A fast-growing Chicago-area real estate investment trust has bought for $54.5 million the big Northpointe Plaza shopping center, on Spokanes far North Side.


The company, Inland Western Retail Real Estate Trust Inc., completed the transaction May 28, says Steve Sanders, senior vice president of Inland Real Estate Acquisitions Inc., an affiliated company that acquires properties for the trust.


Northpointe Plaza, built in the early 1990s, is located on the Newport Highway, just northeast of the Division Street Y. The complex includes a total of 350,000 square feet of retail space, and its anchor tenants include Safeway, Staples, and Gart Sports, among others. The property currently is 95 percent occupied, Sanders says.


Sanders says Inland Western views the purchase of Northpointe as a long-term investment and bought the Spokane retail center because it fits the profile for properties it seeks. The company typically looks for relatively new retail centers in metropolitan areas, he says.


The company doesnt plan to make any major changes to the center, he says.


Inland Western bought Northpointe from Los Angeles-based Barclays Realty & Management, which had bought the property in December 2000 for $45 million.


Ruben Poplawski, president of Barclays, says most of that companys holdings are in California and Oregon. The company decided to sell Northpointe because of its remote location relative to its offices and other properties, he says.


Its a good property, but its a property far away from our location and difficult to control from that far away, Poplawski says.


Northpointe is Inland Westerns first property purchase in Washington state. Including the retail center here, Inland Western now has 22 properties in 15 states.


Formed in March 2003, Inland Western has grown quickly, acquiring more than $580 million in property with a total of more than 3.1 million square feet of floor space.


Inland Western is part of the Inland Real Estate Group of Cos., which owns a number of real estate-related concerns.