Spokane Valley-based Crown West Realty LLC has acquired an office complex in Phoenix for $2.1 million and says it hopes to invest at least an additional $50 million in real estate there this year.


With the most recent acquisition, Crown West, which owns and manages the 600-acre Spokane Business & Industrial Park, has acquired about 365,000 square feet of office space in the Phoenix area during the past 18 months, says Richard Rollnick, the companys president.


Rollnick says the Phoenix area is growing at a rapid pace and has a broad base of industry, which makes it an attractive market in which to invest.


Also, the company has brought in additional investment capital that is allowing it to grow this year at a faster clip than in the past and to look at such an aggressive investment program.


The recent $2.1 million acquisition, which Crown West completed in late February, involves three two-story buildings with a total of 38,000 square feet of office space.


Crown West plans to start work soon on a $300,000 remodeling project at the 2-year-old office complex, which is located near Interstate 10 and Sky Harbor International Airport, and expects to complete those improvements later this year. One tenant currently occupies 7,000 square feet of floor space in the complex. Rollnick says the rest of the office space is vacant, but Crown West expects to lease it out during the next 18 months.


The recent acquisition is Crown Wests third, and smallest, in the Phoenix area. Earlier this year, the company bought for $10 million a 103,000-square-foot office building in the Southbank Business Park, and in late 2001, it bought for $20 million the 224,000-square-foot Elliott Corporate Center.


Crown Wests Phoenix office now employs seven people, compared with 30 employees here.


In addition to its Spokane and Phoenix properties, Crown West owns controlling interest in a nine-story office structure in Charlotte, N.C. The company would consider investing in real estate in other markets, but he expects it will concentrate its acquisition efforts this year on the Phoenix market, Rollnick says.


Earlier this year, Crown West completed work on a 90,000-square-foot office-and-warehouse building in the business park portion of its park here. Rollnick says the company is working to lease that space and likely will start work on its next building there after the new property is 75 percent occupied.