James Parker, a Cheney real estate investor, says he has bought the land and building formerly occupied by Bonanza Ford, on the West Plains, and is looking for another commercial tenant for it.

Parker says he's restoring the vacant 17,900-square-foot building, at 10010 S. state Route 904, south of the Interstate 90-Cheney-Medical Lake interchange and hopes to lease it to a single tenant, such as a tractor dealer, although he doesn't have any strong prospective tenants yet.

Meantime, he plans to set up a temporary real estate investment office there, he says.

Parker, doing business as Bonanza Building LLC, says he paid AmericanWest Bank $1 million for the property, which includes 4.5 acres of land. It originally was listed last year for $2.7 million, he says.

"It's a keeper for me," he says, "I'm not going to turn around and sell it."

Parker says he originally specialized in owning mobile home parks, but has diversified into "oddball" commercial property investments. "I've found those are the ones that give the most bang for the buck," he says.

Parker says another such real estate purchase includes property he bought from an electric company in the south-central Washington town of Prosser, Wash., and currently leases to Milne Fruit Products Inc., of Prosser.

Bonanza Ford employed about 30 people when it ceased operating early last year, becoming the second Ford dealership in the Spokane area to close in little more than a year. Empire Ford, formerly located in downtown Spokane, closed in late 2007.

The Bonanza dealership moved near I-90 from Cheney in 2001 and was operating there under a 20-year lease, according to court documents filed last year by former property owner Bonanza Land LLC., of Newport Beach, Calif., which sought overdue lease payments from the dealership. Attorneys for Bonanza Land LLC couldn't be reached for comment.

Parker says the former property owners signed the property deed over to AmericanWest and avoided foreclosure.

James S. Black III and Mark Pinch, both of NAI Black, handled the transaction between Parker and AmericanWest.