Thursday morning at 10 am J.C. Lewis Ford will officially break ground on the future location of their Statesboro dealership. It will be located at Highway 301 South and the bypass directly across from Uncle Shug’s Chicken Barn, Parkers and Subway. Land clearing and site preparation began several weeks ago.
The new J.C. Lewis Ford will be a huge improvement over their current dealership on Highway 301 South. Their goal is to have construction completed by year end and to open the new facility in early 2019.
“This new facility will allow us to meet the new updates and requirements set forth by Ford in addition to giving us a state of the art facility which will allow us to create an even better customer service experience,” said Walter Lewis, J.C. Lewis Ford president. “The expansion will also allow us to increase the capacity of our service department and will create opportunities to add additional team members in Statesboro.”
The construction site includes 14.51 acres of land, which includes mainly undeveloped land and two houses on the west end of the property. In 2016, the city council approved a variance for the entire tract rezoning it from Commercial Retail to Highway Oriented Commercial that cleared the way for this development.
The dealership will be located on the east corner of the property at the corner of the bypass and Highway 301 South. The remaining land will be reserved for future development.
When J.C. Lewis purchased Rozier Ford from Frank Rozier nearly five years ago, the structure of the deal included purchase of the business only, not the real estate. They entered into a five-year lease with Rozier with plans to construct a new facility in the future.
Rozier Ford was a 45-year-old company when acquired by J.C. Lewis. J.C. Lewis, based out of Savannah, was established in 1912 when Walter’s grandfather, Julius Curtis Lewis Sr., purchased the Ford dealership in Savannah. That was nine years after Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Company and four years after the Model T was introduced.
After acquiring the dealership, J.C. Lewis management quickly increased the staff size and nearly doubled the inventory with more than 300 new and used vehicles in stock. The additions made a big difference in the continued growth and success of the dealership Another advantage leveraged through J.C. Lewis’ increased buying power is them having more high demand vehicles at the Statesboro location like Explorers, Fusions, Escapes and, of course, F-150 trucks in stock.
J.C. Lewis has been a wonderful addition to the Statesboro community. Not only have they continued to grow the dealership and create a great environment for their employees, but they have also become strong supporters of our community in many other ways including giving back. Through their foundation, they have supported a host of community projects continuing a legacy of service and giving that the J.C. Lewis family is so well known for in the Savannah community.
The current location of J.C. Lewis Ford, which includes nearly 8 acres of land and buildings, will be available for lease or sale after the move is complete. Sam Dipolito, with Berkshire Hathaway Kennedy Realty, is representing the Rozier family in the lease or the sale of the current dealership property.