A new owner and property manager will bring new life to 6600 Westown Parkway, hopes Ruhl and Ruhl Commercial Co., which recently obtained the listing for the former Regency property.

“Now that the building is under new ownership, we are definitely heading down a new path,” said broker Marcus Pitts, adding that Vermont-based NLV Financial Corp., which acquired the asset through a nonjudicial foreclosure agreement on Feb. 26, has no plans to put the property up for sale.

“There have been a lot of rumors in circulation that they’re trying to fire-sell it, or so-and-so is in control of it,” said broker Matt Lundberg. “It’s nice to know that we’re in control” on the management and brokerage side, he said.

“There’s a strong owner in there that has no problem holding on to it. The main goal right now is to get it stabilized, get some good-quality tenants” and move forward, he said.

Ruhl and Ruhl doesn’t anticipate that the property’s past association with Regency Homes, the West Des Moines-based development company that collapsed in April 2008, will have a negative impact on its marketing efforts.

Touting the building’s upscale interior finish and proximity to an emerging medical community, including Mercy Medical Center’s 239,000-square-foot hospital project slated for completion later this year, Pitts and Lundberg see a lot of opportunity for tenants in the area.

“We think the quality of the building and the location will speak for itself,” Pitts said.

Six tenants currently occupy the 95,000-square-foot building, and the brokerage has recently walked several potential users, large and small, through the six remaining units, which range between 2,000 and 23,000 square feet.

Pitts said he is working closely with NLV Financial to determine an aggressive lease rate for the available space. But with almost half the building currently vacant, it’s imperative to understand what the market will bear, likely between $12 and $15 per square foot triple net.

“It’s not a time to be too proud of a property; you’ve got to be at market,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tom Knapp, the property manager, is working to “trim the fat” from an estimated operating expense of $9.25 per square foot and is confident he can accomplish that goal in six to 12 months.

As for the Regency sign attached to the exterior, Knapp said his first order of business will be to take it down.

“Certainly, if we would land a large tenant there that wanted to call it home, that signage and building name might change again,” he said.

“The new owner is a long-term thinker. At this point, they’ve told us the building is not for sale,” Knapp said.

“At the end of the day, we represent the owners, and in our opinion, the way for them to maximize the value on this property is to hold on and to lease it,” Pitts said.