In a $3.5 million deal, two of the country's biggest auto franchises, will soon take over the three-acre property on Shirley Street presently occupied by John S George, the Guardian confirmed recently.
Executive Motors and Quality Auto Sales, both owned by Fred Albury and his brother Jeff, sell Toyota, Daihatsu, Suzuki and Hyundai automobiles. They plan to consolidate their service, parts and administration departments at the new Shirley Street location by this fall.
"We've outgrown our existing facilities and want to bring greater efficiencies to our operation," explained Executive Motors chief Fred Albury.
John S George, meanwhile, plans to relocate its RCA electronics store but will close its Shirley Street branch.
"Our goal is to absorb as many of the 27 staff as possible," said John S George president Neil McKinney. "Since Shirley Street became one-way our sales have dropped significantly and it has been a struggle to keep this branch open. We will use the proceeds from the sale to pay off the bank debt and move most of the inventory to our other locations."
John S. George bought the former Maura Lumber Company property in 1993 as part of an ambitious expansion programme. The property includes a 20,000 square foot main store with an18, 000 square foot second storey that is currently unused. There are also warehouse facilities at the back of the property and ancillary buildings which house the Lighting Centre, the RCA store and a third-party furniture store.
"There is no intention of closing or liquidating John S George," Mr McKinney said. "Our objective is to reduce the amount of bank debt because of the fall-off in sales at Shirley Street. Retailing is based on location and convenience and as traffic patterns change over time, what was once a good location can become a bad one. We had no alternative but to sell"
Mr McKinney said that to avoid closing the Shirley Street store, John S George had tried to arrange a public offering in the form of a joint venture property fund with Freeport Concrete (the owners of Robin Hood Enterprises), but the idea never took off. John S George is the oldest retail store in the country, founded in 1855. It operates branches in Palmdale, Harbour Bay, Independence Drive, Lyford Cay and Cable Beach.
According to Mr Albury, the agreement was made last Friday (May 9) with a 90 day closing period. The property is being acquired by Alfa Investments, a holding company owned by the Albury's, which controls both Executive Motors and Quality Auto Sales, as well as Quality Auto Sales in Freeport. The company also owns some 10 acres on Wulff Road that it had earlier planned to develop as an auto mall.
"We will probably continue to use part of that land as a stock yard and will consider commercial development when the time is right," Mr Albury said. "We plan to sell or rent our Collins Avenue property and repurpose some of the Quality Auto sites on Shirley and Dowdeswell Streets."
The main building at Shirley Street will become an over-the-counter parts store for all the franchises held by Alfa Investments. The ancillary buildings will be used for administrative offices and as a vehicle showroom. Quality Auto's sales department will remain at its present location on Shirley Street.
The Albury brothers started Quality Auto Sales as a used car lot in 1972 and acquired the Suzuki franchise in 1982. This was followed by the Hyundai franchise in 1983. Executive Motors was established in 1992 to handle Toyota , and the Daihtasu franchise was acquired in 1997. The Freeport operation was established in 1987 to represent all the models sold by both main companies, which together employ just under a hundred people.
The Nassau Guardian
