PROVIDENCE — The Boston investment company that bought two downtown buildings owned by Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island paid $26.7 million, according to public records and the president of the investment company.

Blue Cross will remain in the buildings about two more years, leasing the space from the new owner, Berkeley Investments, while building a new headquarters at Waterplace Park.

The sale was an all-cash deal, financed by Eastern Bank, Berkeley president Young K. Park said yesterday. Berkeley and Blue Cross also entered into a lease agreement, and the insurer will pay rent, he said.

The sale price for the properties was comfortably above the $20 million that a Blue Cross spokeswoman in January said the company hoped to realize from a sale. It is below the $29.9-million value assessed by the city for real estate tax purposes.

Park said that, after Blue Cross moves out, probably in the first quarter of 2010, his company will convert the two properties into multi-tenant office buildings, possibly with retail space on the ground floors.

The two buildings involved in the deal are:

•15 La Salle Square, a six-story, 138,128-square-foot building across Sabin Street from the civic center with an official address of 1 AT&T Plaza. The parcel is bordered by Sabin and Fountain streets, La Salle Square and the Fogarty Building. The 1.13 acres of land are assessed at $3.9 million, for a total of $17.3 million with improvements. Taxes on the property are $467,941.84.

•One Empire Plaza, a six-story, 99,648-square-foot building diagonally across Empire Street from Trinity Repertory Company, with an official address of 417 Westminster St. The parcel is bordered by Empire, Washington and Walnut streets, as well as a pedestrian section of Westminster Street. The 0.89 acres of land are assessed at $3.1 million, for a total of $12.6 million with improvements. Taxes on the property are $341,418.12.

Both parcels were transferred by a single quitclaim deed from Blue Cross to Empire LaSalle LLC, a Delaware corporation whose address is in care of Berkeley’s Boston offices. The deed is dated April 25 and was recorded with the city April 30.

Park said his company was drawn to Providence by the level of recent public and private investment in the city, and its image as a place on the rise.

“We like the city, and we want to be good neighbors,” he said. “We’re drinking the Kool-Aid.”

Berkeley found the Empire Street area particularly attractive because of the mix of office buildings, restaurants and entertainment venues. “Office workers like to be in an environment where they not only work, but they can go out,” Park said.

He said his company might put retail on the entire ground floor of Empire Plaza and on the Sabin Street side of La Salle Square. “The side facing the Dunkin’ Donuts Center obviously offers the best exposure.” Businesses there would be able to take advantage of crowds entering and leaving shows at the civic center and at the Rhode Island Convention Center, next door.

It will also wake up an area without much to offer pedestrians, Park said. “It will animate the street.”

He said his company has not decided what sorts of tenants to seek for the buildings. “We really don’t have any preconceived notions as to what kind of tenants would be ideal.”

Park said he expects Empire Plaza would be marketed to tenants who would occupy an entire floor, while LaSalle Square would support more than one tenant on each floor.

pparker@projo.com