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The longtime automobile dealer is planning to shuffle his properties and build some new facilities north of the Interstate 10 – Interstate 215 interchange. He also wants to lure a luxury dealership to the property.
Big changes are being planned at the San Bernardino Auto Center, according to the man who owns and operates two of the five dealerships there.
More than 700 new and used vehicles are being sold at the auto center every month, and that pace will likely continue given the strong economy and low unemployment, said Cliff Cummings, owner and operator of Toyota of San Bernardino and Subaru of San Bernardino.
Business is going so well at the auto center next to Interstate 215 that Cummings wants to “rearrange the furniture” to take better advantage of the auto center’s freeway visibility.
About 1,000 feet of the Toyota property at 769 Showcase Drive N directly faces the freeway. That alone is excellent advertising for the 60-acre facility, which includes KIA, Nissan and Volkswagen dealerships.
But the main reason for the planned upgrades – potentially four new buildings and one new dealership – is that the auto center is performing well, and now is the time to add to that success.
“Subaru set a record for [selling] used cars last month, and I think we can get to that record for new cars pretty soon,” Cummings said recently. “We’re very close. We’re selling so many cars that we’re running out of space, so we need more room. “We have to get bigger, and we have to get better.”
Cummings plans to:
- Demolish two former dealerships that are across the street from each other: Scion at 650 Auto Center Drive and Cadillac at 1406 Camino Real. Cummings owns both sites, both of which have been empty for about six years;
- Build a new Toyota dealership on the former Scion site;
- Convert the former Cadillac site into Toyota’s service bay and parts department;
- Remove the street between those two properties and replace it with a service road; and
- Level the current Toyota building and replace it with his Subaru dealership.
Those upgrades will cost about $60 million and are expected to take about three years to complete. Demolition of the Scion and Cadillac buildings is expected to start later this month, after a final city inspection is completed.
“Pretty much everything that needs to be approved has been taken care of,” Cummings said. “That process has gone smoothly. We just have one tiny inspection left to do.”
Ultimately, Cummings hopes to make one more major upgrade to the auto center: he wants to tear down the Subaru building at 645 Auto Center Drive S and replace it with a luxury dealership.
That part of the automobile market is underserved in San Bernardino County, said Cummings, who first came to the auto center in 1991 when he moved his Toyota dealership there from downtown.
“If you look to the north, east and west there are no luxury dealerships close to us,” Cummings said. “The closest ones are in Cathedral City and Las Vegas. It’s wide open, and luxury cars are about 20 percent of the automobile market.”
Cummings added that he isn’t negotiating with any luxury dealerships and doesn’t know which one – possibly Porsche, Mercedes or Lexus – he might persuade to locate at the auto center.
“It’s still an ‘if’ at this point,” he said.
Another reason now is a good time to overhaul the auto center is the more business-friendly climate that has sprung up at San Bernardino City Hall.
“I give [City Manager] Andrea Miller a lot of credit,” Cummings said. “She understands [tax revenue] generators and how important they are to a city. Look at all of the activity they’re getting around San Bernardino International Airport. They’re getting more cargo flights than they ever have.
“I sense a real change in attitude with the entire staff. It’s a lot easier to get things done there than before.”
San Bernardino, which is only now starting to recover from its 2012 bankruptcy, has tried to streamline its permitting and planning process, upgrade its development codes and create “a more welcoming environment” for businesses, Miller said.
“We’re thrilled that Toyota has done so well and [has] made plans to continue to grow in the city,” Miller said in a prepared statement.
San Bernardino is becoming a better place to do business, said Judi Penman, president and chief executive officer of the San Bernardino Area Chamber of Commerce.
“There are still some challenges we have to face, but I think the city is becoming more business friendly,” Penman said. “I also think that what Cliff is doing is great. He’s a very good businessman and he’s been around the track a few times.”
