Palassis has already spent decades in West Ashley, raising his kids here and running successful hotels for nearly four decades here. Rumored to cost close to $50 million, the project is being hailed as the “Charleston Place” of West Ashley, with hopes of it having the same effect on local dining and retail options on our side of the river. Take for example Jimmy Palassis’s impressive bid to revitalize a 10-acre dormant car dealership spot along Savannah Highway, bordering Orleans and Dupont roads, with a massive seven-story luxury hotel and convention center with views of the Stono River. But what if the dealers reckon the value of their obviously valuable spots could be better utilized? So, might there soon come a day where the highest and best use of the Savannah Highway-fronting lots could become office buildings and job centers?ĭon’t get it skewed, car dealerships can make tons of money. But no one ever thought they would see the Auto Mile downtown on Morrison Drive going anywhere.Īdd to that the ongoing renaissance of Savannah Highway, from Avondale’s shops to the Harris Teeter, and on up to the Whole Foods Market, which is a block short of the beginning of the Auto Mile.Īdditionally, consider that a house is on the market in Ashley Forest behind Avondale’s shops that is being offered for $500 a square foot, and its first day of showings had BMW’s crawling all over it. It’s hard to think of West Ashley without the Auto Mile, especially after the drastic changes taking place at the Citadel Mall. So, it looks like everyone’s bottom line could be on the chopping block. And Nissan for years had the most sold EV in the world, the LEAF. GM had sold significantly more electric cars in America than Ford until the introduction of the Mach-E and the electrified pickup. Finding either one of those bad boys on a lot in the area is a tough, tough task as we will see.īut Ford dealerships aren’t the only ones that could be hit. In April, Ford announced that their sales of electric vehicles had grown by 139 percent, thanks to uber-popular Mach-E and F-150 Lightning models. Then the shopper would retire to the showroom where they could press a few buttons for the exact car they want and VOILA! a few days later, the make, model, and trim would be dropped off at their house.ĭepending on who you talk to, the crystal ball-gazers are either dead-right or dead nuts. There, customers could come in and test drive a version of the car they want – kick the tires, so to speak. (Because, really, do you need to drive a Toyota Camry to know that it drives like every other Camry?)Īdd to this, pundits and prognosticators foreseeing a day in the not-so-distant future where dealerships could shrink down to the size of a car rental lot. If anywhere near 40-percent of sales across the board skip the dealerships, then the Auto Mile could see massive downsizing over the next 10-20 years.įarley says that going forward “the standards are going to be brutal” for dealerships wanting to stay within the Ford family.Īmazon created the paradigm, Carvana showed how it could be done, and Covid helped push customers to buy online. Last year, Ford projected that a full 40-percent of its worldwide sales will be electric vehicles by 2030. Jim Farley, the latest chief executive officer of Ford Motor Company announced earlier this year that his plan was to strip the sale of electric models from dealerships by selling and delivering them directly to customers.įarley says that going through dealerships costs Ford an additional $2,000 in distribution costs per vehicle, compared to Tesla, a company seizing on the direct-to-customer sale model. On the other hand, an experienced and massively successful car dealer is making a play to add a multi-million-dollar, two-story dealership on the Auto Mile’s back stoop.īig changes in the automotive industry could deeply and directly affect the future of West Ashley’s Auto Mile, which has been this part of area’s primary commercial feature for decades. On one hand, over a hundred acres of dealership parking lots could shrink and be repurposed for other commercial uses as auto manufacturers begin side-stepping dealerships for direct-to-customer deliveries. W hich way is West Ashley’s “Auto Mile” headed? What’s in store for West Ashley’s long stretch of car dealerships? by Bill Davis | News Editor
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