WATERTOWN –– Waite Toyota of Watertown, a fourth-generation auto dealership that has been serving Watertown and the Fort Drum area since 1929, is expanding and remodeling its facility. Darrick Pleskach, general manager, says the dealership is participating in the nationwide Toyota re-imaging plan, and is expecting to put up a new sales center as well […]
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WATERTOWN –– Waite Toyota of Watertown, a fourth-generation auto dealership that has been serving Watertown and the Fort Drum area since 1929, is expanding and remodeling its facility.
Darrick Pleskach, general manager, says the dealership is participating in the nationwide Toyota re-imaging plan, and is expecting to put up a new sales center as well as a new service center in this year’s expansion.
Waite Toyota of Watertown, located at 18406 U.S. Route 11, bought the building next door from DealMaker Ford of Watertown two years ago and leased it to Davidson Ford, which had acquired DealMaker. Davidson Ford moved Feb. 15 to its new location, just down the road.
Waite Toyota plans to start its remodeling project soon, with its contractor, Adams Center–based Widrick Construction, says Pleskach. He couldn’t specify a date. Waite is also working with Gymo Architecture, Engineering & Land Surveying, P.C. of Watertown on the project.
Pleskach says the dealership’s current site is about 14,000 square feet, but will expand to about 28,000 square feet when the renovation of the former Davidson Ford building is finished. He says that Waite’s sales, service, and parts departments currently share a building. But after the renovation, the new sales center and new service center will be located in separate buildings.
The former Davidson Ford building will become the new sales center for Waite Toyota, and the existing Waite site will still house its service and parts departments. The project will be completed in two stages. The dealership will stay in its current home while the new site is under construction. Waite Toyota will then move into the refurbished former Davidson Ford building while construction crews work on the current Waite Toyota structure.
Pleskach, who has been working at the dealership for 18 years, says the business completed its last remodeling project 17 years ago, but it was mainly a cosmetic change rather than a structural revamp.
“Since then we have added another building for reconditioning and environmental protection,” he says. “We have also added the Scion brand and a new showroom for that.”
Pleskach says the new Waite Toyota service center will have a drive-thru lane so that customers can leave their vehicles for service without having to brave the elements.
“It will be covered and heated,” Pleskach says. “It will have garage doors on either side of the building, and basically, it’s going to allow the customers to pull up to the drive door, the light will turn green, the door will open, the customer drives in and is greeted by one of the assistant service managers.”
He adds that the new center will have an express lube, and the dealership will update its customer waiting area by adding flat-screen TVs, food, and beverages to make it more comfortable.
“We knew there was a need for both of these but we did not have the space or capacity to facilitate such services,” says Pleskach. “Customers want their services yesterday, so the quicker we can get to the basics, the happier they will be.”
Pleskach says the total cost of this year’s expansion will be between $2 million and $3 million. Waite Toyota will obtain much of the financing for the project through loans from area banks. He couldn’t name the banks or provide dollar amounts.
He says Toyota will not directly help fund the dealership’s revamp, but it helps reimburse the dealership by providing added inventory of vehicles.
“They give us extra product that we wouldn’t normally have,” he says, “and we pay for that as well, but they allow us to get it, basically.”
A difficult 2011
Pleskach says 2011 was a trying time for both Toyota and the dealership.
There was an earthquake and tsunami in Japan, “which caused us to be short on inventory throughout pretty much every aspect of the dealership ... sales, parts, service ... so last year was a down year for us,” he says.
Pleskach says the dealership sold about 1,100 vehicles last year, with about 60 percent of them new vehicles and 40 percent used. He says the dealership’s five best sellers in 2011 were the RAV4 (79 sold), Tundra (68 sold), Camry (64 sold), Corolla (56 sold), and Tacoma (53 sold).
“Historically these numbers are higher, but as I said, we struggled to meet the demands of our customers due to the supply shortages caused by the disaster in Japan,” he says. “The supply has now caught up and we will be in full swing for 2012.”
Pleskach predicts that the dealership’s revenue will grow 20 percent to 30 percent this year compared to 2011.
As Waite Toyota is expanding its facility, Pleskach says the 32-employee business is also gearing up to hire more employees this year.
“We don’t know exactly how many [new employees]; I guess we are going to fill the positions as the need arises,” he says.
Waite Toyota now has openings for service writers and assistant service managers.
Pleskach says the business relies heavily on its service and parts departments, which accounted for about 60 percent of the dealership’s revenue in the past few years. And, he projects that it is going to be able to do a lot more service from the new service center.
“I think it will be a more comfortable atmosphere after we get all of the construction done,” he says. “But I think the biggest hurdle would just be getting through the construction ...”
Waite Toyota is aiming to complete the remodeling project before next winter.
