Pine Island Road fast becoming dealership row
Pine Island Road is set to add another dealership to the list of available brands of vehicles you can purchase on the booming Cape Coral street.
Sutherlin Nissan is set to open a new 43,000-square-foot location on the Pine Island corridor, across from the Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership, by the end of the month/early December.
The $19 million facility will welcome new customers, as well as existing Nissan customers in the area.
“We’re offering service, sales, car washing, new cars, used cars, state-of-the-art facility, state-of-the-art service department and looking forward to taking care of our customers,” said Adriano Pucci, general manager for the new Cape Coral location.
The dealership is owned by Sutherlin Automotive Group, who has five locations in Florida, including Fort Myers.
Their lot is anticipated to hold 600 new vehicles, with another lot for a variety of used cars.
City of Cape Coral Business Recruitment/Retention Specialist for the Economic Development Office, Nita Whaley, said the addition of this dealership is a spring for more development along Pine Island Road.
“We’re very excited about this new facility,” Whaley said. “It spurs other developments in the area. It’s been a great partnership with Sutherlin.”
Whaley said growth along Pine Island Road is a positive for the city, as prospective businesses are always asking what’s coming, and that the more the city can show, the more businesses will come.
“Pine Island is the center of the city,” Whaley said. “It’s where a lot of growth is happening — good growth. We’re excited about the development it’s generating.”
The new dealership is set to hire 150 new employees from Cape Coral, another added bonus for the city, Whaley said.
Partner with Sutherlin Nissan, Michael Spinazze, said the construction of the facility went without a hitch, and that he’s excited to welcome new employees to the team.
“We expect the day we open to have 100 new hires,” he said. “We also expect, just by opening the doors, we’ll sell 300-plus cars out here. We want to mimic our store in Fort Myers. I believe we can end up hiring 150 new people — create 150 new jobs in the city of Cape Coral. The sky is the limit out here.”
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