Madison Seattle

The FBI has released security camera images of the man they say is responsible for three bank robberies across Seattle including last Tuesday's heist at the Madison Key Bank on First Hill. According to the FBI, the white male suspect in the March 15th First Hill hold-up was wearing a stocking cap, glasses and a hooded sweatshirt at the time of the robbery.

According to the SPD report on the incident, the suspect handed the teller a note that read "Hurry up I have a weapon" and that he had his arm in his sweatshirt pocket to indicate that he was armed with a handgun. The report states that robber made off with an estimated $300 and that partial fingerprints were collected from the bank's counter.

The mixed-use apartment building thaw is not limited to Capitol Hill and the explosion in development cannot be contained to East Madison. Fences went up -- and questions came in -- as First Hill's 1200 Madison Street Apartment Tower project is finally underway. And, by the way, it puts Capitol Hill's puny 6-story developments to shame.

Last week, neighbor Look Closely wrote:

Do you know why the old US Bank at Madison and Minor is all fenced off?  Are they tearing it down?  Any idea what is going on or going in there?

After CHS was slow to dig in on the problem, Look answered their own question by passing along a recent update from a First Hill community group and this picture of the work underway at the site:

"Holland Properties will be starting work imminently on the 1200 Madison Street Apartment Tower on the former site of US Bank, at Minor and Madison. Demolition on the old bank building should start in February, and construction on the new tower should start in March. Our historic First Hill clock will be put into storage, refurbished, and reinstalled in front of the 16-story tower when it is completed in 2012."

The 1200 Madison Street project was born in another era. Back in 2007, the global real estate credit crunch hadn't crunched yet:

Our project at 1200 Madison began as a medical office building with 50 residences. When neighbors expressed concern about increased traffic, Opus responded with a new plan that the neighbors embraced. The project design currently includes more than 225 apartments and live/work units, plus a fitness center and rooftop entertainment space. Construction is projected to begin next year.

You'll note that essay also touts the M Street development where M Street Grocery  suddenly went out of business earlier this year.

Today's demolition and, soon, construction is being executed by permits that will be three years old come May. Here's how the $32 million project (2008 dollars) is described in the DPD permit filings:

Land Use Application to construct a 16-story building with 241 residential units over 6,000 sq. ft. of retail and customer service uses, two live-work units and three townhouse units located at grade. Project includes two levels of below-grade parking for 107 vehicles.

Holland Development acquired the project in January, the subscription-walled Daily Journal of Commerce reports. You might know the site as the old 1970s style bank, pictured here, courtesy King County.

We've embedded the final report from the project's design review below.

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A man believed to be associated with two other recent Seattle area bank robberies walked into First Hill's Madison Key Bank branch Tuesday just after noon, handed the teller a threatening note and made off with cash, a FBI spokesperson tells CHS.

According to the FBI, the white male wearing a stocking cap, glasses and a hooded sweatshirt at the time of the hold-up could be associated with a robbery of another Key Bank in downtown Seattle on March 7 and a Chase bank in Kent on Valentine's Day last month.

No security camera image of the suspect is being made publicly available at this time.

On February 10th, another First Hill bank suffered a hold-up as Bank of America was victimized in a morning robbery.

An afternoon lightning strike near East Madison has left about 135 customers without power as City Light crews work to replace blown transformers.

Scattered outages in the Central District have also been reported related to the lightning jolt that produced a large boom just before 1:30 PM Thursday afternoon.

According to a City Light spokesperson, service will be restored in patches over the next few hours as the heavy transformers are swapped out by the two crews called out to respond to the damage.

The spokesperson said lighting damage to City Light equipment is an extremely localized phenomenon meaning the strike occurred somewhere near the main outage zones between East Madison and the Swedish Cherry Hill area of the Central District.

The East Madison outage area is near the tall television and radio towers that loom over the southeast Hill. It does not appear that operation of equipment at that facility has been affected by the current outage.

You can monitor progress on the City Light status page at http://seattle....

We said goodbye to the old CC's in a rather rushed way just before Christmas. We'll have more on the incoming Cascadia Center next week. But first, a proper goodbye thanks to Chat Noir Photographie. Nostalgia above, colder reality below including our shot of the empty space waiting for the new development construction to begin. More on that development, soon. CC's, by the way, is targeting a mid-February re-opening at its new East Olive Way location.

Image: CHS

Two armed robbery attempts in the area over the weekend involved knives as the weapon of choice. There were no significant injuries in either incident. Details on incidents, below.

First, Saturday night, police arrested a man for pulling a knife on QFC employees during a robbery attempt inside the Harvard Market store. After a struggle with store security, the man tried to toss the knife down a grocery aisle but the weapon was recovered and the man was arrested when police arrived.

