A real estate investment group headed by Spokane dermatologist Dr. William Philip Werschler has agreed to buy a 14,200-square-foot building at 323 S. Grant, east of downtown, that was last occupied by Discovery School, says a spokeswoman for one of Werschler's medical concerns.

Werschler heads Spokane Dermatology Clinic PS, Werschler Aesthetics medical spa, and a Spokane medical research company called PHDMA LLC, all of which are located in the Fifth & Browne Medical Center building, at 104 W. Fifth, says Dalyn Boehm, a PHDMA spokeswoman.

The investment group plans to convert the two-story structure on Grant into a medical office building, Boehm says. The real estate group also is exploring options to buy two lots to the east of the building that would provide Sherman Street access and parking lots for the building, she says.

The terms of the transaction weren't disclosed. The property was listed last year for sale at $850,000, but longtime co-owner Lee Bayley says he and a business partner Lyle Olmstead handled the sale without using a real estate listing agent.

Discovery School, a nonprofit private school, vacated the building a year ago in June and is defunct, Bayley says. The school, which enrolled students from preschool through sixth grade, had occupied the building since 2003, having moved there from smaller quarters at in the Westminster Cowley Youth Building, at 307 W. Fourth, next to the Westminster Congregational United Church of Christ.