The former Empire Ford auto dealership property in downtown Spokane has been sold at public auction to Ford Motor Credit Co. for $2.4 million, according to a trustee's deed filed with the Spokane County Auditor's Office.

Nate Greene, who along with his wife, Roberta, formerly owned the property, at 423 W. Third, through The Greene Co. LLC, told the Journal of Business four months ago that a California-based real estate investment trust had signed a preliminary agreement to acquire the property.

However, the couple's efforts to complete a deal and forestall a postponed trustee's sale apparently failed. The auction was held Feb. 19, the trustee's deed says.

Greene couldn't be reached immediately for comment.

A legal notice published last fall said the property was to be auctioned off at a trustee's sale, scheduled for Dec. 11 and then Feb. 5, to satisfy a nearly $2.5 million financial obligation owed to Ford Motor Credit on a 2001 deed of trust.

The notice said The Greene Co. had defaulted on loan payments and fees totaling about $568,000 through early September 2009.

The Greenes closed the dealership there in December 2007. The dealership property includes three buildings, a multistory parking structure, and about an acre and a half of land on both sides of Third Avenue.

The total rentable building area is just over 49,500 square feet, not including the 85,200-square-foot parking structure or an 8,300-square-foot basement, marketing materials say. The main building was constructed in 1941, and the other structures were added in 1978, but the main complex was remodeled extensively in a more than $1 million project eight years ago.