Vacant auto dealership properties are emerging as the latest blight on the Hartford area’s real estate market.
Three dealership sites recently closed in Hartford’s Northeast neighborhood.
Commercial broker Curt Clemens Sr. of Rocky Hill says there may yet be some fresh life in those old steel-and-concrete bones.
“Depending on the building, it could be offices. The service bays could be used for warehousing,’’ said Clemens, principal in Clemens & Sons Realty. “But if they’re too old and outmoded, they may have to be knocked down.’’
Clemens recalls a similar scenario that occurred on the Berlin Turnpike, which until the 1960s was home to a number of new- and used-car dealerships. The opening of I-91, he said, was the death knell for many turnpike dealers, whose demise eventually opened the door to much of the retail development that exists there today.
Car dealer Tony March closed his Buick-Pontiac-GMC and Saturn of Hartford complex on Leibert Road abruptly in late December. His Saturn of Berlin dealership also closed late last year.
Also in the city’s North End, the closing later this month of Thomas Cadillac Jaguar at 170 Weston St. will empty a 26,576-square-foot sales-and-service building on a seven-acre lot assessed at $1.7 million in fiscal 2007, city records show.
As of November 2008, 25 Connecticut new-car dealerships had disappeared from the licensed sales list at the state Department of Motor Vehicles, along with 97 used-car dealerships.
So what’s to become of these monuments to an era in automotive sales that may be on the way out?
The oldest structure on Tony March’s former dealership site was built in 1993. Another opened in 1999, city records show. At least two buildings, which housed his Saturn showroom and a separate service-repair wing, have finished space totaling 39,000 square feet on six acres, according to city land records. The combined assessed value of those properties in fiscal 2007 was $2.8 million, records show.
The assessed value of a third property on Leibert Road, which housed March’s Buick-GMC dealership, could not be immediately determined from city records.
The Thomas Cadillac showroom-service facility was built in 1988. Given the relative youth of the buildings, they are apt to be more environmentally friendly than some older dealerships, Clemens said.
Realty Brokers Merge
Consolidation continues among real estate brokerages with the merger of Realty Direct of Greater Harford into Re/Max Flagship of East Hartford and Wethersfield.
Ed Sutton, a real estate broker for more than two decades and founder of Re/Max Flagship, 185 Silas Deane Highway, has combined his 10-person sales and marketing team with broker Rocco Sanzo’s five-person team at Realty Direct.
With the merger, Sutton oversees Flagship’s East Hartford office.
Sanzo, who has more than 10 years of experience as a broker, will run the Wethersfield office, which now also covers Cromwell, Newington and Rocky Hill.
Both brokers said the merger was an opportunity to improve service and collectively build their businesses.
Greg Seay is the Hartford Business Journal Web editor.
