Check Out Laurelhurst Historical Murals At Wells Fargo Bank And Sounders Goalie Appearance Friday

Wells Fargo Bank has moved from its long-time location near Children's Hospital to its new location in the old Tully's space (3042 NE 45th Street), which underwent a complete remodel.

The new branch features several community murals honoring the local history and culture of Laurelhurst and Seattle, along with a mural key with captions for each image and photograph.

The Wells Fargo North Seattle District Manager told the Laurelhurst Blog that the mural was done by an in-house marketing and Historical Services team that researches, designs and produces the Bank's community murals. The team collaborates with local libraries, museums and historical societies to gather and select photos and images. 

And today from 3:30-5pm, the Sounders goalie, Stefan Frei, is making a special appearance at the bank for a free autograph-signing event open to the community as part of the bank's  sponsorship of Major League Soccer, the Branch Manager told the Laurelhurst Blog Staff.

All About Wells Fargo Bank's Move To Old Tully's Location



new Wells Fargo location

Wells Fargo Bank (4568 Sandpoint Way), just in front of Children's Hospital, will be closing its current location next month and re-opening a few days later in the old Tully's location (3042 NE 45th Street), which closed in April of last year, nextdoor to Federal Express . The new space is currently being remodeled.

The bank will close at 2pm at the current location on September 22nd and will re-open at the new location on September 25th. 

The current location, a woodframe building, was built in 1961 and the building where the new bank will be was built in 1996 and is owned by William Guimont who purchased the building for $2,275,000 in 1996 from Five Corners Property.

The Wells Fargo North Seattle District Manager told the Laurelhurst Blog:

Customer accounts will not be impacted by the branch relocation. The building where the bank currently is located, will be placed on the market after the opening of the new branch.

At the new location, we have leased the entire Tully’s space and are undergoing a complete remodel.  The new branch will have eight team members, our teller windows, five banker desks, a new vault, safe deposit boxes, conference room, ATM and night depository service and will be ADA compliant as the landlord recently completed accessibility improvements.

 

Customers with safe deposit boxes are asked to remove their belongings and close their box by August 26. 640 safe deposit boxes will be available at the new location with the following sizes: 3X5=280, 3X10=280 and 5X10 =80.

We have started a waiting list to ensure that customers who would like a box will have one at the new location. The safe deposit boxes at the new Laurelhurst branch will be on the same level as the branch, making it safer and more convenient for our customers. 

The new branch will also feature a community mural honoring the local history and culture of Seattle and the Laurelhurst neighborhood, which is still in the research/design phase. We have an in-house marketing and Historical Services team that researches, designs and produces our community murals. We collaborate with local libraries, museums and historical societies to gather and select photos/images. 

 

The Laurelhurst branch relocation is one of three planned in the Puget Sound area for 2017, the others are the Totem Lake branch in Kirkland and Gig Harbor branch.

Wells Fargo is constantly evaluating our branch network and this process leads to new branch openings, relocations, consolidations, expansions and closures. Some of the key factors involved in these decisions include customer convenience and patronage, costs to maintain the branch and market distribution.

 

Tully's Closes, Sunrice To Close, Other Spaces Still Sit Empty After Months

Many Laurelhurst Blog readers have emailed the Laurelhurst Blog Staff about Tully's suddenly closing last Sunday.

One neighbors said:

As a long time Tully's customer I was saddened to learn that it had closed. I was told by employees the rent had tripled.  No word what is planned for the space.

 

The Laurelhurst Blog Staff spoke with a Tully's who said that the landlord "wanted to triple our rent." He added that Kinko's will most likely be downsizing in the same space.

King County Records show that the building, appraised at $3,152,600 is owned by William Guimont of Gemo-Guimont LLC.

That appears to be the only building he owns in the area as Property Development Associates (PDA), a division of Safeway that focuses on the leasing and disposition, owns the building where Burgermaster is.

Nearby Baskin-Robbins has sat empty since September of last year. 

The manager and also son of the owner, told the Laurelhurst Blog Staff that the new landlord "wanted to raise the rent by more than 50% with all costs included."








So they had to walk away from the business his family has owned for 15 years, and in which it has been located for 40 years .  

Word on the street is that the rent is $7,000 a month for the space. One neighbor said "Probably the only business that can afford that is Starbuck's."

Also empty is the space that used to house Chloe Bistro which closed in January of last year.  Before that, Union Bay Café was there for a number of years.

The landlords, the Spigers, have told potential renters that they only want offices in that space and no more restaurants.

The Spigers own the entire building, which also houses Epic Barber, a variety of offices and businesses.

The Sunrice Café is also in that building and the Laurelhurst Blog Staff has heard that it will be closing very soon, because the rent has suddenly increased.

Blog readers speculate that these spaces will continue to be vacant as the "loss of rent is a tax write-off so no money is lost" one resident said. "Landlords can afford to have their spaces sit empty as long as they want." 

A reader who is a Tax Preparer and Business Development Specialist, wrote in and said:

Landlords still have to pay property taxes and other costs. They can, in some cases, take the loss generated by the property as a reduction in taxable income and, thus, get some tax savings, but that's not the case for most property owners because their incomes are too high for that.

Undoubtedly, most property owners would prefer to have tenants and it may be worth their time and lost rental income to wait for one that will pay a higher rate or to redevelop the property.

 

 

Free Drip Coffee Tomorrow Morning at Tully's

Oscar, a marketing consultant for Tully's, sent us email to let our readers know that tomorrow, Friday, July 2, participating Tully's Coffee stores will be serving free drip coffee from 7-10am.

The closest one to Laurelhurst is located at Five Corners, next to Federal Express and across the street from Baskin-Robbins on 3042 NE 45th.

"As we approach the Fourth of July weekend, we're just hoping to spread the word so everyone will be nice and caffeinated going into the weekend!" Oscar says in his email.

Tully's is also offering Buy One, Get One free on any Barista beverage all weekend, July 2nd through July 5th. The free beverage must be of equal or lesser value.

Tully's also always has free Wi-Fi at all stores.

Here is the list of  participating stores in and around Seattle.