Car Dealer Calls Dome Home for Now After Fire

The Mike Wallace Ford dealership in Oxnard will operate out of an aluminum-framed vinyl structure for the next 10 months before its planned move to the Oxnard Auto Center.

The temporary, tent-like building of about 9,000 square feet replaces a collection of trailers and make-shift offices at the neighboring Nissan and truck dealerships that Wallace also owns on North Oxnard Boulevard, where 40 Ford sales people and managers have operated since a November fire.

The blaze gutted the Ford showroom and destroyed about a dozen cars. Authorities suspect an arsonist used flammable liquids to light the fire, which caused $2.5 million worth of damage and required dozens of firefighters from five departments to extinguish.

The structure’s exterior will be completed today, and the interior in a week to 10 days, Wallace said.

“It will be just like a normal showroom except instead of brick and mortar, it will be a high-ceiling temporary structure,” he said. “We’ve been very inefficient trying to spread all over the place, and I’m sure the customers haven’t appreciated it too much, though our sales have been very good.”

Sales are up 20% over last year at this time, he said.

Wallace’s Ford dealership will move to an eight-acre site next year at the auto center on Ventura Boulevard, and the Nissan dealership will relocate to an adjacent five-acre parcel.