New dealership facility to be built south of Auto Mall on Tomoka Farms Road
The row of auto dealerships along North Tomoka Farms Road that includes the 1.5-mile-long Daytona International Auto Mall is about to get even longer.
Local auto dealers Glenn Ritchey Sr. and Ted Serbousek on Oct. 3 closed their $2.1 million purchase of nearly 13 acres just south of the recently opened new dealership facility for Gary Yeomans Honda.
The seller was Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co.
The newly acquired property along the west side of North Tomoka Farms Road is set to become the new home for Ritchey and Serbousek’s Subaru of Daytona, which is currently in a smaller building on Nova Road.
Serbousek said he and Ritchey plan to build a 20,400-square-foot showroom/service center for their Subaru dealership that would be more than twice the size of its present facility.
They also plan to build a 4,320-square-foot facility that would house a Ritchey Autos used-car operation.
Both buildings are expected to be completed by mid-year 2019, possibly as early as April or May, Ritchey said.
The estimated cost for the complex is “north of $10 million, including the cost of the land,” Ritchey said.
The property includes space on the south end for a potential third building that would be 12,000 square feet in size.
That portion of the property is being set aside for now but would be available to accommodate another auto dealership should the opportunity present itself to buy another franchise, Ritchey said.
“We needed more space,” said Ritchey of the reason for building a larger facility for the Subaru dealership, Serbousek said the Subaru dealership which opened in July 2010 has seen a steady increase in sales over the years, reflecting the Japanese auto maker’s growing popularity not only locally but also nationally.
Last year, sales of Subaru vehicles in North America rose to nearly 648,000, up from 263,820 in 2010.
Serbousek said he and Ritchey plan to increase the number of employees at Subaru of Daytona when it moves to its bigger facility to 50, up from 35 at present.
“We’re excited to be out there (on Tomoka Farms Road),” he said. “It gives us a presence there.”
Ritchey and Serbousek plan to keep the Nova Road property which will become an expansion site for the growing used car portion of Ritchey’s nearby Jon Hall Chevrolet dealership.
Daytona of Subaru is managed by Larry Kelly, who also is general manager of Ritchey Cadillac Buick GMC at 932 N. Nova Road.
Ritchey Autos, which is currently at 998 N. Nova Road, is managed by Serbousek’s son, Brett.
Both dealerships are also co-owned by Ritchey and Serbousek who also are partners in the Subaru of Melbourne dealership in Brevard County.
The future home of Subaru of Daytona is across the street from a 19-acre site bordered by Interstate 95 on the east where Winter Park-based Holler Classic Automotive Group plans to build a used-car dealership.
The sale of the future Subaru of Daytona site was brokered by Chris Butera and Carl Lentz IV of SVN Alliance Commercial Real Estate Advisors who represented both Consolidated-Tomoka and Ritchey and Serbousek.
The stretch of Tomoka Farms Road where the Subaru and future Holler dealerships are planned is south of both the west end of the Dunn Avenue overpass as well as the Auto Mall. That stretch, known as the Interstate CommercePark, is also home to a LaMesa RV dealership, a Furniture Row store, and a used-vehicle CarMax dealership.
“They all benefit from being on Tomoka Farms Road with all the massive marketing the Auto Mall is doing without the cost of being in the Auto Mall,” Butera said of the growing number of auto dealerships south of Dunn.