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MELIA BOWIEHyundai is looking at a couple of sites in the Wesley Chapel area. The new dealership could be selling cars within two years.
WESLEY CHAPEL - Less than a year after its debut in Pasco County, Hyundai plans to add a second dealership, this one in Wesley Chapel.
"I'm working on a contract for the project," said Scott Fink, owner of Hyundai of New Port Richey. "We should be selling cars there within two years."
Fink said Hyundai is looking at a couple of parcels in the area. One is about a mile west of Interstate 75 along State Road 54 at Gateway Village. A dealership would be built across from the Lexington Oaks neighborhood. Another possibility is establishing the dealership somewhere along State Road 56.
Fink said a building boom in central Pasco spurred the pace of Hyundai's expansion.
The market is a hot one for everyone from Toyota, which has a contract on a Bruce B. Downs Boulevard site, to Nissan, which locked up its 7-acre spot on SR 54 last month.
Residential developments and retail centers ranging from malls to shopping centers also are planned for the area.
With those kinds of projects in the pipeline for the SR 54 and 56 corridors, "there's not a lot of room left for commercial," Fink said Wednesday. "A lot of these (auto) manufacturers, if they're not on it now, then in three years ... they won't get in."
Hyundai of Wesley Chapel, which will include a two-story building, is expected to cost more than $5-million, Fink said. It will be built on slightly less than 6 acres and will be comparable in size to the west Pasco dealership's 22,000 square feet.
About 45 to 50 new jobs will be created, he added. Salaries for staff will be roughly $45,000 to $50,000, with management earning more than $100,000.
Fink said good sales in Pasco and growth of the Hyundai brand nationally are spurring the expansion.
"Hyundai is on a surge, and certainly we are," he said.
Nationally, the Korean car manufacturer scored a coup in late April when a survey by J.D. Power and Associates found Hyundai Motor America vehicles had slightly lower defect rates than Toyota vehicles within the first 90 days of ownership.
After opening in summer 2003, the New Port Richey site now sells about 180 cars a month. The branch is ranked No. 7 among the top 10 Hyundai franchises in the United States.
Fink invested $5-million last year to build his first Hyundai dealership on 41/2 acres at U.S. 19 and SR 54. The new dealership will offer "an equal if not a greater opportunity," he said.