After a brief bidding war, Texas real estate investor James F. Cotter has bought the Old City Hall building in downtown Spokane for $7 million, or $115,000 more than the asking price.


Dave Black, CEO of Spokane-based Tomlinson Black Commercial Inc., says that during the two months it was on the market, new tenants filled much of the vacant space in the six-story, 89-year-old structure. The buildings occupancy improved to 90-plus percent from 75 percent during that time, making the property a more savory investment, he says.


Cotter was one of three prospective purchasers vying for the property. Black says that when multiple offers came in on the building at the same time, the seller opted to set a time and date by which each suitor had to submit a bid. Black says two of the three bids came in above the $6.85 million asking price. Cotters was the highest.


Old City Hall, located at the southwest corner of Spokane Falls Boulevard and Wall Street, includes about 98,000 square feet of office and retail space.


Old City Hall is Cotters second major property acquisition in the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area within the past year. Last December, he bought the Post Falls Factory Stores for an undisclosed amount. That 61,000-square-foot retail development includes tenants such as Black & Decker Factory Store and Oshkosh BGosh. Its located just east of the Prime Outlets at Post Falls, which operate under separate ownership.


Old City Halls tenants include an Olive Garden Restaurant, Wells Fargo Bank, Principal Financial Group, and D.A. Davidson & Co., among others.


The building was constructed in 1912 and was remodeled in 1986. It housed the Spokane City Hall from 1912 until 1982.


Black and Craig Hill, of the Seattle office of Grubb & Ellis Co., represented the seller, Irvine, Calif.-based Koll Bren Fund V LP, in the transaction. Tom Hix, senior vice president of Tomlinson Black Management Inc., represented Cotter during the transaction and also is the buildings new property manager and leasing agent.