Steve Salvatori, owner of Spokane Entrepreneurial Center LLC, says he has bought a 9,300-square-foot, three-story building at 608 W. Second and plans to offer space on the top two floors to entrepreneurs and small-businesses seeking low-rent office space downtown.


He says he purchased the 100-year-old building from Vertical Development LLC, of Spokane, for $740,000, and that the building had been remodeled in 2006.


Mark McLees, of NAI Black, had been helping Salvatori look for more than six months for a downtown property where he could offer low-rent office spaces.


Salvatori says the building, located near the northeast corner of Second and Wall, has 17 vacant office spaces and a street-level space thats occupied by an organization named Mosaic Fellowship.


He says he plans to charge $250 to $400 a month for rent for each space, with no leases or deposits, and that fee will cover parking, utilities, and Internet access. Salvatori also owns the Lorraine Hotel building, at 308 W. First, where the Spokane Entrepreneurial Center is located, and has been offering low-rent office space there since last October.


He says the building on Second is very eclectic compared to the Lorraine building in terms of office sizes, which range from 90 square feet up to 800 square feet in size.


Salvatori says he has had no trouble keeping the spaces at the Lorraine building filled, and believes that he hasnt even scratched the surface of the market for low-rent small office space here. He says he is confident that hell have the new building filled within a month of its opening, and he hopes to have renters moving into offices by the first of next month.


Salvatori says that he first will offer the spaces to people who have been on a waiting list for spaces at the Lorraine building.


He hasnt had to market the spaces in the Spokane Entrepreneurial Center to attract tenants, and Salvatori says he relies instead mostly on personal referrals, word-of-mouth, and the centers Web site.