Crown West buys property in N. Carolina Company, its parent also announce $125 million investment fund closing By Linn Parish Spokane Journal of Business Crown West Realty LLC, of Spokane Valley, has bought for $13 million an office building in Cary, N.C., near the Raleigh-Durham metropolitan area. The transaction, the company's third in North Carolina, involves the purchase of the Regency Park building, a four-story, 112,000-square-foot structure that was built in 2000. "This asset is perfectly suited as a corporate headquarters in a superior location," says Rob Gragg, a vice president at Crown West Realty. Crown West plans to make some cosmetic improvements to the structure in the near future. Earlier this year, Crown West bought for $17.3 million the Gateway Centre I and II complex, located in Morrisville, N.C., also in the Raleigh-Durham area. Two years ago, the company bought a property in Charlotte, N.C. Separately, Crown West and its parent, New York-based Petrus Partners Ltd., announced the closing of a $125 million real estate equity investment fund, Petrus Inventors 2005 LP. The companies say the fund's goal is to acquire about $500 million in office and industrial properties over the next three years. The investment group says it focuses on acquiring mid-sized office and industrial properties in select U.S. markets, typically in transactions valued at between $10 million and $100 million and requiring investments of $5 million to $25 million. Formed in 1996, Crown West owns and manages about 7 million square feet of leased office and industrial properties and is headquartered at the Spokane Business & Industrial Park, which it owns and manages. In addition to North Carolina and Spokane, Crown West has commercial properties in the Phoenix area and in Denver.