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Five Things To Remember When Planning A Car Showroom
Five Things To Remember When Planning A Car Showroom
It's little wonder new car showrooms can be lavish enterprises, with double-height glazing, blazing
lights and costly stone floors. And that’s before you even get into the realms of internet cafes and
branded clothing!
In an increasingly segmented market, your dealership needs to cater for a range of clients and their
needs. Here's how.
At prestige marque dealerships, customers may expect access to refreshments, and wireless or internet
connections in coffee bars or lounges.
These considerations will affect environmental control strategies, since not all buildings can be oriented
to mitigate solar gain, and heavily tinted solar control glass is not generally considered for the main
facade.
The current trend is for a double-height display area with the main frontage in full-height glazing. This
makes a design statement and provides high visibility for new vehicles.
The building services standard is also high. Comfort cooling in customer areas is required to control
solar gains in highly glazed areas. Showroom lighting – which reinforces brand identity, displays cars in
the best light and creates the right mood – is a useful sales tool.
For most new car dealerships, sustainability is not a major business driver, yet delivering buildings that
meet manufacturers’ design codes can be a challenge. The good news is that sustainable buildings are
becoming more common, and developers are starting to see that sustainable properties may benefit
from lower energy costs throughout the life of the building, creating lower overheads.
Measures taken to mitigate loads, energy use and carbon emissions include:
Using extended eaves, brise-soleil and canopies to reduce solar gain, particularly on the main façade
Using rooflights or skylights to provide basic levels of illumination without adding to cooling loads
Installing enhanced insulation for solid cladding and roofs
Lighting control, i.e. motion detecting lighting options for private areas such as bathrooms and office
areas so that when they are not in use, energy is not being consumed unnecessarily
Offsetting relatively high carbon emissions in a mechanically cooled showroom across the total floor 2
area of the facility, which includes areas such as workshops with lower loads
Choosing double glazed glass insulated bespoke tilt-up doors, bi-fold doors, or compact sectional
doors which allow in maximum light (thus using less electricity).
These doors work together with the building aesthetics while being a useful asset for the entry and exit
of vehicles. Thermal sectional doors also help conserve air conditioning and insulate against outside
elements.
Your OEM's CI requirements have led to a
trend for standardised fixtures, fittings and
equipment specified to meet “corporate
identity standards” that turn showrooms
into bespoke retail boxes. The choice of
materials, such as timber flooring in lieu of
tiling, is another way for manufacturers to
reinforce their visual image.
Discreet physical security measures such as forecourt bollards, guard railings and perimeter fencing are
also necessary to prevent unauthorised vehicle entry and exit; yet they must not interfere with
aesthetics and customer views of vehicles on display.
Design and build offers clients, who are not professional developers, the opportunity to use a
manufacturer’s pre-determined corporate specifications and finishes (such as access door providers),
while transferring design, commercial and construction risk to the contractor, obtaining cost certainty
with a consistent quality finish.
For this, the client needs to use amended contracts that place responsibility for both the employer's
requirements and contractor’s proposals with the contractor.
Development of car showrooms can be undertaken by a number of parties. The options available are
generally either freehold or sale and leaseback:
Freehold: the financing of the showroom is undertaken by the dealership, which then keeps it as an
investment. This is the traditional approach.
Sale and leaseback: the dealership develops and then sells the showroom and associated assets to a
financial institution, leasing it back for a specified period of time. This enables the dealership to
release the capital tied up in the development and concentrate on motor retailing, rather than on its 2
property portfolio.
The manufacturer: The opportunity to develop is sometimes determined by the manufacturer. Some
will support their dealerships by providing information regarding preferred sites, and give potential
sales expectations for the area. In some cases, manufacturers prefer to act as their own developer,
acquiring and developing a site and then either renting it to the dealership or selling it into the
investment market.
The dealership tends to locate the franchises in either co-located or adjacent showrooms. This means
the shell construction must be adaptable to the different specifications demanded by the
manufacturers.
As a result, the size of some dealerships has increased up to a floor area of 3,000m2. A facility of this size
will accommodate multiple franchises and extensive workshops, tyre bays, and so on.
An alternative approach is the use of boutique sites: small units positioned in city-centre retail sites or
leisure developments. Matching the location, the customer profile, and the correct marque of car are
vital for success, off-setting high rental levels and development costs against the opportunity to target
specific clients.
These developments sometimes exploit the concept of coffee bars and branded clothing ranges found
on larger sites.
5) Planning permission
considerations
It can be difficult to obtain planning permission
for car dealerships. The main concerns when
applying for planning are:
When considering access doors in car showrooms, architects often struggle finding a product which 2
serves its purpose, but contributes and fits in with their overall design and the aesthetics of the build.
As mentioned above, it is crucial that the customer has unobstructed views of the vehicles on display.
From the dealership's point of view, it requires doors which allow easy access for new vehicles coming
in and purchased vehicles going out, as well as vehicles coming in for servicing.
Not only that, but with larger car showrooms that contain a workshop for
servicing, you may find that a standard roller shutter door just doesn’t cut it.
Why?
Firstly your potential customers view is restricted, and secondly it’s important to remember the comfort
of the mechanics working within your workshop. Compact sectional doors can contribute to a much
more comfortable environment.
A big factor winning over architects is also the fact that the compact sectional door is exactly that:
‘compact’. The panels stack up neatly into a compact space above the doorway, and no intrusive
overhead support rail are required. It also doesn't impact on ceiling space like an overhead door. And
importantly, the compact door increases operational speeds.
For more information about how we can help you design a superior showroom, get in touch with
the expert Remax team online or call us on 1800 010 221.
@Remax PTY LTD 2023. All images ©Remax PTY LTD 2023 unless stated otherwise
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