Mall concept ignites auto dealers

Next year, you won’t have to take a good book to read while waiting to have your car serviced — you can shuttle on over to Barnes & Noble and shop for a new book.

Or drop in at Coldwater Creek or Ann Taylor Loft and see what’s new on the racks. Or even borrow a bike and hit the trails. Oh, yeah, you’ll also be able to wander over 80 some odd acres looking for the right new or used vehicle.

The Motorplex at Centerra, at completion, will have 15 different dealerships representing 22 manufacturers, according to Chad McWhinney, principal and CEO of McWhinney Enterprises, the developer of the 3,000-acre mixed-use development at Interstate 25 and U.S 34. To date, four dealerships, all but one Loveland-based, have acknowledged interest in relocating to Centerra.

McWhinney said the company got the idea for an auto mall based on other master-planned auto malls they visited across the nation. Ultimately, they asked the question, “Why isn’t there one of these in Northern Colorado?”

“We found a company that’s an expert in developing auto malls, Staubach Company, and had them do a very detailed market analysis and research,” McWhinney said. Staubach concluded there was a strong need for a master-planned auto mall and “reconfirmed that Centerra was the appropriate location for that to be.”

The motorplex will be situated near the southwest intersection of I-25 and Crossroads Boulevard, just to the south of new Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealership.

McWhinney’s Motorplex will have to share the road with a similar auto mall venture — the Iron Mountain Autoplex is soon to develop at U.S. 34 and Weld County Road 17.

As planned, John Chamberlain, president of Champion Auto Group, said his Iron Mountain Autoplex would span 39.6 acres in southern Windsor.

Chamberlain expects Iron Mountain and the Motorplex at Centerra will be great competition for one another.

“That’s a great group of dealers and I respect them as competitors,” Chamberlain said. “At the same time, I think the best place to build retail is next to other retail. It benefits everyone.”

Christina Dawkins, co-owner of Co’s BMW, is the first to officially sign on the dotted line for the McWhinney project. Co’s broke ground last month and plans to sell cars at the new location by next spring. Co’s will build a 38,000-square-foot building on 7.3 acres.

“We’re hoping this is big enough for expansion in the next 10 years, but everyone I’ve talked to who did that said they were full in the first three years,” Dawkins said.

The decision to relocate to east Loveland from Fort Collins was not a difficult one. Being the only BMW dealer in Northern Colorado — and with no such dealer in Wyoming — the central location near I-25 is ideal. When the McWhinneys started putting together the motorplex, Dawkins liked the fit.

“It’s always better to be with other dealerships,” she said, explaining that people who ordinarily wouldn’t shop at BMW will more likely stop in.

Co’s BMW has been in Fort Collins since 1998, and in Greeley before that. Being first at the motorplex was more a matter of deadlines that had to be met with the manufacturer. “Is there an advantage to being the first?” she said rhetorically. “We’ll stand out for a while. That’s the only advantage.”

Dawkins, who now employs 27 people, said she expects to add 10 new employees in conjunction with the move and eventually have a staff of 50.

Co’s, as with other dealerships to come afterward, will be designed with the customer in mind. Dawkins said Internet workstations, a coffee bar, and shuttles to the new Shops at Centerra mall will be available to all customers.

“We wrestled with the decision for a long, long time,” Joe Gebhardt, owner since 2001 of Loveland-based Davidson Chevrolet & Buick, said of his decision to look at the auto mall. “We’ve been where we currently are for 44 years. We feel committed to Loveland and past customers.”

But, like all of the dealerships making the move, Davidson has simply run out of room to grow in his present location.

Gebhardt, who hopes to open at the motorplex by 2006, said being a part of such an auto mall would provide “a lot of synergy. It takes us from being a Loveland local dealership that sells regionally and places us in the position of being a regional dealership that still sells locally. We still intend to be a small-town, family-owned dealership.”

Davidson plans to maintain a presence in the heart of Loveland as well by turning the existing location on north Lincoln Avenue into a quick-service venue and used-car lot.

Ryan Ferrero is another long-time Loveland auto dealer planning to pick up stakes and move east. What will happen to the current location of Ferrero Dodge Jeep & Chrysler is still up in the air. Possibilities include selling it, maintaining a portion for a body shop, or using it as a service and used-car lot. “It comes down to what the public wants us to do,” Ferrero said.

He’s been studying the move for two years and said he feels it’s the right move. “We have a pretty strong following in Loveland, and we have a business plan in place to keep our Loveland base handled well and expand to other communities. We’ve been here for 27 years. Our biggest fear is we want to make sure we don’t disenfranchise any customers. We’re going to offer pick up and delivery (of vehicles needing servicing) and a shuttle service.

King Pontiac GMC Subaru is another Loveland dealership exploring the move to Centerra. “We’ve been talking about it for quite a while. Chad first came to us about two or three years ago,´ said Rex King, president of the dealership he co-owns with his brother, Yale King. Details — such as land size or timelines — have yet to be hammered out. But it will be bigger than King’s current location.

Chamberlain, who said Iron Mountain, so-named for the peak of the same name in the Mummy Range, is getting the fast-track through Windsor’s planning process and should be up and running next spring. He initially plans to open two dealerships, those being Champion Chevrolet, currently in Windsor, and Champion Chrysler Jeep Dodge, now located in Greeley. He also has a letter of intent from Mazda and he’s looking at relocating his Kia dealership, too.

Though Chamberlain isn’t ruling out outside dealerships, he foresees Iron Mountain would primarily include those in the Champion Auto Group. He has an option on an additional 30 acres should he want to exercise it.

With the move will come growth for his dealerships. The Chrysler Jeep Dodge dealership should see a 20 percent increase in volume while the Chevrolet dealership he expects to increase 50 to 100 percent.

And what of the current dealerships? “I’m not a land baron,” Chamberlain laughed. He plans to sell the Windsor site, at the intersection of Colorado Highways 392 and 257, and the downtown Greeley Kia parcel.

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