Morehart Murphy Subaru plans to open its new dealership Monday at Three Springs Crossing in Durango.
The new building is more than triple the size of the current Subaru dealership at 33 Parker Ave. in Bodo Industrial Park.
Greg Rowland, partner and general manager with Morehart Murphy Regional Auto Center, said work on the new dealership started in February, and he was pleased to complete construction in less than a year given disruptions caused by COVID-19.
“Unfortunately, we’ve just outgrown our facility, so about 18 months ago, Subaru started talking to us about doing a rehab or a remodel of our existing facility,” Rowland said.
Rowland said Morehart Murphy has invested $5.5 million in the new building and the land cost $2.2 million.
The existing dealership in Bodo Industrial Park shared a facility with the auto body shop. The 3.7-acre parcel where the new dealership is located was initially envisioned to be a location for the new auto-body shop, but eventually the Subaru dealership was chosen for relocation.
The new dealership will be about 25,000 square feet, more than double the existing dealership’s 8,000 square feet, Rowland said. The new dealership’s showroom alone will total about 8,000 square feet with 16,000 square feet devoted to the service facility.
“It’s going to be fantastic for not only us, but also the customers, the people that we serve,” he said. “It will make it much easier for them to service cars with us. Everything was just so tight around our Bodo Park campus.”
In 2020, the dealership sold 386 new Subarus, a down year because of the COVID-19 virus, Rowland said. In an average year, the dealership expects to sell between 400 and 450 new vehicles.
The dealership has 93 employees, and with the move, about 10 new employees are expected to be added, Rowland said.
Jim Morehart, a co-owner, said, “We’ve been honored to be part of the business community for over 50 years, and the new Subaru facility continues our investment in Durango and the Four Corners.”
The dealership’s hours will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday for both sales and service.
The old dealership will now house Morehart Murphy’s auto body shop and its used-vehicle lot.
Morehart Murphy will continue to operate its General Motors and Chrysler, Jeep and Ram brands from the current Bodo Industrial Park location.
parmijo@durangoherald.com