Sioux Falls Ford Lincoln nears opening
By Jodi Schwan
Sioux Falls Ford Lincoln is about one month away from opening its new dealership.
The 15-acre site on 26th Street east of Marion Road allows Sioux Falls Ford to more than double in size compared with its location in front of The Empire Mall.
It will be a technology-focused dealership with room for 1,000 cars compared with the 600 spaces Sioux Falls Ford currently has. At the 41st Street dealership, 100 of those spots are used by body-shop customers, and that work is moving in early May to a new building on the campus of Luxury Auto Mall at Interstate 29 and West 12th Street.
“It will allow the customer to see all the inventory at one location instead of bouncing around,” chief operating officer Chuck Eide said of the new dealership on 26th Street. “And a customer can sit in the lounge and have a laptop in the cafe bar, pull up cameras in the service department and see their car.”
The expanded service area also will allow the dealership to grow its commercial service business. The service department includes 43 service bays and is being built with employees in mind, including soundproof walls and roof, and in-floor heat and air conditioning.
Inside, the main sales floor will be surrounded by large video screens.
“We’re really excited,” dealer principal Randy Nehring said. “And the whole place is surrounded by windows, so at night it will be the billboard.”
The new dealership will include about 210 employees, and while Ford has ramped up hiring, openings remain.
The new dealership is expected to open in mid-April. No plans have been announced for The Empire Mall property, although mall owner Simon is expected to help develop it.
The Ford dealership, then Ben-Hur Ford, was built there in 1972. The Nehring family bought the company in 1995.