He purchased the Infiniti dealership in September 2015. Part of the purchase agreement entailed a pledge to remodel the facility.
“This was the first Infiniti store in Ohio — built in 1991,” Evans said. “They never updated the facility in that time-frame.”
The remodeling was extensive. Some two-thirds of the prior building has been taken down, Evans said. Square footage and a different shape were added. Basically, any space that customers see or touch has been remade somehow, he said.
“Infiniti is a luxury brand, and it deserves a luxury environment,” Evans said. “That is what we, I think, have created here.”
Like most other brands, Infiniti has standards for how its stores look. But Evans has attempted to make the store Dayton-centric, working with the Dayton Visual Arts Center to purchase locally made and locally focused paintings and photographs. A collage by Dayton photographer Andy Snow greets visitors as soon as they walk into the front doors. Local, familiar images proliferate across the store on office walls and in hallways.
Local contractor Butt Construction Co. worked on the project, using local contractors and vendors where possible, Evans said.
And the dealership now has five additional employees. All told, Evans has about 170 employees across all of his stores.
The store’s “grand opening” continues all month. The dealership is connecting with a charity, Moms 4 Miracles, and it will donate $100 to the charity for every car sold in August. The group works with children and families fighting cancer.
Evans remodeled his BMW and Volvo stores in 2015, also with Butt Construction.
While there are reports of a slowing domestic auto market, Evans says he is neither surprised nor especially worried.
“We have been on an unsustainable high for four or five years,” he said. “The country has never done that before. It was bound to plateau or back-pedal a little bit.”
But locally, Evans said business remains strong.
“Every one of my franchises, all eight of them … are all up this year,” he said.
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