GBS LLC, an Alaska-based title and escrow company, says it has set up shop in Coeur d'Alene.

Through the Coeur d'Alene office, GBS acts as the loan-closing agent under a contract with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for certain HUD real estate transactions throughout Idaho, says Crystal Andersen-Booth, board chairwoman of Nome, Alaska-based Sitnasuak Native Corp., the parent company of GBS.

The recently opened office there occupies 1,700 square feet of leased floor space on the top floor of a three-story office building at 1250 Ironwood Drive, a block east of Northwest Boulevard and south of Interstate 90, Andersen-Booth says.

The company has five employees at the Coeur d'Alene office and a total of 30 employees in six states, she says.

Sitnasuak Native Corp. operates six professional and technical service companies throughout the U.S. The parent company is one of more than 200 for-profit Alaska Native village corporations created by Congress in 1971 as part of a settlement of land-ownership disputes between the U.S., state governments, and native residents. The corporation generates revenue for its more than 2,000 member-shareholders, while protecting their land and culture, Andersen-Booth says.

Craig Hunter and Rob Kannapien, both of Coldwell Banker Commercial Schneidmiller Realty, of Coeur d'Alene, handled the lease.