City Tentatively Agrees to Buy a 2nd Vacant Car Dealership

City officials soon may be the owners of another vacant auto dealership, the second owned by the city, after tentatively agreeing this week to spend up to $500,000 to buy the former site of a Toyota/Mercedes-Benz dealer who relocated to the city’s auto mall.

In a 4-1 vote Monday night, Lancaster City Council members, sitting as directors of the city’s redevelopment agency, agreed to buy Sierra Toyota/Mercedes-Benz dealer William T. Wright’s old dealership at 45134 N. Sierra Highway near Avenue I.

City officials said they gave tentative approval to the plan in part because it includes an incentive for Wright, who opened his new dealership in the city’s 45-acre auto mall last July, to also bring a lucrative Lexus dealership to the still partly vacant center.

Under the plan, which faces a final vote by the council, the city will pay off Wright’s outstanding debt on his former site up to $500,000, an amount about $100,000 over the city’s $400,000 appraisal of the property. The city would then attempt to resell the property.

If Wright fails to open a Lexus dealership in the city’s auto mall within four years of his property sale to the city, he would have to repay the city the $100,000 difference between the city’s purchase price and the property’s appraised value. And according to a city staff report, Wright also could pay any city loss if the city had to sell the site for less than $400,000.

A year ago, city officials agreed to a $2-million deal to purchase the former home of Johnson Ford at 45640 23rd St. West, paving the way for that dealer also to relocate into the city’s auto mall, located east of the Antelope Valley Freeway just south of Avenue K.

The city for months has been negotiating with the Antelope Valley Union High School District to purchase the Johnson site for possible use as an automotive vocational program for students. City officials said they had no particular plans for the Sierra Toyota site at present.