roads connecting with the freeway interchanges.

The impacts of Interstate 5 and Highway 99 are independent of each other. Alderwood Mall, a super-regional center, was developed in the vicinity of the junction of I-5 and another freeway (I-405) in 1979. Several planned smaller centers were developed around Alderwood Mall during the 1980s. A few smaller centers were developed along the arterial road to Everett Mall, a regional center about 5 miles north of Alderwood Mall along I-5. There is a strong dependence of the large planned centers on good access to the freeway, as Morrill (1987) pointed out.

Several regional and super-regional malls were located in the suburban area, and the suburbanization of retail trade reached to maturity by the 1970s, as Kellerman (1985) pointed out. It seems that suburban centers began to compete with each other for market space in the 1980s. This paper discusses the reformation of retail space in the Seattle metropolitan area, especially southwestern Snohomish County around Lynnwood, since the 1980s.

Snohomish County has experienced a higher rate of population growth than any other county in Washington State since the 1980s. Many of the new smaller centers, including Korean shopping centers, were developed in the unincorporated territory during the late 1980s through the early 1990s. In 1990, the state legislated the Growth Management Act, in order to reduce uncoordinated sprawling development. It seems that both old and new smaller centers compete for spare market space of the incorporated areas which were already developed by the 1970s. All new smaller centers were located along major arterials like Highway 99, or in the vicinity of interchanges of freeways. Some small centers closed down because of competition from the others.

Many of the large centers developed during the 1990s selected better market strategies rather than simply competing for market space. Two large centers in downtown Seattle near I-5 created cinema complexes, as Everett Mall had done. Some suburban centers are called power centers, made of a set of discount stores and category killers. The other old centers with traditional tenant mixes can not help competing for market space with one another. Three large centers in the north part of the Seattle metropolitan area, Alderwood, Everett and Northgate Mall, have expanded quite recently.