Don Mealey Auto plowing $12M into new Clermont dealership

Don Mealey Auto in Clermont recently spent $3.3 million for a nine-plus-acre parcel at the new Plaza Collina development in Clermont where it plans to build a new home for its Chevrolet dealership.

Bevin Wesley, CFO for Don Mealey's Sport Automotive Group, said the company is planning to break ground in the next 15 days on the two parcels on the north side of State Road 50 just east of the Toyota of Clermont dealership.

"Our goal is to have a grand opening around July 1, [2016]" Wesley said. The total price for land and new 40,000 square-foot state-of-the-art dealership complex will be about $12 million.

"We are really excited about the Chevrolet brand and this will allow us to serve Lake County as well as West Orange," Wesley said. "We want to continue to be embedded in the community.

The Mealey family started its first Chevrolet dealership in Central Florida in the '70s on West Colonial Drive. After selling that site to Auto Nation, the family started a new dealership in Clermont in 2008, where it is leasing its site at 1413 State Road 50.

"We contemplated buying the facility," said Wesley, but that was during the recession, so the company continued leasing. About two years ago Mealey decided to build a new dealership and started planning a state-of-the-art, energy efficient and customer-friendly facility, said Wesley.

Tad Dixon of First Team Commercial has been helping manage the project that will be built by Schmid Construction.