The site of the planned Jackson Subaru dealership on Airport Road looked like this on Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. (The sign on the fence is for an excavator.)
Every once in a while, someone driving past 520 Airport Road in Albany wonders what they’re building there.
As usual, the signs on the construction site give no clue. But as reported here last November, the former Hertz used-car lot at that address is being turned into Jackson Subaru, a new dealership.
For a while, not much was going on at the site. But now, as I discovered on a bike ride along Airport Road last week, contractors are in the middle of a complete remodeling of the building and the lot.
(By the way, I don’t recommend riding a bicycle on Airport Road, most of which is narrow and has no room for bikes at all.)
Walen Construction of Portland is the contractor on the Subaru project. The applicant on one of the building permits is Brian Dueltgen, senior architect with the Portland firm of LRS Architects. The firm’s website says they’ve designed more than 100 projects for car dealerships.
Last month, Rite Way Electric of Albany took out a permit for a temporary power supply to the site.
Steven Jackson, the principal of the car company bearing his initials (SJ Automotive Investments), is based in Blackwall, Texas, and has several other dealerships in Texas and the Northwest, including one each in Albany and Corvallis.
He’s also building another one, Hyundai of Albany, on Fescue Street across from Home Depot. (hh)
They are separating Toyota of Corvallis from Subaru of Corvallis and moving the Subaru portion to this location. Same Owner as in Corvallis. “From Toyota of Corvallis”……
Do you know what they are building on lochner?
That’s probably the expansion of the Sno-Temp plant for which Lochner was improved at a cost of $2.4 million in 2020. The city acted as the intermediary for a complicated state loan package that paid for the road project. Under the terms of the aid package, Sno-Temp was obligated to add 60 jobs in five years.
How about instead of another dealership, Albany pushed for an In-N-Out?
Hundreds of people need to email In N Out for a response. Albany is not even on there radar which is a shame. It would be perfect here. There are only two or three locations left that they could possibly go on so time is running out. Alex MacLean of Commercial Realty Advisors Northwest LLC is their principal broker for the Oregon region. But I think it would be better to just email In N Out directly.
Surprised at the extent of the remodel of the building. It was previously used by Hertz car dealership. It was originally built as a building for Cellular One and seemed to be well constructed. Prior to that the property was used to stage modular homes, I believe by the Conser family. Airport road as it exists today is not long for this world as it likely will be closed for the build out of the Santiam interchange whenever the state and federal government can figure out how to fund that project.
I agree with Tony Yo about putting In-n-Out in one of the local empty properties. I have written to the company when they put the Grants Pass one so close to the first one in Oregon at Medford. They would be close to I-5 and to both OSU and U of O and would always be busy ( I could be seen in line several times a month).