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Stacked to sell

Bill Currie Ford couldn't build out, so it decided to build up. Coming to the bay area: five stories of car browsing.

By JACKIE RIPLEY
Published September 17, 2005

TAMPA - A couple of years ago, Bill Currie Ford was stopped from building a sprawling, "campuslike" car lot in northwest Hillsborough County. So it changed its strategy, and things are looking up for the car dealer - way up.

"We're not limiting the project," said the company's planning consultant, Michael Horner. "We're just going vertical."

Bill Currie is building a high-rise auto dealership, something new to the Tampa Bay area: a five-story garage that will be stocked with cars for sale. It's so unusual that company officials had to fly to the Kansas City area to see a similar dealership.

Going vertical is an "extraordinary" approach to the auto dealership business, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association.

"New dealerships tend to be a lot bigger these days, but five stories does sound extraordinary," said Jeff Beddow, a NADA spokesman.

At Veterans Ford on W Linebaugh Avenue just west of the Veterans Expressway, customers will step into an elevator instead of trekking across acres of pavement.

But they'll have as many cars to choose from as they would have had on the larger site Bill Currie wanted in 2003.

"It's a heck of a lot nicer in the shade and out of the weather," said project engineer Chris McNeal. "It's an awesome idea."

And while Bill Currie's plan for a 33-acre dealership was rejected by Hillsborough County, the vertical design has won approval.

Work is under way with about three stories up and construction due to be finished by spring.

Each of the five floors will cover about 11/2 acres, with the first floor devoted to offices, maintenance bays and a showroom for seven vehicles.

Aside from some offices on the second floor, the rest of the nearly 325,000-square-foot building will be a parking garage.

"You just jump in an elevator to look at your brand new Ford Taurus," Horner said.

The vertical design is a far cry from what Bill Currie Ford pitched to the county in 2003. It originally wanted to spread a dealership across the 33-acre tract, which is flanked by the Veterans Expressway and the Upper Tampa Bay Trail.

But Hillsborough County commissioners rejected that idea, saying a dealership of that size would not have been in character with the surrounding area, which is characterized by sprawling homesteads, cow pastures and plant nurseries. A county zoning hearing master said the land would be better suited to offices.

Surrounding homeowners, too, opposed Bill Currie's plan because they feared a car lot would bring more car lots.

"I had always thought if they couldn't get all that space they would walk away," said Joyce Smith, former chairwoman of the Town 'N Country Alliance. "Hopefully it won't change the character of Linebaugh and make it look like Dale Mabry or Nebraska (Avenue)."

However, Bill Currie's plan for the five-story lot won county approval without any problems.

The Ford dealership, which will include a car wash and detailing center, will encompass nearly 11 acres of the 33-acre tract off Linebaugh.

The Currie family is selling much of the remaining property. The eastern portion of the land, 11/2 acres closest to the Upper Tampa Bay Trail, has been zoned for professional office buildings. And an outparcel, fronting Linebaugh and for sale, is zoned commercial. Horner said it would most likely be a convenience store.

"It's an interesting and unique design," Horner said of the parking garage-style dealership. "It's the only way to make it work."

Jackie Ripley can be reached at ripley@sptimes.com or 813 269-5308.

[Last modified September 17, 2005, 02:15:31]