ARLINGTON — Just over a year ago, Dwayne Lane’s Chevrolet dealership made big headlines in Snohomish County newspapers when it closed its doors in downtown Arlington. Now it’s making even bigger headlines by returning with an expanded business operation.
More than 400 people
joined Lane’s festive four-hour grand reopening celebration Jan. 19, including Dwayne Lane, founder of Dwayne Lane’s Family of Auto Centers; Tom Lane, president of the company; city officials; Arlington-Smokey Point Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Michael Prihoda; local business owners; and residents, friends and family.
Packed with new cars, tables of food, a musical quartet and an ever-changing crowd so large that it was often difficult to move through the showroom, the celebration was a solid success, Tom Lane said afterward.
“I didn’t realized how much we were missed,” he said. “All over town I’ve been greeted by people saying they’re glad we’re back in the community. We’ve been selling cars, we’ve got a regional service center now, brought 15 new jobs here and we’re hoping to grow more as the business builds. It takes things like this to help people’s economic outlook.”
Lane said earlier he hopes to expand employment to as many as 30 jobs. The new facility’s service business for all vehicle brands began soon after Christmas. Later, new cars began arriving on the site and more are due in soon.
“General Motors has a special pipeline for reopened dealerships and we’ll soon receive a special allocation of 100 cars, including the newest trucks and some new hard-to-find Chevrolet models,” Lane said.
With 40 new cars already on the lot, the special allocation will bring the total to 120 at the Arlington dealership, along with 50 used cars on the lot. Lane plans to grow the used-car inventory to 100 used vehicles.
“We’ve now got a large showroom with space for service customers in a comfortable waiting room that includes a family and kids lounge for those who bring their vehicles in,” he said. “Downtown we were really limited, now we’re not. There’s also wireless Internet available, which makes a big difference for people.”
The new location is at 21015 Highway 9, about a half-mile south of the previous downtown site on West Street.
“Arlington is just getting busier and better. The Dwayne Lane dealership is even better than when they were here before and people will support it,” said a beaming Mayor Margaret Larson at the reopening.
In late 2009, Lane announced that General Motors had canceled its dealership in the wake of the recession that battered automakers across the country.
After General Motors emerged from bankruptcy, a GM official called Lane in late 2010 to reinstate the Arlington dealership, which has returned to Arlington with a larger presence than ever.
Lane is leasing the former Oso Lumber Co. building on Highway 9, which was closed when the company was bought by Pro-Build, a Denver-based national supplier of building materials to national builders, local contractors and the public. Pro-Build still maintains Oso Lumber Co.’s distribution site in Arlington.
The new site has 25,000 square feet of space, five times the size of the former downtown dealership location. A showroom and five service bays were already available for Lane, dating back many years to the time when the building was leased to a Ford dealership. That’s when Lane decided the larger facility could become a regional service center.
When the Lane dealership was in downtown Arlington, it provided around $200,000 a year in sales tax revenues to the city, he said. He predicted the larger facility would be able to contribute even more “to help the city meet its expenses for police, fire and other needs.”
Dwayne Lane’s Family of Auto Centers is now one of the largest auto companies in the Pacific Northwest, Lane said.
The auto dealer also is working closely with the City of Arlington on the future development of Lane’s former dealership site at Island Crossing, south of Highway 530 and east of I-5, coordinating planning with other property owners in the area.
“We’re involved in the planning but with our 15 acres we’re only a small player at Island Crossing,” Lane said. “We’re not developers but we do have specific goals. We’d like to occupy our site ourselves but other properties will probably be developed first in that area.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
