Inside Business
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Car Firms Idling as They Hunt for Fulton Avenue Space
Author: Bob Shallit
bshallit@sacbee.com
At least two major car manufacturers are looking to open new dealerships on Sacramento's Fulton Avenue auto row – despite one very big obstacle.
"We don't have any more space," says Melinda Eppler, executive director of the merchant–backed Fulton Avenue Association.
She says there are no available parcels with the minimum 5 acres that manufacturers now require for dealerships.
But some car firms are exploring buyouts of existing businesses so they can assemble enough contiguous parcels to make it work.
"There truly is a group of highly motivated brokers trying to put deals together," Eppler says.
One of the potential newcomers is Kia, Eppler says. She hasn’t been told the identity of the other.
She says the dealers are being drawn to a longtime auto row that’s attracting big investment dollars from new car dealers. Among the projects in the works:
- Local megadealer Carlos Hidalgo is putting the finishing touches on a cachet–adding Fiat dealership on a portion of the former Great Valley Chrysler location at 2239 Fulton. Rumors have him adding another sporty brand – Alfa Romeo – to the site in coming years.
- Washington–based Kuni Automotive is set to start construction this summer of three new showrooms – for GMC, Cadillac and Chevy, most likely – at the former Daugherty Chevrolet site at 2449 Fulton.
- A temporary home is being readied at the former Mel Rapton Honda site – at 2820 Fulton – for a new Chrysler–Dodge–Jeep dealership, also operated by Hidalgo. In a year or two, that operation will move to more lavish digs on the northern end of the strip, along the Capital City Freeway.
Bill Ayres, a CB Richard Ellis broker whose automotive team is in the center of much of the Fulton leasing and sales activity, says the spate of deals bodes well for an auto row many thought was dying a few years ago.
Public and private investment in the area has paid off, Ayres says, enabling a half–century–old commercial district "to have another day."
"It can be a viable competitor for Roseville, Folsom and Elk Grove," he says, "because it’s an easy place to get to."
Business on the q.t.
Speaking of Fulton Avenue, we're told Wal–Mart finally has signed a lease to open one of its new neighborhood markets at the Taylor Shopping Center on Marconi Avenue, just east of Fulton.
But there’s no confirmation yet from Wal–Mart.
As we hear it, the company will start making lease payments in August for the 30,000–square–foot space formerly occupied by Goore's children's store.
It’s the second local property Wal–Mart has quietly locked up for an upcoming rollout of small–to midsized groceries. The other is the former Rainbow Market in Lincoln.
Goore’s, meanwhile, has just completed its short move from the Taylor center to the former William Glen space at Town & Country Village. Owner Ken Goore says business is great at the new site.
"We’re getting (customers) we never had before," he says.
Rx for center?
Staying with today's Fulton theme, pharmacy giant CVS could be zeroing in on a site near the future Walmart.
Word on the street – er, avenue – has CVS becoming a new anchor at the Mueller Corner shopping center, at the southeast corner of Marconi and Fulton.
In connection with that move, the local office of Armstrong Development is said to be working on a major renovation of the center.
An Armstrong official says the company doesn't comment on such matters.
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