Old Wells Fargo site is leased

A commercial real estate firm has leased the former Wells Fargo bank building in downtown Spokane and has an option to buy it.

WEB Properties, Inc. recently signed a 20-year lease for the building and plans to pour $1 million into renovations. The company will move its headquarters into one of the building’s eight floors, at 524 W. Riverside, said owner Bill Butler. Formerly called the Fidelity Building and the First Interstate Bank Building, the 62,000-square foot-building is on the northeast corner of Riverside and Howard.

“We’ve been looking for a new home for over two years,” said Butler, whose company currently is located in Browne’s Addition near the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. “We wanted a downtown building. We’ve exhausted about every lead we could find and did a lot of cold calling and there just aren’t a lot of owners that want to sell their buildings.”

Butler said his company is likely to exercise its option to buy sometime after March. That’s when a restriction expires preventing him from leasing the first floor to another bank. Butler said the restriction was put in place by Wells Fargo, which recently moved from the building to its new Spokane headquarters at 601 W. First Ave.

“If he decides to buy it, he can buy it,” said Walt Worthy, who bought the building from Wells Fargo for $1.5 million in January. Worthy said he wasn’t trying to sell the building when Butler called him with an offer.

Neither Worthy nor Butler would disclose terms of the lease.

The building was vacated when Worthy signed Wells Fargo as the anchor tenant for the 17-story office tower formerly occupied by Metropolitan Mortgage and Securities. Shiny gold lettering now identifies that building as the home of Wells Fargo.

Butler said he plans to redo four floors of the building and to give it a new look, with new fascia and a more glass-covered façade. He plans to lease space to professional services firms, such as attorneys and consultants, and expects the first tenants to move in this fall. After the March restriction expires, he hopes to lease the first and second floors to a bank.

“There’s probably five different banks and as many credit unions that have mentioned they’d like to be in the downtown core,” Butler said. With Wells Fargo’s recent occupancy, he said, “It’s practically a turn-key fit for any bank.”