The light rail tracks and Bellevue Way form the boundary between the residential neighborhood of Enatai to the west and the Mercer Slough Nature Park to the east.

[3][4] The town of Beaux Arts Village is located a one-half-mile (0.80 km) to the west;[1] the Bellefield office park and historic Frederick W. Winters House are both north of the station site.

[2] Metro Transit, the countywide bus operator for King County, began development of permanent park and ride lots in the 1970s and selected southern Bellevue as one of 18 potential markets.

[10] The site's selection was criticized by a local community club, who were concerned with additional bus traffic and the aesthetics of the lot amongst farms and wetlands.

[14] South Bellevue was described by The Seattle Times as "one of Metro's most dismal failures in attracting park and ride customers" due to its limited routes.

[21][22] Metro also proposed repainting the parking lot to fit an additional 50 stalls, but the plan was rejected due to concerns about the width of modern vehicles.

[29][30] The Forward Thrust plan for rapid transit, which was rejected by voters in 1968 and 1970, included a line from Seattle to Bellevue on the Interstate 90 corridor with a park and ride station serving Enatai.

[33][34] A light rail plan drafted by Metro and the Puget Sound Council of Governments in 1986 also included a South Bellevue station on its Seattle–Bellevue line, which continued onward to Bothell and Redmond.

[38][39] The proposal was rejected by voters, but the smaller Sound Move package passed in November 1996 to fund construction of a scaled-back Link light rail system with provisions for future expansions.

An at-grade station at South Bellevue was initially endorsed by the city council in February 2009 and adopted by the Sound Transit Board in May with plans to further evaluate its placement.

[51][58] In July 2011, Sound Transit and the city government tentatively agreed to adopt the Bellevue Way and 112th Avenue alignment with additional noise and traffic mitigation for some neighborhoods.

[60][61] A lawsuit filed by residents in South Bellevue over the visual impacts of light rail construction was rejected by a U.S. District Court judge in 2013, allowing for plans to continue.

[65] As part of the project, Sound Transit also acquired 2 acres (0.81 ha) of Mercer Slough Nature Park from the city government in exchange for additional land near the garage.

[70][71] To mitigate the loss of parking, Sound Transit leased 367 stalls from eight churches in Bellevue and Renton, added trips to other express routes, and directed users to other park-and-ride lots with spare capacity.

[74] An earlier plan to build a satellite lot on Mercer Island was rejected following protests from residents who opposed the loss of parkland for the project.

[75] A temporary lot was opened south of the station site in July to serve visitors to Mercer Slough Nature Park as part of Sound Transit's construction mitigation plan.

[78][79] The historic Frederick W. Winters House and blueberry farms in Mercer Slough Nature Park closed to visitors in October to prepare for light rail construction along Bellevue Way.

[81] The installation of precast concrete girders to support the trackway and platform at the station began in mid-July;[82] the parking garage was constructed in two phases, beginning with the north half in 2018.

Sound Transit later found that the tactile edge markers had not been rated for outdoor use and other tiles had buckled in hot weather, requiring full replacement.

[94][95] As part of the opening celebrations, the station hosted live music, pop-up exhibits from the Pacific Science Center, and a Port of Seattle firetruck.

[65] The entrances to South Bellevue station were temporarily closed on a rotating basis in December 2024 to replace expansion joint covers in the stairwell and elevator.

[117] The two King County Metro routes provide local service that connects the station to Beaux Arts Village, Downtown Bellevue, Overlake, Factoria, and Eastgate.