A Eugene businessman has purchased a 56,000-square-foot retail building on the north side of Bend, which houses Staples, Michaels arts and crafts and Wilson’s Mattress Gallery, paying nearly $10 million.

Dan Giustina, a partner with the Eugene-based timber company Giustina Resources, paid $9.75 million to purchase the building from a Los Angeles-area real estate developer, Deschutes County property records show. The sale was recorded May 17.

It’s uncertain what his plans are for the center. Giustina didn’t return a message seeking comment this week.

But his purchase marks the third sale of sizable Bend retail locations in about the last eight months. A Berkeley, Calif., real estate investment company bought 38,000 square feet of the shopping center on Southeast Third Street and Wilson Avenue, anchored by Grocery Outlet, in September, paying $2 million.

In December, Rich Carone, the CEO of Corvallis manufacturing company Korvis Automation, paid $5.5 million to buy the 81,000-square-foot Pioneer Crossing shopping center on Southeast Third Street and Badger Road out of foreclosure. He then sold a 50 percent stake in the center to Corvallis building and development company Dickerhoof Properties, county records show.

Carone and Dickerhoof officials didn’t return calls for comment this week. But Dickerhoof, which developed the Petco site in Redmond and the Red Rock Center near the Walmart Supercenter, lists the shopping center on its recent acquisition list, and is seeking a new tenant for half of the former Gottschalks building.

The Corvallis buyers likely saw a chance to buy in at a discount rate by taking the property out of foreclosure, said Brian Fratzke, owner and principal broker of Fratzke Commercial Real Estate.

Before being developed, the vacant, 6.1-acre piece of land sold for $5.4 million in 2006.

Fratzke said the Corvallis buyers “didn’t pay anywhere near what it would cost to build new and fill it up with tenants. The savings are pretty substantial.”

Fratzke said he didn’t have any knowledge of the Giustina sale. But with national retailers like Staples and Michaels filling it, collecting lease payments isn’t likely to be an issue.

Bend’s supply of vacant retail space has declined in 13 of the last 15 quarters, according to Compass Commercial Real Estate Services. The vacancy rate currently sits at 8.4 percent.

A continued decline in retail could push up lease rates and increase the urgency for Bend to expand its urban growth boundary. City officials have slated the expansion for 2017.

“That means (developers) wouldn’t know where they could build new properties until 2018 or 2019 …,” Fratzke said. “The demand is coming sooner. How are (building) managers not going to turn around and keep increasing prices? We’re going to end up right back where we were in 2006.”