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BMW’s New West Springfield Facility Will Have Lots of Retail Horsepower
BMW of West Springfield

An architect’s rendering of the new facilities for BMW of West Springfield, which will open next spring.

There’s a sleek, high-performance (500 horses) M-5 model parked just outside George Menard’s office at BMW of West Springfield — just outside it.

In fact, one has to sort of maneuver around it to get to Menard, the dealership’s general manager, who acknowledged that what passes as a showroom at the facility on Riverdale Street is cramped, to say the least. There’s barely room for three cars, which must share space with desks for eight salespeople.

Manipulating cars into the spot by Menard’s door takes a little work. “It’s not as bad as it looks,” he explained. “They swing in pretty easily, though you have to pretty much make a three-point turn and move some chairs around to get it in. Obviously, the smaller the car, the easier it is. We couldn’t get a 7-Series in that spot.”

There will be no such problems at the new dealership being built further north on Riverdale Street for this BMW store, which is part of the Shrewsbury-based Wagner Motors Group and now marking its 12th year in West Springfield. That facility will cover 33,000 square feet, nearly five times the size the current location, a former gas station and later a floor-covering store that has been expanded a few times over the years.

There will be room for seven cars in the new facility’s showroom — “you can walk around them and even open the doors all the way,” said Menard — with a dedicated entrance for getting them in and, eventually, out. Meanwhile, there’s a row of offices for the sales staff and a much larger, obstruction-free office for Menard, who is counting down the days (around 180 of them) until the new dealership opens its doors.

As he talked about it with BusinessWest, he used the phrase ‘state-of-the-art’ early and quite often to describe everything from the service area to the waiting room for customers, which will be equipped with a flat-screen TV, coffee bar, and wireless Internet access.

Overall, this will be a facility worthy of the logo and three letters on the cars being sold and leased, said Menard. He told BusinessWest that a new dealership has been in the planning stages for several years — there have been a number of logistical hurdles to clear — but it will ultimately be well worth the wait for customers, employees, and management alike.

“We have some great customers, who have been very patient with us,” said Menard. “They own the ultimate driving machine, and they deserve a facility worthy of the name. This new dealership will be fitting of the product being sold.

“This is going to be a much better environment for the customer, and for our employees as well,” he continued. “Everything is going to be state-of-the-art.”

But the new facility is about more than additional space for cars and a heated service area. It’s also about business, and doing more of it, said Menard, noting that the Wagner group saw a marked increase in sales volume when it built a new dealership for its Worcester-area BMW store, and expects the same in West Springfield.

Indeed, at present, the dealership is selling 350 to 375 new cars and about 130 used cars per year, he said, adding that forecasts for the first year in the new facility are for between 420 and 450 new vehicles, and more than 250 used.

Driving Force

From the beginning, the goal (more like a mandate) with regard to the new dealership was that it remain on Riverdale Street, said Menard, noting that the thoroughfare is the region’s unofficial, and conveniently located, auto mall, one with many dealerships, including several luxury nameplates.

But finding another location on that street — one big enough to accommodate everything that BMW and the Wagner Group and its principals, Ronald Wagner and his son, Mark want — proved much easier said than done.

“Almost all of the real estate on Riverdale Street was locked up … there were hardly any vacant spaces,” said Menard, recalling the situation about four years ago, when talks about building a new facility heated up again.

But over the past few years, the Wagners have been able to construct a nearly five-acre site by taking a vacant retail site it owned — the former home to an Indian Motocycle dealership (that company has since ceased operations) — and combining it with the site of the former Corral Motel that was acquired and subsequently razed.

The property is sloped, and will have room to park new and used motels at street level, with the dealership and customer parking on the upper level, he continued. Construction and site work, which includes the building of a bridge across a small brook that runs through the property, began in the spring, and is expected to be completed by next March.

When completed, the facility will be the largest single-point luxury car dealership in the Pioneer Valley, said Menard, and one of the jewels in the Wagner Group’s stable, which includes six luxury dealerships (Audi, Mercedes, Land Rover, and Jaguar are the other nameplates) as well as a motorsports dealership and a venture called Body Shop World, all in Massachusetts.

As he talked about the new dealership facilities, Menard couldn’t conceal his enthusiasm about what they mean for his staff and especially his customers.

He said the West Springfield store serves a wide geographic area — essentially everything west of Worcester and from Springfield into southern Vermont — and to handle that client base with the current facilities, as small and dated as they are, has been quite challenging.

With 16 service bays (nine more than at present), including ones dedicated for state inspections and front-end alignments, the new dealership will be able to schedule work in a more timely manner, and get customers in and out more quickly.

“This facility is going to reduce waiting time for service, which has been a concern for us,” Menard explained, adding that modern dealerships, in addition to being much larger than those built years ago, are also being designed to maximize work flow and customer convenience.

The investment in the new dealership goes well beyond bricks and mortar, glass and blacktop, said Menard, noting that when it opens, the new facility will have 45 employees, 10 more than at present, with additions in several departments, including sales. And there will be extensive training of all staff members, he said, adding that recruiting efforts are already ongoing.

But Menard, and obviously the Wagners, believe the sizeable investment will ultimately pay off in higher sales volume and greater customer retention. That confidence results from experience, specifically what the Wagner Group witnessed when it built a new, more-than-40,000-square-foot facility in Shrewsbury for its Worcester-area store.

There, sales rose dramatically in the year after the new building opened, said Menard, who told BusinessWest that there is a direct correlation between the quality of facilities and sales volume.

“Our experience with our Shrewsbury location was that sales more than doubled, for both new cars and used cars,” he said, noting that while the cars themselves do most of the work when it comes to sales volume, having modern, clean facilities certainly helps. “People who have the wherewithal to drive cars like these want to see a facility that’s clean and accommodating — and has some perks.

“Being able to log on to the Internet while waiting for your car to be serviced … that means a lot to some clients,” he continued. “We’re trying to make this a destination facility, rather than a place people don’t want to be.”

Staging a Coupe

Beyond convenience for customers, a new dealership facility is needed simply to properly showcase all of the BMW models, said Menard, noting that new ones are coming out regularly, and several additions are expected in the next few years.

Looking to expand its customer base, the car maker will soon be introducing a ‘1’ series, with models featuring price tags under $30,000, he said. Meanwhile, there will be some diesel models coming out shortly, as well as more all-wheel-drive entries and, eventually, one that will run on both gasoline and hydrogen.

“We generally like to display one of every model,” said Menard. “And at the new facility we might just have a chance to do that.”

And without having to make any three-point turns inside the dealership.

George O’Brien can be reached at[email protected]