Merchant Street Holdings Inc. is selling the six-story building to an undisclosed buyer, according to Ken Fridley, investment sales specialist at CB Commercial, the seller's broker.

Fridley said the proposed sale of the building, located at 119 Merchant St. across from Bank of Hawaii's corporate headquarters, recently went into escrow and will be completed sometime in November.

Fridley declined to reveal the sale price but said the sellers recently had listed the 28,000-square-foot property at $3.5 million.

Built in 1901, the steel frame and brick building is named after Dr. Hugo Stangenwald, a physician during the late 1800s who started the building but died before it was finished. The building was completed by a firm known as Pacific Building Co.

During the mid 1970s, it was known as the Dean Witter Building. At the time, the stock brokerage's local offices were located in the building.

The seller acquired the property in 1994 when it took it over from a borrower, Japan-based developer Nansay Hawaii Inc., according to Fridley. Nansay purchased the property in 1989 for $10 million from New Zealand-based Robert Jones Investments Ltd.

The pending deal is the latest involving the Japanese bank. Long Term Credit Bank plans to auction the scenic Koolau Golf Course in Windward Oahu. Last Monday, Circuit Court Judge Daniel Heely ruled in favor of Long Term's request in a foreclosure suit to sell the 1,300-acre property and appoint a commissioner in charge of the sale.