Rabo AgriFinance, an agricultural lending division of Netherlands-based financial services provider Rabobank Group, plans to open an office in downtown Spokane.

It has leased 3,400 square feet of space on the ninth floor of the Chase Building, at 601 W. Main, and plans to open an office there about March 1, says Gordon Hester, of Spokane-based Kiemle & Hagood Co.

Hester and Michael Mathis, also of Kiemle & Hagood, handled the lease.

Hester says the new office represents an expansion of that company's operations here. It currently has one representative here, but will be adding more at the new office, he says.

Rabobank Group includes 152 international banks and a number of subsidiaries, including Rabo AgriFinance. Rabobank Group claims to be among the world's 25 largest financial institutions, and has more than 60,000 employees and about 9.5 million clients in 46 countries.

The lease with Rabo AgriFinance also indicates a positive leasing trend in that building, Hester claims.

"We've had more activity in this building recently," Hester says. For example, a Jimmy John's sandwich shop opened on the first floor of the building in a space that had been vacant for several months, he says. Altogether, the Chase building has 174,000 square feet of space, and all but about 10,000 square feet of it currently is occupied, Hester says.