DAYTONA BEACH — Accelerating sales at their Subaru of Daytona dealership on Nova Road have spurred its owners to build a larger new showroom/service center facility on the west side of town.
The dealership's owners, Glenn Ritchey Sr. and Ted Serbousek, recently put 12.7 acres on North Tomoka Farms Road under contract, with the $2 million sale expected to close sometime this year, confirmed John Albright, the CEO of Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co., the property's current owner.
Serbousek, president of Ritchey Automotive, said he and Ritchey hope to move their Subaru dealership to its yet-to-be built new home by year's end, but said, "We're still in due diligence with the seller (Consolidated-Tomoka)."
That due diligence, he said, includes getting the city to approve its request for a rezone of the development site to allow for the construction of an auto dealership. The property, which is currently a vacant field, is immediately south of the future home of Yeomans Honda, where site work is now underway, and across the street from the future home of a Drive Time used-car dealership planned by the Orlando-area-based Holler Group. The site is also near a CarMax dealership that opened last year and less than a mile south of Daytona International Auto Mall.
The new dealership facility for Subaru of Daytona would be at least double the size of its present roughly 8,500-square-foot building at 650 N. Nova Road, Serbousek said.
"Subaru is growing so fast, we need more space than we have on Nova,' he said of the reason for building a new facility just west of Interstate 95.
The present location for Subaru of Daytona, which is owned by Ritchey, will become an extension of the Ritchey-owned Jon Hall Chevrolet, whose main showroom/service center is a block to the south on Nova Road, Serbousek said.
The growth in sales for Subaru of Daytona mirrors the increase in sales for the Subaru brand nationally, which rose 5.4 percent to a record high 647,956 new vehicles sold in 2017, according to Motor Trend magazine.
Ritchey and Serbousek opened Subaru of Daytona in 2012. The dealership currently employs 35 workers and its staff is expected to eventually grow to 50 after it relocates into its larger facility, Serbousek said.
Serbousek said he and Ritchey expect to spend more than $4 million, including the cost of acquiring the land, on the new facility for their Subaru dealership.
Chris Butera and Carl Lentz IV of SVN Alliance Commercial Real Estate Advisors were the agents that negotiated the pending deal between Ritchey Automotive and Consolidated-Tomoka.