An investment group here is moving forward with renovation plans for the 89-year-old W.P. Fuller & Co. building, located just northeast of downtown, after fending off a foreclosure action.


The group, called the Fuller Building Limited Partnership, has obtained a building permit for the restoration and now is updating project budget figures, says Jim Delegans, one of the partnerships owners.


Work on the project potentially could begin by the end of this year, he says. Delegans declines to estimate the cost of the project, but the building permit puts its value at about $1.7 million.


The long-vacant Fuller building complex is located at 111 E. Desmet, just west of the Gonzaga University campus. It includes a four-story main building with a basement parking level that was built in 1916 and a single-story structure to the east that was constructed later. Altogether, it has about 50,000 square feet of floor space.


The partnership plans to renovate the main floor for retail use and put condominiums or apartments on the upper floors.


The project was stalled until late last month, when a promissory note and the deed of trust on the building were sold and a scheduled trustees sale of the building stemming from an allegedly delinquent loan was canceled.


John W. Gillingham Jr., a Cheney businessman, bought the note and deed of trust from Old West Annuity & Life Insurance Co. for an undisclosed sum, says Paul Allison, Gillinghams attorney.


Allison says the transaction should facilitate redevelopment of the Fuller building, because Old Westone of three insurance affiliates of bankrupt Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co.was in receivership, which made financial dealings with it difficult for the Fuller Building Limited Partnership. Delegans agrees, saying bankruptcy-related delays greatly hampered moving forward with the project.


A legal notice published earlier this year claimed the partnership was in default on a 1998 promissory note to Old Standard Life Insurance Co. and for which Old Standard then assigned the deed of trust to Old West.


The alleged $843,000 obligation included principal of $641,000 and more than $200,000 in default interest charges, late charges, and loan charges, the legal notice said.


Delegans blamed the foreclosure action, shortly after the filing of the legal notice, on uncertainties stemming from the Metropolitan bankruptcy, and said he expected the renovation project to move forward once those matters were cleared up.