Oxmoor Auto Group’s Oxmoor Mazda is currently investing in Louisville!
Out with the old, in with the new.
You might have noticed recently that a good portion of the Oxmoor Mazda showroom, at 7913 Shelbyville Road, just east of Oxmoor Center, has been torn down.
A large video screen, an updated customer lounge and a merchandise boutique are planned as part of the overhaul of Oxmoor Mazda.
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A large video screen, an updated customer lounge and a merchandise boutique are planned… more
It’s not closing. Rather, the demolition has taken place to make way for an all-new showroom — which should be open by summer if everything goes as planned.
It will be a brand new building, from top to bottom, said Bob Gunnell, who owns Boxcar Strategies LLC, a public relations firm hired by dealership owner Oxmoor Autogroup. The only part of the old building that’s left standing is a garage, he said.
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The dealership is still open amid the construction work as Oxmoor Mazda has moved its office into a modular building onsite.
Two Louisville-based companies, VBN Architects Inc. and Prodigy Construction Corp. Inc., have been tapped for the project. About 35 jobs are expected to be created with the expansion. Gunnell declined to disclose the project cost or to say whether Mazda Motor Corp. has put any money up for the reconstruction.
But Gunnell said Oxmoor Autogroup initiated this effort. Its management wants the dealership to have the latest technology and features. A large video screen, an updated customer lounge and a merchandise boutique are planned as part of the overhaul.
“This thing is going to have dynamic curb appeal,” he said.
The group decided it was time to update the dealership as it rolls out a new advertising and branding initiative. “They have a new brand that they’re building, which is ‘locally owned, community driven and family operated,’ ” Gunnell said. The slogan will appear on new advertisements and dealership materials.
I asked whether that message was developed to capitalize on the fact that close competitor Sam Swope Auto Group LLC recently sold most of its assets to a Florida firm, Automotive Management Services Inc.
It wasn’t, Gunnell said. The new campaign was under development even before that deal was announced.
Gunnell said he did not know the size of the newly constructed space.
The showroom that was torn down previously housed a Range Rover dealership. Oxmoor Auto Group purchased it in the mid-2000s and it spent some time as a Hyundai showroom before opening as a Mazda dealership. With this expansion project, all of Oxmoor Auto Group’s dealerships are fairly new and up to date, Gunnell said.
Oxmoor Auto Group also deals in Chryslers, Jeeps, Fords, Lincolns, Toyotas and other brands. All of its dealerships are on Shelbyville Road, and it has a collision center in the Bluegrass Commerce Park in Jeffersontown.
Oxmoor Auto Group sold or leased 7,212 new cars in 2014, according to our most recent New Car Dealers list, published in April 2015. That made it the second largest auto group in the area, behind Sam Swope Auto Group.
David A. Mann covers these beats: Restaurants, beverage industry, manufacturing, distribution/logistics, unions.
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