The combined Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo auto dealerships downtown are planning a $5 million-plus renovation and expansion project that eventually will include the entire block on which the dealerships are now located, says Francois Chaker, the general manager of the dealerships.

The luxury import dealerships Jaguar Spokane, Land Rover Spokane, and Volvo Spokane, currently are located at 1310 W. Third.

The dealerships hope to begin the construction project this summer, although Chaker says that as of this week, he didn’t know which contractor the dealerships’ ownership group, AutoNation, had selected. The first phase of the project would expand and remodel an 8,000-square-foot former liquor store building next door at 1322 W. Third.

A predevelopment application on file with the city of Spokane, shows the expansion would add 1,200 square feet of floor space to the former liquor store building to accommodate a vehicle-service bay.

The project would include an extensive interior and exterior remodel of the liquor-store building to conform with Jaguar/Land Rover branding, Chaker says.

A preliminary site plan shows the Jaguar and Land Rover dealerships would share the showroom and sales building, which would have room to display a total of eight vehicles inside. The building also would have a one-vehicle, new car delivery bay.

The Irvine, Calif., office of Edmonton, Alberta-based Stantec Inc., is designing the project. Stantec also has a Spokane office.

The showroom would have frameless storefront windows, and the front and side exterior surfaces would have metallic gray and champagne-colored aluminum panels, the preliminary application information says.

Volvo Spokane, meantime, would be expanded in the two-story, 6,700-square-foot building it currently shares with the Jaguar and Land Rover dealerships, Chaker says. The dealerships also occupy two connected single-story buildings with a total of 14,000 square feet of floor space at 1301 W. Second, just north of the 1310 N. Third building, 

AutoNation, the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based multibrand chain of auto dealerships, acquired the Jaguar Spokane, Land Rover Spokane, and Volvo Spokane dealerships last year through its Spokane-area affiliate Appleway Chevrolet Inc. from Boise-based Lyle Pearson Premier Motor Cars.

Appleway Chevrolet bought the former liquor store building for $1.1 million last October, Washington state Department of Revenue records show. The company had purchased the rest of the block, which is bordered by Third and Second avenues and Adams and Cedar streets, for $2.5 million three months earlier.

The block includes 1.7 acres of land occupied by seven structures with a total of 40,000 square feet of floor space, including the three-story, 12,000-square-foot building at 1321 W. Second where the Tacos Tumbras restaurant currently occupies the main floor.

Chaker says the Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo dealerships will take up the entire block when the expansion project is complete. He says the dealerships employ a total of 20 people and he expects that to double after the project is completed.

AutoNation entered the Spokane-area market when it acquired Appleway Chevrolet and eight other Appleway automobile dealerships, all grouped along east Sprague Avenue in Spokane Valley, in 1997 and began doing business as AutoNation here in 2013.

Affiliated brands Jaguar and Land Rover are manufactured in England, although they’re owned by India-based Tata Motors Ltd. Volvo, a Swedish car manufacturer, is owned by Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd, of China.