A mix of finely dressed dignitaries, casual car shoppers and curious locals gathered Thursday at 115 Maine St. to celebrate the grand opening of Lee Auto Malls’ new 39,275-square-foot building.

The new facility features a drivethrough service area, an alignment bay, three wash bays and 18 car lifts. It is made of more than 50,000 bricks purchased from Morin Brickyard in Auburn to match those of the municipal and public safety buildings not far away on Main Street.

The dealership, which replaces the building opposite the Route 196 Coastal Connector along Main Street, employs approximately 60 sales, service and administrative workers. Construction was managed by Advantage Construction Inc., with the support of 30 subcontractors.

Adam Lee, chairman of the board for Lee Auto Malls, told those in attendance Thursday that when the company bought the small Topsham dealership across the street 15 years ago, it was in bankruptcy. At the time, the dealership was selling 30 cars a month. Lee then got it up to 40, then 50, then 70 and finally up to about 100 and most recently, to 250 cars a month “out of that little place,” Lee said. “We really needed a new facility.”

Lee said Toyota executives thought a new dealership was needed in Topsham and showed him a template design. From there, representatives of Lee Auto Malls, Toyota and the town spent a year collaborating to come up with a design and location that would best serve the business and Topsham’s Main Street Plan.

Former Maine Gov. Angus King, an unenrolled candidate for the U.S. Senate in Maine and who sits on the company’s board, spoke during Thursday’s ceremony. He lauded the Lee family and its business as assets to Maine, citing what he called the “Four Ps” that help them succeed: planning, partnership, perseverance and passion.

“You’ve got to start with an idea of where you want to get, and Lee has this vision of being one of the great automobile dealers in the country; already the biggest selling automobile dealer in the state of Maine,” King said.

King thanked Adam Lee, the Lee family and Lee Auto Malls team for the expansion, calling it “a great day for Maine.”

Toyota Motor Sales USA representative Terry Sell traveled to Maine from California for the grand opening to give “our sincere appreciation and thanks to … the whole Lee organization for building this fantastic facility. It really shows the commitment you have to the brand as well as what you see as the coming history that you’re going to create in this store.”

He then asked Lee to participate in a Toyota tradition, which involves the Katana, a Samurai sword used for hundreds of years in Japan. Sell explained that the sword stands for strength and honor, and showed its bearers’ status in the community.

The Katana “embodied everything that Samurai was about and the quality and the durability of it was such that it was thought to be an undefeatable weapon,” Sell said.

Toyota incorporated the tradition into its corporate culture.

“We present (the Katana) to our Toyota dealers when they do something significant like this, because it really stands for the strength, the quality and the integrity of the Toyota dealers, as well as the commitment to the partnership that we feel we have with our dealers,” Sell said.

Also introduced Thursday was 8-year-old Zachary “Zack” Travers of North Yarmouth, whose family has purchased four vehicles from Topsham dealership sales representative Trisha Hunter. Travers has done a series of commercials recently for Lee Auto Malls, and Adam Lee said the boy ended up stealing the show.

Travers, whose parents, Marcia and Kevin, also appeared in some of the commercials, said the process of filming his first commercial was “pretty amazing.” He wore a red T-shirt for the first commercial, so now his dad said he’s become “the red shirt kid.”

At his first taping, Travers said, “I was a little frightened but I’m used to it now.” Asked if he’s now recognized in public, he replied “Some kids say, ‘I saw you on a commercial.’”

He’s been asked twice for an autograph. But his favorite part about doing the ads is “being with Adam Lee.”

The thing about the Toyota dealership, Zack said, “is that they offer great service. And you know, most importantly, if you have dogs, they have water bowls so your dogs can actually drink.”