Sherwood buildings sold to two area groups, and both got great deals

The downtown business beat continues producing more real estate deals.
In Friday's paper was the announcement two groups bought the side-by-side buildings formerly called the Sherwood Mall. In fact, the buildings were built in different eras, and are probably best managed as two different structures.
The smaller building is the corner building once known as the home of First National Bank. It's at the corner of Riverside and Stevens.
That building was acquired by an investors group that includes Spokane Chiefs and Spokane Indians owner Bobby Brett, and area developer Chris Batten.
Brett is general manager of 1953 Box LLC, the company owning the corner building ... and the name refers to the year this building went up, in 1953. The earlier building that sat there was not two stories. We'll go hunting for the historic photo of that bank that later was torn down.
The plan is to rebrand the building as the Numerica Building, and Numerica Credit Union will take most of the main floor. The rendering here, provided by nystrom + olson archiecture, shows the exterior of the building after remodeling.
The "real" Sherwood building, at 510 W. Riverside,was purchased by an LLC called Sure Would, whose principal is Tom Clemson, the president of Inland Group.
Here's a lesson in market timing. Sterling Financial, which bought the two buildings back in the 1970s, sold them in 2007 to a North Idaho doctors' group, for $3.7 million.
This past month, Clemson's group paid $800,000 for the eight-story building, while Box 1953 LLC paid $500,000 for the corner building. Certainly both properties will take some major renovation. But those are decent deals for good downtown real estate.
In 2010 the properties were assessed at $2.7 million together.