Cedar Rapids Toyota moving, expanding

Looking to expand its service facilities, Cedar Rapids Toyota is planning a $5 million expansion of the former Volkswagen/Lithia building at Boyson Road and Interstate 380 in Hiawatha.

Scott Ryan, owner and president of Cedar Rapids Toyota, said the recent sale of the Volkswagen franchise to McGrath Auto Group paved the way for an expansion of the building before the relocation of the Toyota/Scion dealership next year.

'Volkswagen is a great automobile and a great company, but the decision to sell that franchise had more to do with the amount of capital that we're going to put into our new project,” Ryan said. 'We will be virtually doubling the former Volkswagen/Lithia building, taking it to more than 50,000 square feet. It's a pretty major capital investment, so I decided that if I could get some good will for the Volkswagen franchise, it would help us focus 100 percent on our Toyota business.

'I'm 53 years old and I really didn't want to take on $5 million of new debt at this point in my life.”

Ryan said the existing Toyota complex is under contract to be sold to another auto dealer whose identity he is not at liberty to disclose at this time.

'If everything works out, we will end up with a single building next April or May - the much larger former VW/Lithia building,” Ryan said. 'The majority of the expansion will be in the service area, where we have been short for some time. We also plan to add an automatic car wash to wash our customer's cars after they have been serviced.”

Ryan said the dealership is seeking tax increment financing from the city of Hiawatha and hopes to dovetail approval of that development agreement with the necessary building permits to begin construction this summer.

Ryan said the expansion and move will increase employment from 57 full-time and 15 part-time employees to 65 full-time and 18 part-time associates when the dealership moves into the remodeled building. Within 18 months, he expects that to grow to 75 full-time and 25 part-time employees.

Cedar Rapids Toyota moved into its existing 26,000-square-foot building on 5.5 acres of land in December 2003 when it relocated from an 11,000-square-foot building at Blairs Ferry Road and Seventh Avenue in Marion. The dealership had outgrown that location after 20 years in business.

Cedar Rapids Toyota services vehicles leased by employees of Toyota Financial Services (TFS) in northeast Cedar Rapids. It also handles the sale of off-lease vehicles for TFS.