G&B; Buys Remaining Portion Of Downtown Crescent Building
Goodale & Barbieri Cos. has purchased the vacant portion of the old Frederick & Nelson building downtown in a move that will expand G&B’s Crescent Court to more than 350,000 square feet.
G&B, a Spokane-based property development and hospitality company, announced Thursday that its purchase of the Crescent Addition will become effective Sept. 1. The skywalk-accessible building is located at the corner of Post and Main.
Don Barbieri, G&B president, said in a faxed news release that the purchase is a show of support for “the rebirth of downtown Spokane” and the proposed $80 million redevelopment of nearby River Park Square.
“There is no more concrete way of demonstrating our support than to further invest our funds and future in Spokane by buying this empty property and filling it with the businesses and shoppers which make this community so special,” touted Barbieri in the news release.
Barbieri was unable to comment further because he is on vacation, said a G&B receptionist. All G&B employees involved with the purchase were also on vacation this week and unable to comment, said G&B leasing agent David Peterson.
G&B bought the 52,582-square-foot building, which has remained vacant since F&N closed in 1992, from a retired Spokane investor who now lives on Orcas Island.
Robert Paterson, who was born and raised in Spokane, owns the Crescent Addition in a family trust. His family was one of the founders of the original Crescent department store in 1889.
According to the news release, G&B plans to keep the tenant mix of Crescent Addition independent from Crescent Court next door. Crescent Court is home to a food court, Cucina! Cucina!, small national and local retailers and upstairs ballrooms with catering facilities.
The news release stated that G&B will soon announce the name of a tenant to occupy 25 percent of the building.
The Crescent department store, and later F&N, occupied four buildings in the block between Riverside, Main, Post and Wall. G&B bought the building that would become Crescent Court at Main and Wall in 1993 from F&N’s creditors for $1.4 million. At the same time, Sterling Financial Corp. paid $855,000 for the two buildings facing Riverside for its new headquarters.
, DataTimes