By Ben Antonius | Daily Republic | July 24, 2009
Tattered flags fly in front of an empty building and car lot in the Fairfield Auto Mall. Part of the city's economic recovery plan involves finding new businesses to move into the auto mall. Photo by Chris Jordan
FAIRFIELD - A new vision sees the flagging Fairfield Auto Mall as a potential luxury hub for the area. It would be a dream for the city -- if it comes true.
City officials recently finalized a set of strategies for the upcoming year that lists filling vacant auto dealerships as one of the city's top objectives. But even as they build plans around luring in new dealers, officials are acknowledging that the auto industry may never look the same again.
The Big Three American automakers in particular have made it a priority to thin their huge ranks of dealerships in recent years.
'There has been quite a bit of consolidation and I think the days of every city having a Ford, a Chevy, a Toyota . . . may be over,' Assistant City Manager Rob Braulik said.
He said there could be other options, particularly at the luxury end of the spectrum, but that plan would depend heavily on the arrival of an announced Mercedes Benz dealership, planned for the struggling southwest end of Auto Mall Parkway.
The facility has long been envisioned as a centerpiece to the area, a role that has only grown more prominent with the successive closures of three of the mall's largest dealerships in the last 12 months.
'If Mercedes gets that building up, I think that will help us go after other luxury brands that we don't have,' he said. 'We don't have a BMW dealership in town, we don't have a Lexus dealership in town and we would love to get both those.'
The recently finalized 'Strategic Priority Goals' cover a wide range of objectives, including crime reduction approaches and ways to engage local youths. They also includes plans for righting Fairfield's sales taxes, which have taken hit after hit in recent years with closures of major retailers and auto dealerships.
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