Dealership campus to span Mays St., Old Settlers Blvd. intersection

The Round Rock Auto Group, a conglomeration of car dealerships owned by Penske Automotive Group, will expand its footprint to include much of the intersection of Old Settlers Boulevard and Mays Street as part of a multimillion-dollar expansion.

A 30,000-square-foot Hyundai dealership, replacing the one currently on the I-35 frontage road, is planned as the capstone to an expansion of the campus that began last year with the creation of a 72,000-square-foot service center.

"Over the last few years, there's been a real nice growth curve that we've experienced, even though the [poor] market and the recession have been in full effect. These businesses continue to perform at a pretty high level," said Curt Imber, Texas area vice president for Penske Automotive Group, the company that purchased the Round Rock Auto Group about five years ago, back when it was called Classic Auto Group.

The expansion

That performance pushed the Round Rock Auto Group to the edge of its already ample footprint.

The new service center, which opened Jan. 28, is split into two sides, one for Toyota and one for Honda, each a mirror image of the other. The service centers are entirely enclosed and air conditioned, and exhaust fumes are funneled out through hoses at each station.

The opening of the new service center enabled the subsequent demolition of the former Toyota service center directly behind the dealership. That space will be used for more inventory.

Construction on the expansion of the showroom for the Toyota dealership has already started and is slated for completion toward the end of April. The Honda showroom will also be expanded from March through July. Most of the work on the Toyota and Honda dealerships are to increase capacity.

Work will start on the new Hyundai dealership—to be located across Mays from the service center just south of the Round Rock Auto Group's body shop—in June. The 30,000-square-foot dealership will sit on land that is currently undeveloped next to the group's collision center. Completion is scheduled for February 2013.

Once the Hyundai dealership is completed, the old dealership between the Toyota and Honda dealerships will be demolished to make room for more inventory on the Toyota and Honda sales lots.

Along the way, the group will also construct a new pre-delivery inspection facility in late 2012 on the site of the used car dealership it operates on the east side of North Mays Street. Used car sales will then be moved to individual dealerships rather than the one central location.

"What we've done is really expanded our footprint with the city and made some significant investment into what we consider three of the best brands in the industry," Imber said.

The auto group currently has about 360 employees, including service technicians, and will likely add more as the expansion continues. How many, however, is yet to be seen.

"Each move that we're making we're also increasing our employee headcount," Imber said.

He said the company added about a dozen employees in a one-month span to support their goal of raising used auto sales. He expects more employees will be hired when the Hyundai dealership opens in 2013.