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By Jorge Casuso
April 20 -- There aren’t many car dealerships
with showrooms that feature hand-carved chess sets or a fireplace
or tapestries hanging from the walls.
But then, there aren’t many car dealerships like Lexus
Santa Monica, which held a grand opening celebration for its
newly refurbished building Thursday night that drew some 1,300
guests to what is arguably the largest showroom in the Los
Angeles area.
After a year-long renovation, the 1928 building resembles
a Spanish mission with towering ceilings laced with trusses,
the latest model luxury cars taking a back seat, at least
for one crowded night, to their surroundings.
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| The new Lexus lobby
features a decorated ceiling and mission-style chandeliers.
(Photos by Jorge Casuso) |
“We just went back and resurrected everything,”
said owner Mike Sullivan, who photographed Union Station and
the Roosevelt Hotel as models for the look he wanted the renovated
building to evoke.
“We’re getting offers for weddings and proms,”
he added.
Those who stood under the lobby’s decorated ceiling
or wandered the 26,000-square-foot structure hung with custom
built mission-style chandeliers dreamed up events of their
own.
“How about Salsa dancing in the Lexus,” one woman
suggested. “Or cooking classes.”
“We’ve had a request for a ladies’ golf
luncheon,” said Steven McClintock, head of advertising
for LA Car Guy, Sullivan’s collection of six dealerships.
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| Dorraine Gilbert Weiss
and Barry Weiss turn showroom floor into dance floor. |
By renovating the Lexus dealership in Santa Monica, Sullivan
cast a vote of confidence for a town he considered leaving
four years ago when his expansion plans were frustrated by
what he deemed a slow-moving City bureaucracy and a “capricious”
Planning Commission.
The political scene has improved and the auto business --
the City’s prime economic engine -- is on the fast track,
he said.
“The economic model is phenomenal, the market is great
and the political climate is functional,” Sullivan said.
Former Mayor Michael Feinstein, who helped push for new auto
dealer standards while on the council, said the City’s
efforts to accommodate the needs of its auto dealers have
paid off.
“We sent a signal to people like Mike Sullivan that
we wanted him here, and now he is still with us to this day,”
said Feinstein, who sought advice from Sullivan and his Volkswagen
delership when renovating his vintage van.
“I am thrilled that a young-thinking, hip, yet down-to-earth
person with business acumen has kept his existing dealerships
in Santa Monica -- and continues to invest in new ones here
-- when neighboring cities were courting him hard,”
Feinstein said.
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| Lexus party in full
swing. |
Turning the old dealership -- with its service bays, closed
framing and exposed roof -- into a spacious upscale showroom
was no easy task, said Don Wheeler, the architect responsible
for the renovation.
“We rebuilt this building, other than a few walls,”
he said.
The massive doors were fashioned in New Mexico of salvaged
wood, the trusses were beefed up and every window casement
was replaced with wood, said Wheeler, who works for RTK Architects.
The ambitious renovation even turned up a few surprises --
like the bathroom buried between walls that seemed to throw
the drawings off. It was only discovered when someone poked
a hole.
Inside the bathroom was a 40-year-old Valley paper with a
front-page headline of the Sharon Tate murder and a coffee
mug Wheeler kept.
“After all the time we spent on it, it feels great
to stand here and say, ‘Alright,’” Wheeler
said.
Then he looked at the crowd eating fancy hors d’oeuvres
and swaying to the jazz band playing a Billy Holiday tune.
“And it’s a good place for a party,” he
said.
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