A stay preventing trustees' sales of the Clare House senior housing complex on Spokane's South Hill has expired, and the buyers have sought to extend a June 30 deadline for completion of its sale by one month.

The proposed purchasers, Whitewater Creek Inc., of Hayden, Idaho, and its nonprofit partner, Spokane Housing Ventures, are negotiating for an additional 30-day extension of time to complete their due diligence and to close the transaction, says William Symmes Sr., an attorney with Witherspoon, Kelley, Davenport & Toole PS, which is representing Spokane real estate developer Harry Green. Whitewater Creek and Spokane Housing Ventures declined, through a representative, to comment.

The complex, which is located on 18 acres along the Palouse Highway just southeast of the Southgate commercial district, has until now been focused entirely on serving seniors. The buyers are seeking to acquire the property, which currently includes 124 units of affordable senior housing called Clare House Apartments, 22 "bungalow" units called Clare House Bungalow Homes, and a vacant parcel of land designated as Clare House Second Addition, before they were sold separately at trustees' sales.

Meanwhile, the partners have been seeking financing for a project to construct 120 apartments for families, which will include some low-income units, and 60 additional units of senior housing there. They have estimated the project would cost $27 million altogether, including the purchase price of the properties.

Symmes says Whitewater and Spokane Housing Ventures have been in negotiations with the owners of the housing developments and the adjacent vacant third parcel to extend the closing date for the sale by 30 days. He says that even if the sellers agree to give the buyers more time, there's no indication that an additional court stay will be requested, as long as the sale can be completed by Aug. 21.

Symmes says that if any of the lien holders on the three parcels wished to schedule a trustee's sale at this point, such an action couldn't be completed before that August date, which functionally gives the purchasers that amount of time to complete the sale.

He says a closing agent has been appointed, and that if the sale were close to completion at such time as a trustee's sale could occur, the parties likely would seek a court order extending the stay.

"If I were Whitewater Creek, I'd have my eye on that ball and have everything ready to go and then some," Symmes says.

Green, who developed the independent-living retirement complex, originally planned a multiphase, 418-unit campus there. The first phase of that project included construction of the Clare House apartment building, as well as a community building and other amenities, owned by Clare House Apartments LP, whose principals include Green. The second phase of work included the construction of 22 bungalow units, which are owned by a separate company named Clare House Bungalow Homes LLC.

In September, the apartment building for seniors there was placed in custodial receivership pending a trustee's sale to satisfy a debt of $3.9 million owed on the property. Trustees' sales have twice been postponed on all three parcels as Green has sought to sell the properties as a whole.