Photo courtesy of BLDUP.

A mixed-use building in Boston’s Downtown Crossing shopping district at the center of a court case over appraisers’ conflicts of interest has been sold for nearly $22 million.

Fidelity Real Estate Co. LLC acquired The Winthrop Building for $21.75 million from Buffalo-Water 1 LLC, according to documents filed in the Suffolk Registry of Deeds.

Fidelity had sold the building to Buffalo in 2004, which then leased the building back to Fidelity, which was allowed to purchase the building back from Buffalo as part of the lease. Following a dispute over whether the appraiser used in the deal had a conflict of interest, Buffalo sued Fidelity, but lost when the case came before the state Supreme Judicial Court. The appraiser in that case had determined the building was worth $22.9 million.

The Winthrop Building is a 45,891-square-foot historic building at 7 Water St., steps north of the Old South Meeting House. The 9-story brick and terracotta building was designed by Clarence H. Blackall in the Renaissance Revival style and has the distinction of being the first skyscraper in the city to have been constructed with a steel frame.

Completed in 1894, it was originally known as the Carter Building but was renamed the Winthrop Building in 1899 after early colonial Gov. John Winthrop, whose second house was located adjacent to the site. Prominent past tenants include landscape architect Fletcher Steele in the 1920s and the Boston offices of the Associated Press.