Healey store set for spring opening
Dealership moving to Wawayanda Published: 2:00 AM – 10/20/11
WAWAYANDA — the new Healey Brothers Chevrolet Buick store is expected to open off Route 17M next spring, right in time for graduations and weddings.
Healey bought what was Fulton Chevrolet Cadillac in 2009 and stripped the building down to its four walls, aiming to provide more space for customers and product, while also producing a “green” building that taps the sun and used motor oil for energy.
Lou Roselli, Healey’s general manager, has spent many of his 22 years with the company at its Village of Goshen store on Greenwich Avenue, the location that will be closed.
“This was the original Healey store, the one that made it happen,” Roselli said enthusiastically of the dealership that opened in 1977 as the forerunner of what became six stores, including ones in Poughkeepsie, Beacon, Vails Gate and the Town of Goshen.
Now for sale, the village building has a history that includes a stint in the early 1900s as a manufacturing plant for the Coates-Goshen, an auto powered by 25 to 60 hp engines.
And while Roselli and others may wax a bit nostalgic about their current digs, the new facility is to have more than a few creature comforts and economic advantages in its favor.
For one thing, the increased visibility of a site at the crossroads of Interstate 84 and Route 17M has General Motors estimating that 100 new Chevys will be sold monthly, up from about 70 at the downtown Goshen location. the monthly sales are expected to also include as many as 20 Buicks and 60 used cars, bringing the total sales to 180.
That will likely mean adding as many as 10 workers to the 55 now at the village store, Roselli said.
One of the first things a visitor to the Goshen village location may notice is that there’s only enough showroom space to exhibit one car. There used to be room for more, but eventually the cars were displaced by people and their cubicles.
“Cars don’t sell cars, people do,” Roselli explained, saying that as the business grew so did its staff.
The new facility, which is being built by Petra Construction of Newburgh, will have a seven-car showroom, plus a 5,500-square-foot addition for a truck shop. the new site will also be on six acres, compared to about two at the current location. Overall, the new building will be almost twice as large at 47,000 square feet.
One amenity at the auto service area will be a garage door capable of opening in two seconds when activated by an approaching vehicle.
“They’ll be able to drop their cars off without being exposed to the elements,” Roselli said.
Customers can then take an elevator to a main-floor waiting room.
Other features of the new building will include glass reflecting the summer sun, yet admitting heat in the winter. the service department will be heated with waste oil, and there will be a 50,000 kw solar energy system on the roof.
“We’ve been trying to be green,” Roselli said. “And we’re recycling all that we can — the pavement, the concrete — it’s all being reused for the building.”
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<a href="http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111020/BIZ/110200324/-1/NEWStag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111020/BIZ/110200324/-1/NEWSThu, 20 Oct 2011 06:27:18 GMT”>Healey store set for spring opening
August 04, 2011 10:49 AM Eastern Daylight Time
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