Spokane's tallest North Side office structure—the nine-story Northtown Office Building, at 4407 N. Division—is going through somewhat of a rebirth, following a multiyear series of improvements costing more than $1.4 million.

The formerly tired-looking high rise, built in 1963, is nearly 93 percent occupied, and property manager Lou Neeser says it's positioned well to build its tenant base further, with most of its sizable capital projects now completed.

"I feel real good about the future," says Neeser, a senior property manager with Kiemle & Hagood Co., of Spokane, which has managed the building since 1990.

He sees potential new tenants coming both from the ranks of home-based business operators looking to expand into small office spaces and from businesses in pricier office space in or near downtown that want to lower their lease costs, he says.

Also comforting, Neeser says, is that, "We've got a lot of long-term tenants."

Kiemle & Hagood played a key role in arranging the January 1999 purchase of the building and land by Los Gatos, Calif.-based Staffield Family LLC, a family-owned investment concern, says Larry Soehren, the Spokane company's vice president and COO. Kiemle & Hagood listed the building and represented Staffield in its purchase of the structure from a partnership originally headed by the late Spokane contractor Halvor Halvorson, who built it, he says.

A big part of the challenge was that the building was constructed on leased ground, which made selling it years later nearly impossible, but once the ownership of the building and land finally was consolidated, the sale of the building was completed in a matter of months, Soehren adds.

Staffield Family LLC is headed by Hudson R. Staffield, and Soehren says, "With his new energy and capital, we were able to embark on some major renovations."

In a couple of initial projects beginning in 2002, the tower's exterior was repainted, new exterior thermal windows were installed, and the ground floor got an updated faade. The bulk of the upgrades, though, have occurred just in the last three years. They include a $430,000 modernization of the building's heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system, a new contemporary faade and sun shade on a single-story, multitenant retail section of the building just north of the tower, and a large new sign along Division that lists some of the building's nearly 50 tenants.

Other improvements included remodeling the lobby and putting in new lobby restrooms, remodeling the corridors and restrooms on all of the building's other floors, and remodeling a shared conference room on the sixth floor.