In this area, several automobile dealerships have been vacant long term, but some have found tenants.
When the Triad Dodge dealership's inventory on Peters Creek Parkway was consolidated in 2008 into North Point Chrysler Jeep Dodge Inc. on North Point Boulevard, the property was vacant about 10 months before the local Salvation Army moved there last September on an 18-month lease.
The nonprofit organization uses the building as a warehouse distribution center and to sell salvage goods at an auction held on Mondays.
"We're looking at different options for the future," said Curtis Capps, a co-owner of the property and the president and general manager of Parkway of Lexington.
Indoor Urban Paintball currently leases space in the former Fowler Chevrolet dealership on Newsome Road in King, but the property is still for sale after about a year on the market, said Ladd Freeman, a broker and the president of Freeman Commercial Real Estate.
Automobile dealerships are sometimes difficult to sell or lease because
they are single-use buildings, local commercial real-estate professionals said.
Ray Collins, the president of Collins Commercial Properties Inc. in Winston-Salem, said that these buildings are typically 30 percent showroom, with some office space and a large repair and service area.
"So it's not an ideal fit for a retail use to come back in," Collins said. "The ideal use is another automotive use."
Auto lots are usually on 4 or more acres, and the dealership buildings are from 15,000 to 30,000 square feet, Freeman said.
"It's just difficult nowadays to sell anything of that size," Freeman said. "Commercial is just slow right now."
Collins said that in a normal market, often an automobile business will move in right behind a dealer that has moved out.
He said there's just not enough demand for buildings by automotive companies at this time unless they are in prime areas such as Hanes Mall Boulevard or Stratford Road.
"If locations are strong enough, they're going to be sold on the value of the land," Collins said.
fdaniel@wsjournal.com
727-7366
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