The company that owns Thompson's Chevron, at Third Avenue and Monroe Street, has acquired the former Mercedes-Benz dealership property next door, and says it's looking for a tenant to take the entire block.

The family-owned concern, F.A.T. Family LLC Number 1, purchased the 14,200-square-foot building, which takes up two lots at 1027 W. Third, earlier this spring for an undisclosed sum, says Scott Thompson, who heads the company.

The building has been vacant since December, when its former tenant, Medford Ore.-based Lithia Motors Inc., moved its Spokane Mercedes-Benz dealership to Liberty Lake. The property had been owned by Spokane-based Sutherland Motors Ltd., which sold its Mercedes-Benz dealership to Lithia Motors in 2003 and leased the property to Lithia then, Thompson says.

Thompson's Chevron, located at 1005 W. Third, occupies the four other lots on the block, which is bounded by Third, Monroe, Madison Street, and an alley that runs along Interstate 90.

Thompson says his family has operated the gas station for 35 years, and has owned the land on which the gas station sits since 1990. The station's days could be numbered, however, if a tenant wants to do something else with the property, he says.

"If I find the right renter that's a possibility," he says. "The gas station business is rough. We've been in it for a long time, and there might be a better use for that property."

Thompson says he's hoping to attract a single long-term tenant to lease the property.

"We're in the preliminary stages," he says. "We don't know who or what it's going to be."

The F.A.T. Family real estate purchase was handled by Guy Byrd, of Cornerstone Property Advisors LLC, and Joe Nichols, of Windermere/Manito LLC. Nichols also is the leasing agent for the property.