Smith breaks ground on $4 million dealership
by July 13, 2011 4:28 pm 318 views
More than 75 employees, vendors and supporters gathered on a warm Wednesday morning to break ground on the $4 million Nissan segment of the future Smith Chevrolet-Cadillac-Nissan dealership.
Ultimately, the complex will see at least a $14 million investment that will create a large dealership along Interstate 540 frontage road in south Fort Smith.
The new dealership for the Smith Auto Group, now located primarily at 1215 U.S. 71 in Fort Smith (where Towson Avenue merges with Zero Street), is under construction at 6520 Autopark Drive (near the Fort Smith Harley Davidson).
Smith Auto Group General Manager John Robben said the Nissan facility is expected to open in February 2012, with construction on the roughly $10 million Chevy and Cadillac location to follow the Nissan opening. The Chevy and Cadillac space will be built immediately north of the Nissan location, said Smith Automotive Group owner John Smith Jr.
Robben said the Nissan facility is the latest design by the car manufacturer, and will include a bay and other facilities to handle Nissan’s model line of electric cars.
He also said the dealership will be one of just three in Arkansas to sell Nissan’s newly introduced line of commercial vans. Robben said the vans are new to the U.S. market, but have been in the Nissan product line for many years.
Smith Automotive Group bought into the Nissan brand in February 2007.
The scheduled move for the 73-year-old company and its 110 employees is the first since December 1963 when Mose Smith Jr. moved from 105 N. Seventh St. to the dealership’s present location “on the curve” on U.S. 71.
John Smith took over the family business after Mose, and now John Smith Jr. represents the third generation of family ownership of Smith Automotive Group. John Smith III, son of John Smith Jr. and possibly the fourth generation for the Smith dealership, participated in the ground breaking ceremony.
John Smith Jr. thanked the company’s employees and vendors for their hard work in helping the company grow and expand. Fort Smith Mayor Sandy Sanders also attended the ceremony.
