Melbourne’s Pakenham will be ground zero for what is expected to be Australia’s biggest used car mega complex, which will include an array of businesses and will see over 1000 used vehicles on site.
The Pakenham car yard, developed by a local consortium led by Ray Weinzierl, will outsize well-known rivals Car City in Ringwood, the Essendon Fields new car dealerships and Cheltenham’s Melbourne Car Supermarket.
The complex called Car MegaMart is being built on 15.4 hectares bordered by South East Boulevard and Commercial Drive in Pakenham. It will operate as an integrated automobile sales site, housing a variety of industry-specific businesses in purpose-built showrooms in the same location.
Car Megamart’s operations and marketing manager Peter Caldwell says Car Megamart will have around 1500 cars on completion in 2015, stage 2 is now selling and leasing with around 1000 vehicles expected onsite after this stage is released later this year.
“There’s no doubt we will be Melbourne’s biggest,” Caldwell says.
The Car Megart is taking the used car dealership concept further by integrating other car related service in one place. It will be a one-stop-shop for buyers who want to get any buying or selling done as well as repairs or other impulse buys available in one place. “We believe this type of mega showroom concept is the way of the future,” Caldwell says.
The $100-million complex is different from other used car sites in that it takes the dealership concept one step further by integrating other auto-related businesses and leisure vehicle showrooms on the same site, Caldwell says.
According to Caldwell, the arrival of Car Megamart will give used car yards an opportunity to use Car Megamart to their advantage, by securing a lot either by purchasing or leasing.
“Our concept is based around giving consumers a ‘one-stop-shop’ where they can come and have a look and test drive almost all used cars on the market in one easy to get to location,” he told AutoTalk.
“Dealers will sell the same amount of cars from the internet regardless of where they situate their retail centre. This gives them an opportunity to also sell to over 2000 people a week who physically see their stock. This has seen over 40% of total sales at Car Megamart since opening, with “walk-in” customers.”
For Caldwell the arrival of such a huge used car showroom makes business sense in Melbourne as it is situated in the largest growth corridor in Victoria and one of the top three in Australia.
“The government has already acknowledged this in their ‘plan Melbourne’ guidelines released earlier this year. The used car buyers of Melbourne have long been asking for a reputable clean and honest place to buy a used car,” Caldwell adds.
As to what expect in the near future, Caldwell notes: “We are on the brink of announcing a major dealership. There will be 43 used car / boat / caravan yards over the three stages, alongside 43 showrooms/factories and three franchise sites.”
With ARB already opening up shop in the complex, other businesses which have opened their doors at the site include, Pakenham Tyres, South East Auto Repairs, A1 Windscreens, Dealer Image Detailing, Wak Lar Rol Steel, South Eastern Diesel Services, as well as some major leisure brands soon to be announced.
The final stages are expected to be completed in early 2015. Once fully tenanted, the development is expected to employ about 600 people.
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