Gilroy’s auto dealerships are getting a new street name and improved signage on U.S. 101 as the City goes into overdrive to attract big-spending car buyers. Chestnut Street from 10th Street to Luchessa Avenue will be renamed Auto Mall Parkway in the coming months, and in a coup for Gilroy, Caltrans will also put in “Auto Mall Parkway” signs on the highway at no cost to local taxpayers.
“We’re ecstatic that the City came up with the idea,” said Leonard Harrington, owner of South County Nissan-Hyundai located on Stutz Way. “It shows that the City is really interested in business.”
For every car sold in Gilroy, the City receives roughly 1 percent of the 8.75 percent County sales tax. The sale of one $35,000 vehicle, for example, lines the City’s pockets to the tune of $350.
In the first quarter of 2013, Gilroy’s dealerships – Gilroy Toyota, South County Nissan Hyundai, South County Chrysler and Gilroy Chevrolet Cadillac – sold a total of 277 new cars and 123 used vehicles. With new car sales theoretically bringing in $96,950 – based on a $35,000 price tag – in sales tax revenue in the first quarter to the City, the power of the economic dynamo that the City and Mayor Don Gage are trying to harness is crystal clear.
“There will be signs for miles in advance of the 10th Street exit, north and south,” Gage said.
Local auto dealers have been focused on getting noticed since the ’70s, when the “Drive a Little and Save a Lot in Gilroy” advertisements began attracting buyers to the Garlic Capital.
Later, when dealers began to relocate out of Gilroy – from 2009 to 2010 Honda, Ford, GMC and Volkswagen shuttered their operations – the remaining dealerships formed a loose cooperative, built a website and planned a path to prosperity.
Still, the nagging question of how to bring more people in from the highway remained.
That concern was aired in a meeting with the City six weeks ago, when City Administrator Tom Haglund suggested that Gage and Caltrans address the issue together.
Many customers who visit the city’s dealerships aren’t even aware they are in Gilroy, explained Gage. The new U.S. 101 signs will take care of that, he said.
Tammy Brownlow, president of Gilroy’s Economic Development Corporation expects the highway signs will make a difference to Gilroy’s economic road map.
“It’s going to help differentiate from regular street signage and direct everyone to one place,” she observed.
The overall hope is that car shoppers diffuse into the city, visit Gilroy’s downtown, local restaurants, wineries and Premium Outlets and spread some of the wealth around.
Increasing Gilroy’s auto sales tax revenue, however, remains at the core of Gage’s rebranding mission.
The mayor concedes that there may be some initial grumbling about the street name change, but remains confident: businesses on that three-quarter mile stretch of Chestnut Street will see the benefit in the switch after the City has reached out to them.
“The signs will bring in more money,” Gage said.
