Local Chevrolet dealership settling into new location
By Leah Rainwater
Frederick Avenue may look a little emptier without one familiar dealership.
Reed Automotive Group relocated its Chevrolet dealership from Frederick Avenue to Commonwealth Court, 4525 Commons Drive, about three weeks ago.
One of Reed’s owners, Trevin Reed, said it all has to do with better serving the St. Joseph area.
“The building we were in on Frederick Avenue was built, I think sometime in the late 70s. The earliest picture I have is 1978, and it, you know serviced this market very well for a long time, but it required quite a bit of refurbishment to get it to be able to serve the community the way we want it to,” Reed said.
Additionally, Reed said having the Chevrolet dealership next to their Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram dealership makes a little more sense.
“We’ve got a store next door that’s doing well and so we wanted to … it’s a lot easier when the stores are next to each other as well,” Reed said.
However, the old building won’t be vacant for too long.
“It’s currently for sale,” Reed said. “We’ve got a couple of offers on it and kind of mulling those and kind of going through the due diligence process on both sides.”
Reed said he’s proud of the new location.
“The hopes that I have is that this building serves the community well, this is a great market, the greater St. Joseph area, but this building … not that facilities make teams, the team make the organization, but this building is state of the art. There’s not a Chevy facility like it in the Midwest, maybe further, so we’re super excited for that,” Reed said.
He also said the new building differs from the old location in many ways.
“You walk in the shop, it’s got 50 bays. We had 27 at the last building so almost double our service capacity,” Reed said. “Obviously the showroom’s a lot more open, waiting areas are way better, refreshed, new. We’ve got technology implemented in this building that we were unable to in the previous location.”
The official grand reopening of Reed Chevrolet will take place at 9 a.m. on Monday, July 1.
