Pratt building sold

The Arthur C. F. Pratt building is no more. Welcome the Monson Building.

Merritt "Lefty" Monson and his wife Joanne purchased the commercial development from the estate of Joe Fought on July 7. The Monsons, who have a home in Lake Oswego, also just purchased a log home in Sage Meadow, according to Lefty Monson.

"We just fell in love with Sisters," Monson said.

"We were not trying to take advantage of an unfortunate situation We just felt the building had not gotten off to its potential. We wanted to be involved with Sisters and the growth (of the community)," said Monson.

The office building was developed by Sisters accountant Arthur Pratt using about $1.6 million Pratt borrowed from Joe Fought, a wealthy industrialist with homes in Portland and Sisters. Pratt also borrowed about $600,000 from Fought to buy a home in Bend.

Pratt defaulted on the loans after Fought died and the commercial property was taken by the Fought estate.

The selling price of the 16,000-square-foot commercial building at the corner of Hood Avenue and Pine Street in Sisters was $1,150,000, according to Dennis Kerr, of Kerr Oliver & Company, who represented the Fought estate.

"But that included the little blue house and the little green house and four lots," Kerr said.

Monson was represented by the real estate firm of Norris & Stevens of Portland, which handles Monson's real estate investments in the Portland area, according to Kerr.

Kerr said the Sisters commercial building currently has eight tenants holding about 20 percent of the 14,000 square feet of net leasable space. Kerr Oliver will continue in a property management role and leasing the property, though Kerr anticipated having a local Sisters Realtor or broker handling some operations.

Monson said he plans to make some improvements to the building, including sidewalks, landscaping and a grassy area with picnic tables outside, and some pictures on the wall inside.

Monson recently sold his Portland business, a firm that sold and serviced bar code scanners and peripherals, such as those used in supermarket check-out lines.

The company was the largest service center in the world for such equipment.