Wholesale property syndicate operator Primewest Management Ltd has bold plans for Perth’s sole Lexus dealership after buying the East Victoria Park business from New Town Toyota managing director, Joe Zito, for an undisclosed sum last week.
Wholesale property syndicate operator Primewest Management Ltd has bold plans for Perth’s sole Lexus dealership after buying the East Victoria Park business from New Town Toyota managing director, Joe Zito, for an undisclosed sum last week.
Primewest intends to close down the exclusive Lexus of Perth showroom in June next year before relocating it to a redeveloped site in Osborne Park, now home to a Spotlight store.
The group paid $8 million for the 8,000 square metre site in March, located near the intersection of Scarborough Beach Road and Frobisher Street, and in proximity to Alf Barbagallo Jaguar and Land Rover.
Spotlight is one of a number of properties along the Scarborough Beach Road bulky goods/retail strips of Osborne Park and Innaloo that Primewest has sought to buy in recent years.
Among these are four prominent sites east of the intersection of Scarborough Beach and Odin roads at Innaloo, occupied by Bunnings, Fitness First, NAB, Commonwealth Bank, Hungry Jacks and KFC.
Perhaps best known for its growing list of Hometown bulky goods centres around Perth and in Mandurah, the group has steadily amassed a portfolio of commercial, retail and residential land assets valued at more than $650 million.
The Lexus of Perth deal, however, represents the first foray into motoring investment for directors John Bond, Jim Litis and David Schwartz, and presents an opportunity to design a landmark showroom.
Mr Schwartz said the group had engaged Perth architect Murray Etherington of firm Cox Howlett & Bailey Woodland to design a state-of-the-art energy efficient building that would best showcase Lexus’ new line of hybrid power vehicles.
“We’ll be the first Lexus dealership in Australia with the new look, incorporating energy efficient design features reminiscent of our greener hybrid vehicles,” he said.
Hybrid cars are fuelled through a combination of petrol and electricity, and work to lower fuel consumption and carbon monoxide emissions.
Another coup for the group has been the engagement of former Diesel Motors general manager David Jeary, who has recently left the top job at Lynford Osborne Park to take up the general manager and dealer principal’s role at Lexus.
Mr Jeary has also become a director and shareholder of the group’s subsidiary, Primewest Motor Holdings Pty Ltd, along with director and professional golfer, Lyndsay Stephen.
He said he had been waiting for an opportunity to own a dealership and felt the growing motoring hub at Osborne Park would be a perfect fit for the re-launched Lexus of Perth.
“Lexus has shown great faith by allowing us to be the first to adopt the new standards in presentation,” Mr Jeary said.
“The showroom will have fantastic exposure to Scarborough Beach Road and will no doubt benefit from its location next door to the Garden Office Park precinct.”
If August’s new vehicle sales of Lexus, are anything to go by, then Primewest may be onto a winner.
The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries’ latest VFACT report shows Lexus sales in Western Australia were up 33.3 per cent in August compared with last year and, in the year to date, sales are almost double the total number of sales for all of 2005.
