Children's Installs New Large "Emergency" Sign At Former Wells Fargo Bank Location

Children's Hospital installed a new "Emergency" on July 18th, replacing the Wells Fargo Bank sign.  

Children's purchased the building in January of this year and Wells Fargo Bank moved last September to the former Tully's location at Five Corners.  

Todd Johnson, Vice President, Facilities and Supply Chain, told the Laurelhurst Blog Staff:

As you know, Seattle Children’s purchased the former Wells Fargo branch after the bank moved to its new Five Corners location. We painted and made some minor improvements to the building. 

It is currently leased to Sellen Construction Company for use as a field office. The basement is used by Children’s as a storage location and future office. 

We made the decision to repurpose the former bank monument sign to help families locate our emergency department. This will be especially important after we begin construction of our new Forest B wing late next fall.  

tI hink it will be good for the neighbors as well because this sign, in addition to others that are being added, will help drivers get directly to the ED without any wrong turns or inadvertent trips into the neighborhood. We shared the idea of reusing the bank sign with members of our Citizens Standing Advisory Committee at our June meeting and got agreement that it would be helpful.

Last March, Children's also purchased the Center for Spiritual Living (CSL)  for $16,992,850.  It sits on 4.4 acre s with a  50,000-square foot building and is located about a mile north of the campus on Sand Point Way NE.

The site is zoned residential but has a covenant placed on the deed limiting the uses to religious, educational and recreational purposes.

Todd told the Laurelhurst Blog Staff that Children’s will house its educational activities at the CSL location. 

Last year Children's Hospital purchased the Gema Mae Apartments,  twelve unit fourplex apartments, built in the 1950’s. directly across from the Hospital Emergency Room and behind the old Wells Fargo location.  The Hospital made improvements to the apartments, including painting and bringing the building up to code. According to this website, it was purchased for $4,500,00.00.

Children’s also still owns one single family houses along NE 45th Street, out of the eight they purchased in 2007 and 2008, during the construction of the Mary Gates Ambulatory Care building and Whale Garage. The home, Todd said, is "occupied by a long term tenant and we will not be offering it for sale at this time."  In 2013 five of the homes were sold. 

At the time, the hospital approached homeowners to sell their homes and some homeowners contacted the hospital about the sales which were purchased "at the then-market value," Todd told the Laurelhurst Blog.  Todd added that Children's did make known its willingness to purchase immediately adjacent homes.

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.

 

UVillage Key Bank Robbed Yesterday, Suspect Still at Large

In case you didn't hear, yesterday around 9am a white man with a beard, walked into the UVillage Key Bank, robbed it and then left on foot.

The Seattle Times reported, "According to Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson ....(the suspect is) described as a white man in his late 20s, about 5-feet-8 and of medium build. He wore a dark gray baseball cap, believed to have a Penn State Nittany Lions emblem, a black hooded jacket and black pants.

The FBI says the man should be considered armed and dangerous.

Anyone with information about the man is asked to call the FBI at 206-622-0460, or email at seattle.fbi@ic.fbi.gov."

The Times has also posted a picture of the robber on their site.

The P-I also posted a story on their 911 Police blog.