New Dealerships Are Cruising Into Valley Auto Malls

New car dealerships are slated to open at two area auto malls, bringing a new windfall of sales tax revenue to the host cities as the economy stabilizes. Keyes Automotive Group has plans for a $10 million Audi dealership at the Valencia Auto Center in Santa Clarita, its second for the luxury brand. Power Auto Nation early next year will open a MINI Cooper dealership on the auto row, the first for the Santa Clarita Valley. And this summer, O’Gara Coach Company is opening a Rolls Royce and Bentley dealership in a temporary location at the Thousand Oaks Auto Mall before moving into a permanent showroom by the end of the year. The dealership is expected to hire 26 employees, according to city officials. These additions to the respective auto malls show their importance to the cities they are located in as they are often among the largest sales tax generators. The Thousand Oaks Auto Mall brought in $7 million in 2011, and the Valencia Auto Center brought in $4.1 million last year, or about 16 percent of the total sales tax for the city. “Getting two new dealers adds to one of the largest auto centers in Southern California,” said Andree Walper, an economic development associate for Santa Clarita. “It allows for greater new choices for residents and people who want to travel here for a better selection.” The Santa Clarita auto row along Creekside Road is home to 23 different domestic and foreign vehicle brands. Keyes Auto owns and operates the Lexus dealership. The Keyes Audi dealership in Van Nuys is the highest selling Audi location in the country and resulted in Keyes being awarded the Valencia location, said Keyes Vice President Howard Tenenbaum. “That is our backyard,” said Tenenbaum. “When we had to opportunity to add we took it for the bigger footprint.” Keyes owns 10 dealerships total in Van Nuys and Woodland Hills. Construction on the Audi facility will begin in early 2013 and take about a year to complete. The building’s look follows strict guidelines set by the German carmaker for a high-tech and industrial feel with a business center, children’s room, a café and courtesy shuttles, Tenenbaum said. With the purchase of property the project will cost in excess of $10 million, he added. Keyes likes the Santa Clarita Valley for its self-contained community where residents can shop where they live, Tenenbaum said. Audi had a 1.6 percent market share of total new cars registered in California in 2011, according to statistics compiled by the California New Car Dealers Association. During the first quarter of 2012, three Audi models were among the best-selling near luxury and luxury vehicles in the state, according to the association. The new dealership is part of an aggressive growth strategy by Audi to build up its distribution network and, in turn, increase sales, said Jesse Toprak, vice president of market analysis for Truecar.com. “They are targeting suburban areas where there are a lot of potential customers,” Toprak said. The demographics of the Santa Clarita Valley are also well-suited for sales of the MINI Cooper, the British import of small, customizable cars popular with younger buyers in metro areas. Representatives of Auto Nation declined to discuss MINI of Valencia but did say that the dealership will open no later than the first quarter of 2013. At the upper end of the sales curve are the Bentleys and Rolls Royces that O’Gara Coach will sell in Thousand Oaks starting in August. O’Gara is renovating and adding on to the former Courtesy Chevrolet building that has been vacant for more than two years, according to Andrew Powers, public information officer for Thousand Oaks. “This is going to be a nice addition for the gateway entrance to the auto mall,” Powers said. “It is important to have a full inventory in all the brands, from the entry level to the ultra-high end.” Attempts to reach a representative of O’Gara were not successful. The Thousand Oaks location will be the only Bentley and Rolls Royce dealership between Los Angeles and the Los Gatos and San Francisco areas. O’Gara operates luxury brand dealerships in Beverly Hills. The West Valley, the Conejo Valley and north toward Santa Barbara are all good locations for O’Gara because they are homes to the more affluent, said Joe Molina, whose Woodland Hills public relations firm JMPR represents Bentley. Molina owns two Bentleys himself, a hand built 1956 Continental Park Ward coupe and a 1999 Arnage. The appeal of the brand is that the cars are luxurious but not ostentatious, Molina said. “It is the embodiment of what you would call stealth wealth,” Molina said. “It does not attract unwanted attention.”