The forrmer Hertz car sales lot at 520 Airport Road S.E. remained fenced off on Saturday.
A week or two ago, somebody asked me what was going on at the former site of the Hertz car sales lot on Airport Road in Albany. I had no idea but told him I would try to find out.
The bike took me past the place on Saturday afternoon. The property, at 520 Airport Road S.E., had a temporary fence around it and looked deserted. It was the fence that had prompted the reader’s question in the first place.
The first place to check is always the city building division. No, Building Official Johnathan Balkema told me, no one had applied for a building permit. But the city did have, some time ago, a pre-application discussion with someone wanting to reopen the property as a car lot.
Saturday night is a lousy time to reach anybody for an explanation of anything. But we can look at records available online.
It turns out that the former Hertz lot has a new owner. Jackson Automotive Real Estate Holdings II LLC, of Rockwall, Texas, bought the property this past May for $2.5 million. (That’s a lot more than than the roughly $1 million real market value estimate posted by the Linn County assessor.)
Jackson Automotive Real Estate Holdings is the company of Steve Jackson, also of Rockwall, who spent $1,250,000 last year to buy a vacant lot on Fescue Street, opposite Home Depot. In August his company filed for approval of a site plan to build a Hyundai dealership on that property.
According to the records available online, the Albany planning division has not yet approved the Hyundai lot.
At present, Jackson operates “Albany Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram” at 2315 Santiam Hwy. S.E. He bought that business from Mark Thomas Motors about five years ago, but the property on which the business operates is still owned by Mark and Kathleen Thomas.
Jackson’s company operates Albany Hyundai next door, also on real estate owned by somebody else.
So it could be that Jackson wants to move the Hyundai business to Fescue Street, east of the freeway, and open a new automotive dealership (perhaps his Chrysler Dodge shop, or another one) at the former Hertz lot on Airport Road.
Both properties would have more space for inventory and customers than the current sites on Santiam. We will see what Jackson does as time goes on. (hh)
The story has been edited to correct a street name, as indicated in the comments below.
The apparently empty former Hertz building on Airport Road Saturday afternoon.
Fescue not Ferry.
Of course. Thanks.
Hasso – thanks for the info. We had wondered what was going on there.
BTW the site across from Home Depot is on Fescue. Ferry is on the other side of town.
At least the council isn’t involved in the dealings.
Maybe they’ll be forced to construct a “period correct” auto dealership?