Leavitt Capital Cos., a Spokane Valley-based company specializing in commercial real estate brokerage and property management, is looking forward to an active market in 2025 after closing the year on a high note with the completed sale of a 45,000-square-foot office building at Pinecroft Business Park, in Spokane Valley.

"Our property management team already oversees over 3 million square feet of space and that number is quickly growing," says Marc Mowrer, director of commercial brokerage at Leavitt Capital. "It may double very soon with some acquisitions that we have in other areas."

Leavitt Capital, which does business in Washington, Idaho, and California, will soon oversee properties in new markets, including Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, says Mowrer.

The company also is working in partnership with its sister company, AT Development, which has acquired a 500,000-square-foot building in Sacramento, California, recently and has completed the development of millions of square feet in Boise, Idaho.

"They build the buildings that we then lease or sell," Mowrer says of Leavitt Capital's partnership with the development company. 

"We are owned by the same people, but one arm is about developing property ... once we build it and lease it up, we have our property management team to oversee the property, take care of the tenants, and make sure the investors are happy."

After completing the sale of the Pinecroft Business Park office building in December, Leavitt Capital has a positive outlook for the commercial real estate market this year.

Spokane Regional Emergency Communications acquired the office building, located at 12809 E. Mirabeau Parkway, for $9.1 million in a transaction that closed Dec. 27, says Mowrer, who represented the seller Pinecroft LLC, of Spokane, in the transaction.

Leavitt Capital handles all leasing and sales activity for the business park, he adds.

Michael Sharapata and Jared Smith, both of Dupont, Washington-based Jones Lang Lasalle Americas Inc., which does business as JLL, represented SREC as the buyers, Mowrer says.

SREC is a regional emergency response organization that serves over 550,000 Spokane County citizens by answering emergency and nonemergency calls and providing dispatch services to 14 fire protection authorities and seven law enforcement agencies, according to its website.

SREC, which was formed in 2018 as a Public Development Authority, plans to consolidate its operations at the Pinecroft Business Park, according to a press release from the organization.

Lori Markham, SREC's executive director, says in a press release, "This new location positions us to serve the community for the next 30-plus years and supports our employees with a convenient, efficient, and future-ready workplace."

The new building will support the relocation of SREC's radio team to the site, which has been operating from multiple locations, and the exterior provides space for the organization's radio tower and emergency vehicles.

Design plans to improve the two-story office building will begin this month, according to the press release. Tenant improvements are expected to begin this summer and the building opening is anticipated in spring 2026. 

The sale highlights a few emerging patterns in the Spokane area commercial real estate market, including a trend of some businesses that are relocating their operations outside of the downtown Spokane core, Mowrer says.

Pinecroft Business Park has benefitted from companies moving out of downtown by consistently drawing tenants interested in operating at the property due to the location, functionality, and free parking available at the business park, he says.

SREC's purchase of the Pinecroft office building came together quickly after SREC expressed interest in the property in the summer and explained that the organization needed to close by the end of 2024. 

"We had the property on the market not that much longer than that," says Mowrer.

Pinecroft Business Park encompasses over 90 acres of land featuring 300,000 square feet of office and industrial space in over a dozen buildings, in addition to some undeveloped lots available for development. 

The business park is located southeast of the intersection at Pines Road and Trent Avenue and southwest of the Spokane River. About 150 acres of natural areas and parkland border the business park to the south and east.

Following steady company growth over the last two years, Leavitt Capital currently has 12 full-time employees. 

Going forward, the company expects continued stability in the Spokane market, with less volatility expected than in larger markets such as Seattle, Mowrer says.

Mowrer notes that vacancy rates have been relatively consistent between 10% and 20% for office spaces in the Spokane market.

"We are certainly doing better than the office market at large," he says. "Most commercial real estate companies experienced record highs in 2022. Our company has continued ... to be right near that peak."