A renovated, but mostly vacant 24,000-square-foot retail center at the northwest corner of the busy Sprague Avenue-Freya Street intersection has been sold to Bainbridge Island, Wash.-based American Marine Bank at a trustee's auction here for the $3.3 million it was owed by developers of the property.

Shelley Ripley, a vice president with trustee Blackstone Corp., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Witherspoon, Kelley, Davenport & Toole PS law firm here, says American Marine Bank was the only bidder at the Nov. 6 auction and submitted a credit bid, meaning for the amount it was owed stemming from loans it had made to the developers.

A representative for American Marine Bank who has been involved in the foreclosure couldn't be reached for comment.

However, Chris Bell says he and Jeff McGougan, both of NAI Black, of Spokane, say they are marketing the building for the bank and are listing it for sale or for lease.

An amended notice of trustee's sale published recently said the companies that collectively held the deed of trust on the property were Robert & Brenda's Spokane LLC, David's Spokane LLC, and Glen & Patti's Spokane LLC, all of Edmonds Wash. They had respective 37.5 percent, 31.5 percent, and 31 percent interests in the property, it said.

The notice said those companies were in default on two loans with a total principal balance of $2.95 million as of July 27, not including late fees nor interest accruing at about $1,000 a day.

The retail center, which reportedly was to be called Sprague Freya Junction and was remodeled by Pioneer Construction, of Arlington, Wash., stretches mostly along Sprague, but fronts partly on Freya, with a Subway sandwich outlet and an H&R Block office occupying space there.

The owners of Carpet Barn, a flooring retailer that had occupied two buildings there for a number of years, sold the property about four years ago after deciding to relocate their business. A real estate agent identified the buyer as Robert Hardy, apparently one of the investors, and said that Hardy, of Seattle, had renovated strip malls in the Lynnwood, Wash., area.

Since then, though, renovation of the property has progressed sluggishly, with the project appearing only recently to have been substantially completed