Carvana, an online used car dealership, began leasing a former car dealership at 126 U.S. Route 1 in Woolwich. This will be the company’s first location in Maine. Photo courtesy of Charles Day
Carvana, a used car dealership that primarily operates online, is looking to establish a brick-and-mortar location in Woolwich that will serve most of the state.
The roughly 15,000-sqare-foot, single-story building at 126 U.S. Route 1 in Woolwich was built to house Brothers Chevrolet and features multiple garage doors and nearly five acres of paved space. Most recently, the building held BFC Marine, a new and used boat seller.
Charles Day, a real estate agent with Portland-based Porta & Co., represented the building owner who established a long term lease with Carvana. Day declined to say how long Carvana intends to lease the property or the cost of the lease.
“My client purchased the building in the spring as an investment property,” said Day. “We put it out for sale and lease in mid-April and had a lot of interest from different tenants and buyers, but we decided to go with Carvana. This Woolwich location will serve as far north as Bangor and as far south as the New Hampshire border. I think it’s a great spot for them and we hope they’re there for a long time.”
Carvana operates by buying and selling used cars online. The company will pick up or drop off a used vehicle wherever the customer asks, according to its website. This will be the Arizona-based company’s first physical location in Maine. It doesn’t have any locations in New Hampshire, but has four Massachusetts locations.
Woolwich Code Enforcement Officer Bruce Engert said the town doesn’t know when the company hopes to open this Woolwich location because the application it submitted was deemed incomplete. The company will likely appear before the Woolwich planning board on September 13 to receive approval.
During peak season, the location will accommodate 156 vehicles, 18 employee parking places and six rollback wrecker trucks for hauling vehicles, said Engert. Carvana isn’t planning to make any structural modifications to the building, but will make internal cosmetic improvements like fresh paint and new carpets.
According to Carvana’s business application submitted to the town, the dealership hopes to operate from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, but did not say what days of the week it will to be open or how many employees it plans to hire.
“I think it’s an appropriate use of the building,” said Engert. “It certainly will be better than a vacant building and it’ll be nice to have it back on the tax rolls.”
Carvana Public Relations Specialist David Klemow declined to comment on the company’s plans for the new location in Woolwich.
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