City's central location in DFW makes for prime commercial real estate

The stretch of SH 114 and SH 121 north of the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport already has 14 car, truck, motorcycle, off-road vehicle or watercraft dealerships along a 3-mile span known as the DFW Connector. By spring 2016 two more dealerships are planned to open in the same area. George Grubbs III, the co-owner of Grubbs Infiniti, opened the dealership—the world's largest Infiniti dealership—March 9 in Grapevine. It has 150 full-time employees and lot space for 850 vehicles. According to Grubbs, opening the dealership was a huge 2 1/2-year project for him, but this is not the first time his family has built an Infiniti dealership larger than any other. In 1998 his father and grandfather also constructed an Infiniti dealership in Euless, which also considered the largest in the world at that time. "When we looked at building this one we looked at how much growth the brand will have over the next 10 to 15 years, and we built the building to allow us to grow into that." Grubbs said most of his customer base is located in Northeast Tarrant County, and he wanted the new location to be as close to them as possible. "The typical luxury consumer will drive on average up to 20 miles to do business," Grubbs said. "But a big factor for luxury car buyers is convenience, so the nearer you are the better."

Coming soon

In January, Sam Pack, who owns Five Star Ford in North Richland Hills, announced his company bought land along William D. Tate Avenue at Prospect Parkway to open a new Subaru dealership. The 8 acres of land is south of Grapevine Dodge Chrysler Jeep Stone Meyers Parkway on the east side of SH 121. This is Pack's first dealership with the Subaru brand. It is planned to have a two-story 40,000-square-foot showroom, offices and a service center. He said he expects to have 35 to 40 full-time employees when the dealership opens in early 2016. Pack also noted he chose Grapevine for the new dealership because of its central location between Dallas and Fort Worth. "If you look at the demographics and the growth that is occurring in the area, Grapevine is probably the most dynamic market in the state, perhaps the United States," Pack said. "We love everything about the Grapevine area." Sewell Automotive Co. also announced it is planning to open a new BMW dealership on the north side of SH 114 next to Sewell Cadillac by spring 2016. As proposed, the dealership will be 300,000 square feet and feature a four-story parking garage. However, some of the exact features of the dealership are still up in the air because the plan has yet to be finalized. Both dealerships are in the final planning stages. Ground breaking dates have not been announced.

Economic impact

New businesses typically mean more tax revenue for cities, but the Grapevine dealerships' impact on sales tax for the city are relatively low. Grubbs Infiniti is on DFW Airport land—all property taxes are paid to the airport, and the sales tax on every vehicle sold in Texas goes to the state. The only tax the dealership contributes to the city is sales tax on parts and services. For dealerships not on airport property, the property taxes would still go to the city. "The city doesn't benefit a whole lot when it comes to dealerships," said RaDonna Hessel, CEO of the Grapevine Chamber of Commerce. "What we really benefit from is all of the foot traffic and residual spending from people driving here to shop." "The better story is how many jobs we bring to the area," Grubbs said. "We increased our staff by 40 percent when we moved, so we added a lot of jobs. Additionally, all of our staff now spend money at area restaurants and merchants who previously didn't do any regular business in the area. This does represent a lot of sales tax generated [for the city]." Grapevine Economic Development Director Bob Farley said he is happy to welcome the new dealerships into the city. "This certainly isn't a bad thing," Farley said. "Grapevine will pick up a lot of extra foot traffic and residual business from people who come to buy a car and then decide to stay and eat before heading home." Farley said the central location of the city, the economic prosperity of its residents, availability of land, infrastructure and the available workforce all lead to a good environment for the new dealerships.