The Bellevue, Wash.-based company that owns Land Rover Spokane has bought a former Cadillac and Infiniti dealership site on the west side of Adams Street between Second and Third avenues and plans to move its sport-utility vehicle dealership there shortly.


The company, J&L Holdings Inc., completed the purchase two weeks ago, says Manuel Ormaechea, Land Rover Spokanes general manager. The property, he says, includes a 3,700-square-foot showroom-and-sales building at 1310 W. Third, a 14,200-square-foot service building that fronts on Second Avenue, and 35,000 square feet of underlying and adjoining land.


He declines to say how much J&L paid for the property, but says the company already has begun making extensive upgrades to both buildings and that the renovations probably will cost $200,000 or more.


Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane, is doing the work, he says.


Land Rover Spokane hopes to move all of its operations to the downtown lot by the end of November, vacating both a satellite sales lot at 1007 W. Second that it had operated for several months and a 4-year-old full dealership facility at Liberty Lake, Ormaechea says.


Seattle auto dealer Biff Brotherton developed the Liberty Lake facility to house the Land Rover dealership, then sold the dealerships assets, not including the real estate, to J&L in August 2001. J&Ls lease of the Liberty Lake facility expires next July, so the company will seek to find a tenant to lease the property until then, Ormaechea says.


Land Rover Spokane began displaying vehicles on the satellite sales lot on Second Avenue this past summer to test market response to a possible move downtown, and Ormaechea says he was pleased with that response.


Even our long-term customers are applauding the idea, he says.