Kiemle & Hagood Co., the big Spokane-based commercial real estate and property management company, says it has sold its Friendly Parking Services division, which it formed about six years ago, to Seattle-based Republic Parking Northwest for an undisclosed sum.

Larry Soehren, Kiemle & Hagood's vice president and chief operating officer, says the division's assets consist primarily of the contracts it has to manage parking facilities for property owners. It currently oversees 13 parking properties that include a total of about 575 parking spaces, mostly in the downtown area, Soehren says.

Given the continuing soft economy, he says, "We decided it was time for us to really focus on our core business of real estate," and get out of ancillary parking-management duties.

The ownership change became effective June 1. The parking operation has been managed by Jack Rountree and employs eight people, all of whom Republic has agreed to retain, Soehren says. "We kept everybody's job, which was key to us," he says.

Republic plans to lease office space here, but Kiemle & Hagood has agreed to allow Republic to use some of Kiemle & Hagood's downtown headquarters space until Republic secures a location of its own, he says. However, most of the parking division's employees work in the field and don't require office space, he adds.

Republic Parking Northwest now manages about 210 parking properties in Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Everett, and Spokane, Wash.; Boise, Idaho; Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska; and Honolulu, Hawaii, and on the island of Maui. It is an affiliate of Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Republic Parking System, a family-owned enterprise that claims to be one of the nation's largest privately held providers of parking-management services.

Spokane will be a nice addition to our family network," says Gary Beck, president of Republic Parking Northwest. "I think that we can bring a unique way of operation into Spokane. I think we are going to be able to give people a good alternative." One of the things Republic plans to do is install electronic pay boxes at some of its properties here, he says.