Sunday morning, a woman walking in the 1300 block of Spring Street was held up at knifepoint by a man who demanded her bag and then fled the area on foot. The man in the 9:35 AM incident was described as a white male in his 20s, about 6 feet tall and with light colored facial hair. He was wearing a grey hoodie at the time of the incident and was last seen heading east on Madison. The woman was not injured in the mugging.

We recently reported that December had been a relatively quiet period for street robberies but the First Hill area...

While, we're on the topic of  CC Attle's planning a February 2011 re-opening in its new East Olive Way home, word comes in from Healeo across the street from CC's old East Madison home that the demolition has begun.

We had been watching the DPD records like a hawk to see when demolition would start but, of course, missed this filing. Thanks Healeo. The building is being removed to make way for the Bullitt Foundation's Cascadia Center development including ambitious plans for massive solar-gathering features on the headquarters.

The nasty weather hasn't slowed down area thieves this rainy Monday. Central District News is reporting that a woman has been robbed of her backpack in a strong-arm robbery near East Pike and Bellevue. No further information is available at this time but we can report that no medics have been dispatched to the scene of the noontime mugging.

We reported earlier on an armed robbery near 25th and John that happened Monday morning around 7 AM.

Though the September AIDS Walk and 5K Run is hosted by Lifelong AIDS Alliance, for the third year in a row it is being sponsored by MOMS Pharmacy, a specialty pharmacy with two locations in the Capitol Hill area (one inside Lifelong and the other at 1120 Cherry Street) and 13 locations nationwide. The pharmacy specializes in providing medicine and support to people living with HIV and AIDS.

"[The pharmacy in Lifelong] is kind of a unique location," said Andrew Nichols, MOMS Capitol Hill community liaison. "When you walk in it’s kind of like a livingroom setup, we’re not like a Walgreens. A lot of clients sit and hang out. We're considering putting a computer lab in. We have a couple consultation rooms."

The MOMS adherence pack helps patients keep track of pills.

Much of their efforts have turned to helping their clients with adherence to their drug regimen because living with HIV or AIDS often means taking a lot of pills each day. To make taking multiple medicines each day, MOMS developed an adherence...

We didn't expect it, at least. Less than a month after we reported that the 5-year-old Hill restaurant and lounge Martin's off Madison was to be reinvented as Greg's Profanity Hill Grill, the joint is shutting its doors. Thursday night's last call will be it, Jose the bartender told us in a phone conversation tonight.

"There were many factors but we needed to close," Jose said after letting us know that we should come in and enjoy a discounted drink tonight.

Here's what a rep from Greg's told us about the change back in June

After five years as Martin’s Off Madison, a Piano Bistro, Gregg’s Profanity Hill Grill is changing with the times.  With thanks to our loyal staff and valued customers,Greg is keeping  a lot of the old and adding a lot more of the new to better serve you!  Like all good things, the changes come gradually.  When complete,Gregg’s Profanity Hill Grill will be the place to play, eat, drink and be Mary!

They planned to roll out the changes following 2010 Pride. Instead, it seems,...

Three teens police say were working as a street robbery team have been charged in a one-night string of armed muggings around Capitol Hill in mid-April.

18-year-old Cedric Brooks, 17-year-old Delnik Brown and 19-year-old Shanica Lee faces charges of two counts of first degree robbery and one count of attempted first degree robbery each in connection with the string of area street robberies that occurred on Saturday morning, April 12.

According to court documents, Brooks was the man identified as carrying the air gun and brandishing it as a weapon in the hold-ups. He has prior convictions for vehicle prowling, according to the documents.

Delnik is a minor but faces charges as an adult due to the nature of the crime he is accused of. He has two past convictions for robbery and another for a vehicle prowl.

Meanwhile, Lee, pegged as the driver by police, has a prior conviction for theft. She remains at large after being released from police custody following her arrest the night of the robberies. Brooks and Delnik remain...

We're soft-launching a sister site over First Hill way -- and there's some fun news about an interesting new business on Madison to help get the site started. From FirstHillSeattle.com:

1026 Madison, the former home of departed European boutique Mallow, is now home to Jigsaw Renaissance.

"Basically, we're a place for people to learn or create anything," co-owner Lion Kimbro tells FHS.  We have a drill press, band saw, wood, myriad tools, a sewing machine, a fridge, and many many more things.  We're like an unschool for adults."

Kimbro says Saturdays between 12 and 6 PM is a good time for stopping by. "It's our 'open house' time," Kimbro said. This Saturday, Jigsaw is planning to host lessons from a bonsai expert, by the way, so bring your scissors.

If you'd like to help with the site -- hey, we pay! -- drop a note to fhs@firsthillseattle.com.