Crown West Realty

By Linn Parish
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS

Crown West Realty LLC, of Spokane Valley, has bought for $17.3 million a two-building office complex in Morrisville, N.C., near the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., metropolitan area.

The complex, called Gateway Centre I and II, was built in 2001 and includes a total of 145,000 square feet of office space. Crown West says the complex is located near an international airport and near the Research Triangle Park.

The occupancy rate at the complex was 86 percent in late April. Tenants there currently include Strayer University, Sears Roebuck & Co, and Genesys Telecommunications, among others.

Ed Gargiulo, Crown West’s asset manager, says the purchase of Gateway Centre I and II is the company’s first acquisition in the Raleigh-Durham market, which he says Crown West has eyed for some time. He says the company will continue to look for potential investment properties there and expects to complete additional transactions yet this year.

The acquisition is Crown West’s second in North Carolina. In 2004, the company bought a 150,000-square-foot property in Charlotte.

Formed in 1996, Crown West owns and manages nearly 7 million square feet of leased office and industrial properties and is headquartered at the Spokane Business & Industrial Park, which it owns and manages. The company also has properties in Phoenix and Denver.