Wheelin’ dealership

A showroom the size of a football field. An outdoor putting green for waiting customers. Two fireplaces, a coffee bar and 15 plasma screen TVs.

Newport Beach’s new Lexus dealership, which is estimated to have cost $75 million, feels a bit like a hotel, and after seeing it, some people might want to live there.

The dealership ? the flagship Lexus store in the world ? opens for sales today at MacArthur Boulevard and Jamboree Road. Finishing touches inside and work on the site will continue, leading up to an October grand opening.

Earlier this week, the showroom and offices were a work in progress, but a tour with co-owner A.J. D’Amato left a clear picture of what he hopes the dealership will be.

“Most of the people that will buy a car here really don’t need a new car,” D’Amato said, explaining that Lexuses don’t break ? people just want to replace them after a few years.

Since the customers don’t necessarily have to be there, D’Amato wants to treat them right, and then some.

How’s this for service? When customers come up the palm-lined driveway, they’ll hear music coming from the grand piano in the showroom. Greeters will be outside to direct them to the sales or service departments.

The showroom will feature 12 cars, including every new model of Lexus available, and most of the lot’s 1,150 parking spaces will be filled with new and ? don’t say “used” ? pre-owned cars.

D’Amato planned a quiet reading area, a place for kids to play, an arcade game room, and that putting green to cater to the desires of different customers. He also promises busy people dropping off cars for maintenance can get in and out within 10 minutes, with a loaner car if needed.

Multi-taskers can shop for Oakley and Tommy Bahama merchandise while they wait.

“What we’re trying to do is value everyone’s time,” D’Amato said.

But the focus here is also on image.

Glass-front cases built into the walls won’t hold such crude things as auto parts. Those will be tucked away elsewhere; the cases are for Lexus-brand merchandise, like putters and golf balls.

And you know how annoying it is to walk up to a reception desk, only to have to wait while the employee there answers half a dozen ringing phone lines? Not here. Phones will be answered by a bank of workers in the employees-only area of the building, and the receptionist will do nothing but help people as they come in the glass front doors.

D’Amato projects the Newport store at its peak will serve 600 people per day; Tustin Lexus sees about 150 per day. D’Amato’s business group owns 15 car dealerships, and he’s developed two for Lexus.

The posh dealership may seem like a natural fit in Newport, but the relationship was certainly nudged along by a tax-sharing agreement under which the city will split sales taxes with the dealership until Lexus has received $10 million, likely within 10 years.

When David Wilson ? Newport Lexus’ other owner ? was looking for a site to build his dealership, Newport Beach City Councilman Tod Ridgeway played up the city’s advantages over Irvine, where Wilson also was scouting around.

“Every time Dave told me that, I shuddered,” Ridgeway said. “There’s no pizazz to the name Irvine.”

Pizazz doesn’t come free, but it will put Lexus within a stone’s throw of Fletcher Jones, the powerhouse Mercedes dealer that is a few blocks away on Jamboree Road.

“If they want to go head-on-head with Mercedes ? ? [Fletcher Jones] is the largest Mercedes dealership in the world ? might as well do it right,” Ridgeway said.dpt.29-lexus-2-CPhotoInfoQU1SEV8Q20060629j1ljionc(LA)Last-minute preparations are made for today’s opening of the largest Lexus dealership in the world at MacArthur Boulevard and Jamboree Road. dpt.29-lexus-1-kt-CPhotoInfoQU1SEV5G20060629j1lj6dnc(LA)Ken Banham, left, and Rex Lynch fit a window inside the showroom of the new Lexus dealership in Newport Beach on Wednesday. dpt.29-lexus-3-BPhotoInfoQU1SF2R120060629j1ljyanc(LA)An artist’s rendering shows the new Lexus dealership’s showroom, which opens today.