Canadians Buy Northpointe, Ironwood

A Vancouver-based company has bought 554,000 square feet of retail shopping space in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene for about $38 million, company officials announced Thursday.

Wesbild Shopping Centres Ltd. bought Spokane’s Northpointe Plaza and Coeur d’Alene’s Ironwood Square in a “package deal” from First Western Development, based in Lynnwood, Wash. Wesbild’s acquisition, financed partially through Seafirst Bank, became effective Monday.

“What we like is demographics of that area: We like the fact that there has been strong job growth and the fact that residential growth has been very encouraging,” said Gary A. Patterson, chief financial officer at Wesbild.

With the acquisition, Wesbild hopes to capture some of the growing market for retail space in the Inland Northwest, particularly in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene corridor, Patterson said in a telephone interview from Vancouver.

Northpointe Plaza, N9770 Newport Highway, is anchored by Target, Safeway and T.J. Maxx. Albertsons, PayLess Drug Store and First Security Bank are the anchors at Ironwood, located at Ironwood Drive and U.S. Highway 95.

In addition to Northpointe and Ironwood, Wesbild also announced Thursday the acquisition of a shopping center near Seattle worth approximately $12 million.

Wesbild, with American headquarters in Seattle, owns eight other shopping centers in the United States and Canada.

First Western Development Co. began developing Northpointe in 1989, and it quickly became one of the county’s busiest retail centers.