Even with the number of vehicles on area roadways increasing with Collier County’s rapid population growth, it’s still remarkable how many automotive dealerships have expansion plans in the Naples area.
Local dealerships co-owned by affiliates of Terry Taylor, a West Palm Beach man believed to be the nation’s largest private owner of auto dealerships, are behind some of the latest expansion plans here. The conglomerate plans to move Rolls-Royce of Naples and Volkswagen of Naples from shared spaces in Naples and East Naples, respectively, into their own freestanding dealerships nearby.
A small retail strip on U.S. 41 North is destined for demolition for a 20,325-square-foot Rolls-Royce dealership, which has operated in a neighboring cluster of luxury dealerships that includes Bentley, Jaguar, Land Rover and Maserati. Terry Taylor’s TT of Naples acquired the adjacent more than 60-year-old retail center for $8.5 million in October 2021. Upon completion of the new building, the Rolls-Royce dealership will move to 710 Ninth St. N., where it will continue to provide new and pre-owned vehicle sales, as well as service and repair of vehicles.
In East Naples, plans are in motion to separate the Volkswagen dealership from the Airport-Pulling Road property it shares with Audi Naples while relocating VW about a half mile away northeast, around the corner onto Radio Road, said Brian Massoll, managing partner of Audi Naples, Volkswagen of Naples, Naples Acura and Naples Infiniti.
The new 36,632-square-foot VW dealership will be built on 4.7 acres at 3600 Radio Road. Plans show a mezzanine, showroom, service offices, customer lounge, retail and parts areas, and service/alignment bays.
“It will be a really modern facility with very nice amenities. We are excited to elevate our clients’ experience in this beautiful new state-of-the-art facility,” said Massoll, who anticipates the project getting off the ground this fall.
“We expect the Volkswagen project to start loosely in October,” he said. “The initial project was slated for a March 2020 start date. We are a little bit behind schedule and regrouped and reorganized.”
The dealerships have kept their new inventory behind a wall at this off-site Radio Road property, which includes a building for detailing vehicles. The detailing facility will remain but will be modified for the new dealership.
“Once Volkswagen is complete, we will begin renovations on Audi’s exclusive site on Airport Road,” Massoll said. “This is a multiyear project for the two facilities.”
Plans are still being created for the expanded Audi showroom at 601 Airport Road S., across from Naples Airport.
“It will be a modification and expansion of our existing site,” Massoll said.
The dealerships will continue to have off-site storage of vehicles nearby, he said.
Less than a mile east of the future Volkswagen dealership, Tesla Inc. is building a nearly 45,000-square-foot regional service and sales center on more than 4.5 acres at 4555 Radio Road. Tesla’s first service center in Collier County is targeted for completion in the second quarter of 2025. The electric car company has operated a showroom at Waterside Shops in North Naples since December 2016 but Tesla’s nearest service center is on Colonial Boulevard near its interchange with Interstate 75 in Fort Myers.
The majority of Tesla’s space in East Naples will be an indoor service area with at least 20 bays, plans show. The building also will have office space and a showroom large enough to display two or three electric vehicles. The structure’s roof will be used as outdoor storage for vehicle inventory.
After launching a new BMW dealership two years ago in East Naples, Germain Motor Co. is expanding again with a new Lexus dealership planned on more than 9 acres recently cleared on the south side of Immokalee Road between Livingston Road and Juliet Boulevard in North Naples. The project will expand inventory and service capabilities for Germain Lexus in a new 80,000-square-foot facility. Germain plans to relocate the dealership that has operated for years on about 5 acres at U.S. 41 and Wiggins Pass Road in North Naples.
Tim and Sheila Zellers, longtime owners of Tamiami Ford, Tamiami Hyundai and Genesis of Naples, plan to break ground this fall on a new two-story home for their Genesis dealership on property they purchased on the northern side of Pine Ridge Road just west of Interstate 75. Its completion, targeted for late 2025, will allow Genesis to have a larger standalone dealership and relocate from the North Naples space it shares with Tamiami Hyundai.
The Hyundai dealership will then be able to be fully renovated and expanded at its current site at 6780 Airport-Pulling Road. The Zellers plan to renovate the showroom and customer service areas and update the building’s elements and finishes to comply with corporate standards, plans show.
This summer, Naples Motorsports acquired Rooms To Go’s former showroom at 3520 Tamiami Trail N. in Naples with plans to triple the size of its ultra-luxury and exotic car dealership. Naples Motorsports, which will mark its 25th anniversary next year, will increase its visibility with the nearly 30,000-square foot dealership, said Todd Rosenthal, founder and owner of the local business.
“We are very different than most car dealerships,” Rosenthal said. “A normal car dealership has three or four cars inside the showroom and the rest is kept outside. I want everything inside.”
Devoe Automotive Group, which includes DeVoe Cadillac, DeVoe Buick GMC and DeVoe Subaru of Naples, recently acquired property in North Naples for possible future growth, but DeVoe doesn’t have immediate plans for dealership expansion, said David J. Stevens of Investment Properties Corp., who negotiated the real estate transaction.
DeVoe Family Limited Partnership’s acquisition in August of a dental office at 4060 Tamiami Trail N. was the last of five commercial suites it purchased in a single-story professional office building next door to DeVoe’s used car lot. DeVoe bought the other four suites last fall. Upon closing of a commercial building purchased in October 2023, DeVoe owns the entire block bordered by U.S. 41, Solana Road, 10th Street North and Trail Terrace Drive, plus additional adjacent property with its dealerships.
