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State closes deal
to purchase Hemmeter
Building for $22.5 mil

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By Tim Ruel
Star-Bulletin

The state today closed on its $22.5 million purchase of the downtown Hemmeter Building, an eight-month old bid that has drawn some controversy.

The 134,000-square-foot structure and the two acres of fee-simple land underneath it were sold by its Japan-based owner Bigi Corp., which had bought the building for $82 million in 1990 and put it up for sale last year. The deal's broker, real estate firm Colliers Monroe Friedlander, said the purchase makes sense because the state already occupies 70 percent of the building and would pay less to buy it than to continue renting it, agent Douglas Pothul said today.

Critics have said the state is paying too much.

Gov. Ben Cayetano has said he wants to turn the building into a museum for the state's extensive art collection.