Business & Tech
Final Honda Expansion Items on Council Docket Tuesday
Richfield-Bloomington Honda hopes to open a new store in early 2015 alongside another car dealer.
With sales and maintenance service demand growing each year, Richfield-Bloomington Honda has outgrown its 28,000-square-foot lot and is close to making its expansion plans a reality.
A number of items regarding the dealership's redevelopment and expansion plans have landed on Tuesday's city council agenda, including consideration of two ordinances (one to rezone the property and the other to approve the final development plan) and two public hearings (one to address making Harriet Avenue a private boulevard and the second for final plat approval).
Richfield-Bloomington Honda began its expansion efforts last year, acquiring the adjacent properties that housed LaMettry's Auto Body, USA Baby and Tires Plus. La Mettry's is relocating to a parcel of land north of Candlewood Suites, which was previously owned by the city until it was purchased last summer.
The project will feature a brand new Richfield-Bloomington Honda and a new Mitsubishi dealership. The Mitsubishi dealership will occupy about one-third of the total lot, according to Tuesday's council agenda packet.
Both dealerships will be two stories pulled to 77th Street West. The walls facing 77th Street will include a significant amount of glass to allow visibility inside the dealerships. In addition, the south side of the Honda building will have a second story, cantilevered mezzanine for vehicle display on I-494. Harriet Avenue is proposed to become a private boulevard between the two dealerships, and will feature benches, shade trees, pedestrian-scale lighting and recessed parking bays for additional vehicle displays.
There are also future plans to construct a multi-story parking ramp additional parking and service center expansion. The ramp is scheduled to start construction in January 2020, according to a timeline submitted by Tim Carter, managing owner of Richfield-Bloomington Honda.
If all goes as planned, construction on the Mitsubishi property will begin in August, and the dealer will move from its current Bloomington location to Richfield this December. Construction on the Honda dealership is set to begin in February 2014 with the new store opening in January 2015.
Richfield Patch will update readers following the council's decisions Tuesday.
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