The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. says it has sold a 25 percent initial equity stake in a limited liability company it formed in its receivership capacity to hold certain loans of the failed Bank of Whitman, in Colfax, Wash.

The 62 loans the FDIC transferred to the company it created have a total unpaid principal balance of just over $101 million, the regulatory agency said in a recent news release. They include performing and nonperforming commercial and residential acquisition, development, and construction loans involving properties in Washington, Idaho, and Utah.

Mariner Real Estate Partners III LLC, a minority-owned business in Leawood, Kan., purchased the one-quarter equity stake in the FDIC-created company through a competitive bidding process for about $13.6 million in cash, the news release said. Its winning bid valued the overall bundle of loans at about 54 percent of the aggregate unpaid principal balance. The release said Mariner will handle the management, servicing, and ultimate disposition of the loans.

The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions closed the Bank of Whitman in early August 2011. To protect depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase-and-assumption agreement with Columbia Bank, of Tacoma, Wash., under which Columbia assumed all of the bank's deposits.

Eight of the Bank of Whitman's 20 branches reopened as branches of Columbia Bank, which now has 102 branches in Washington and Oregon.

Melanie Dressel, president and CEO of Columbia Banking System Inc., the holding company for Columbia Bank, told the Journal in an interview shortly after the transaction that acquiring certain of Bank of Whitman's assets was part of Columbia Bank's goal to become a regional community bank.

That acquisition, also subject to a competitive bidding process through the FDIC, included a $314.4 million asset purchase of the bank's total assets of $548.6 million and all of its deposits totaling $515.7 million. The FDIC estimated then that Whitman's failure would cost its deposit insurance fund $134.8 million.

It said its sale to Mariner of a stake in the LLC holding Bank of Whitman loans that weren't part of the Columbia transaction was just the third completed sale under its Small Investor Program. That program seeks to attract small investors by offering geographically concentrated, smaller-sized asset pools for them to bid on.

"The unique structural features allow these transactions to be more accessible to a larger universe of bidders, thus increasing participation while maintaining a level playing field for all investors," it said in the press release.

Nine groups submitted bids for the initial 25 percent equity interest in the LLC the FDIC formed to hold Bank of Whitman loans. The receivership's interest in the LLC will remain at 75 percent until all the equity is returned, through the sale, payoff, or other disposition of the loans, the FDIC said. If an amount greater than the equity is returned, private ownership's equity interest in that sum increases to 50 percent, the agency said.

Meanwhile, Dressel, who was honored as 2011 Community Banker of the Year by industry publication American Banker, planned to visit Spokane this week for a customer reception at Columbia Bank's downtown branch.

Columbia Banking System last week announced fourth quarter net income of $14.8 million, or 37 cents a diluted common share, up from $12.6 million, or 32 cents a share, in the 2010 fourth quarter. For all of 2011, Columbia had net income of $48 million, or $1.21 a share, up from $25.8 million, or 72 cents a share, in 2010.

Dressel said in the earnings report that 2011 was "an exceptional year of growth and opportunity for us."

She said, "Our total assets increased by about 13 percent from a year ago as a result of organic growth as well as the FDIC-assisted acquisitions of First Heritage Bank and Summit Bank during the second quarter, and Bank of Whitman during the third quarter."

Dressel added, "These transactions increased our number of branches by 21 percent, extended our geographic footprint further into Eastern Washington, and helped us fill in our branch network in northwest Washington. The integration of First Heritage and Summit are complete; the Bank of Whitman integration will be accomplished by the end of the first quarter."