James F. Cotter, a San Antonio businessman with sizable investments in the Spokane office market, has bought the nine-story QualMed Plaza on Spokanes lower South Hill for $3.4 million.


The building is located at the northwest corner of Sixth Avenue and Stevens Street, a few blocks southeast of Deaconess Medical Center.


Kevin Maher, a commercial leasing agent for Tomlinson Black Management Inc., says the 39-year-old structure includes a total of 44,000 square feet of floor space and houses mostly medical-office tenants. The Spokane office of Molina Healthcare of Washington Inc., which acquired QualMed a couple of years ago, is the buildings anchor tenant.


Overall, the building currently is 90 percent occupied, he says.


Cotter bought the property from Spokane Medical Building Associates, a partnership of out-of-state investors. The sale closed Oct. 1.


Maher and Tom Hix, of Tomlinson Black Management Inc., and Mitch Swenson, of Tomlinson Black Commercial Inc., handled the transaction. Hix has taken over management of the building from Kiemle & Hagood Co., of Spokane.


Cotter has bought other big commercial buildings in the Spokane area over the past couple of years. Last October, he bought the Argonne I & II office complex in the Spokane Valley for $5.3 million. A few months earlier, he bought the Old City Hall Building in downtown Spokane for $7 million.