Lithia Ford dealtership targets early August move to west Boise

Lithia Ford of Boise plans to move Aug. 1 to its new complex under construction at Fairview Avenue and Maple Grove roads, Manager Mike Springer said last week.

The dealership, which employs 80 in several buildings on the north side of Main Street at 30th, will move to a building that McAlvain Construction is building on 16 acres at the southeast corner of Fairview and Maple Grove.

The project encompasses most of a partially completed, 56,000-square-foot supermarket that Smith’s Food & Drug had built in 1997. Smith’s abandoned the project in the fall of that year after Fred Meyer Inc. acquired Smith’s (Kroger Inc. later acquired Fred Meyer).

Lithia Automotive Group acquired the structure in fall 2001 from Intermountain Development Group, Salt Lake City.

Plans call for a 54,000-square-foot service center, a 27,000-square-foot sales and office addition on the west side of the main structure, plus a free-standing auto body shop – also of 27,000 square feet – on the south side of the parcel.

Construction costs for the main building are estimated at $5.35 million.

Lithia acquired Bob Rice Ford Chrysler Plymouth in March 2000. The Rice Family Limited Partnership, of Boise, owns the property at 30th and Main.

Lithia has a 10-year lease on the downtown property, which expires at the end of February 2010, Bob Rice Sr. said.

In the past month, Lithia enlisted Boise commercial real estate firm The Winder Co. to find a sublease tenant. The building was not listed previously.

Marketing activities will increase as Lithia Ford’s relocation to Fairview and Maple Grove nears, leasing agent Dave Winder said.

“Under Lithia’s lease, the only authorized use is auto sales and services,” he said. “To do anything different, owners would have to agree to modify the lease or cancel it and do something different,” he said.

Lithia occupies about 60,000 square feet of showroom and shop space on the downtown site of about 10.4 acres.