WinCo Foods Inc., a Boise-based discount grocery chain, has bought the former HomeBase Inc. property in Spokane Valley, says a listing agent involved in the transaction.


The sale includes the 100,000-square-foot building that housed a HomeBase home-improvement store from 1988 to 2001, plus 8 acres of land, says the agent, Earl Engle, of NAI Black, a Spokane-based commercial real estate company.


WinCo officials couldnt be reached for comment.


The property purchase is WinCos second real estate transaction in the Spokane area since it announced last summer that it plans to build a store in North Spokane.


Engle says the former HomeBase building is in good shape.


WinCo will have to do a lot of updating, but I dont know of any problems (with the structure), he says.


The building has had no retail tenants since HomeBase closed, although Falcos Inc., of Spokane Valley, has leased 25,000 square feet of space there for storage and delivery-truck parking.


WinCo bought the property from LNR Partners Inc., of Miami Beach, Fla., which had bought it last spring during a foreclosure action by Bank of America Corp. At the time, the obligation on the property was nearly $6 million.


Engle, who was also a listing agent for the property at the time of the foreclosure action, declines to disclose the prices for which LNR Partners bought and sold the property, although the listing price thats posted on LNR Partners Web site is $4.9 million. The Web site says the property has nearly 500 parking spaces.


Last August, WinCo bought 20 acres of land at 9257 N. Nevada in North Spokane. The companys plans to build an $8.2 million, 93,000-square-foot grocery store there are under review at the citys building department. WinCo said in August that the Nevada Street store is expected to open this fall and will employ 150 to 200 people.


WinCos Web site says the company operates 61 stores in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, and California, and employs more than 9,200 people companywide. The closest WinCo store to Spokane is in Moscow, Idaho. The company also operates two stores in the Tri-Cities, Wash., area and eight stores in Western Washington.


HomeBase, the former Irvine, Calif.-based home-improvement chain, closed 47 of its stores, including all eight stores it had in Washington state, in 2001 and converted its remaining outlets into House2Home stores. House2Home filed for bankruptcy protection in late 2001 and liquidated its assets a few months later.


Contact Mike McLean at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at mikem@spokanejournal.com.