Old Safeco building back on the market

Surrounded by a barrier of trees, manicured landscaping and turf, the old Safeco building on East Sprague stands out as one of the Spokane Valley street’s more attractive – and empty – office buildings.

But that lonely status may change soon, now that Safeco has placed the building back on the market, this time with a new Realtor and a lower selling price.

“Safeco made some corporate changes,” said real estate agent Jeff McGougan, who has been working to sell the building. “We just put it back on the market. There’s been some definite interest.”

The building, which was originally selling for $8.5 million, now goes for $6.9 million, McGougan said.

“Just to buy the land and to put a value on the building, it costs four times as much to build the thing,” he said.

The building, located at 14610 E. Sprague, is a large building with nearly 100,000 square feet of office space. It is the former home of Seattle-based Safeco Corporation, which still owns the building and maintains it. The lawn is watered and mowed, and a security guard continues to patrol the vacant building.

The building was constructed in 1976 by Safeco, which had operations there until the company moved its call center to Liberty Lake in 2004. The building was placed for sale by Kiemle & Hagood soon after, but as the company restructured, the building was taken off the market, McGougan said.

Recently, corporate higher-ups in Seattle made the decision to sell the Spokane building, this time at a lower price, he said.

Though he would not discuss specific parties, several groups have expressed desire to buy the property, McGougan said.