Green and
white balloons float above Jeep Wranglers and Dodge Challengers inside
the Manhattan Jeep Chrysler Dodge Ram dealership on 11th Avenue near
West 48th Street. In an adjacent outdoor lot, red-white-and-blue
streamers flutter above used models.
Court
papers, however, tell a less cheerful story: In March the franchisees
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing a debt of more than
$22 million to their chief lender. The filing included a related Alfa
Romeo Fiat dealership a few blocks away.
The bankruptcy was the second to hit Manhattan's auto row in less than a year. A nearby Jaguar Land Rover dealership that included Maserati and Ford franchises went bust in July with debts of more than $60 million. It sold at auction in September.
The bankruptcy was the second to hit Manhattan's auto row in less than a year. A nearby Jaguar Land Rover dealership that included Maserati and Ford franchises went bust in July with debts of more than $60 million. It sold at auction in September.
Industry experts said the two bankruptcies point to the growing pressures of a changing automotive retail landscape.
On the one
hand are escalating rents in an expensive Manhattan neighborhood. On the
other is increasingly intense competition from a little known but
rapidly growing part of the industry: automotive leasing brokers, who
market themselves on the web and base their operations in modest
quarters rather than inside a sleek 11th Avenue showroom.
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Source: CRAIN'S New York Business (via Empire Report New York)
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