Former Melrose Dodge Lot Sold for $2.15M

The former Melrose Dodge dealership at 732 Broadway was sold in June for $2.15 million on the eve before the lot was scheduled to go up for auction.

D&R Paving of Stoneham bought the dealership on the thin slice of land on Route 99 that's within Melrose's borders, according to Chris McInnis, vice president of auction firm Paul McInnis, Inc., based out of North Hampton, NH, which had been retained to conduct the auction on June 10.

Robert Rotond, owner of D&R Paving, said that he expected to completely move his business' operations to the former car dealership within two to three months. 

"It won't be that bad a move," Rotondi said. "It depends on how things go. We have to make sure everything's proper and permitted. We're in the process of doing that."

Appraisals conducted in January this year valued the Melrose Dodge lot at $2.45 million, according to Paul McInnis, Inc. The almost 5-acre property also includes the 22,755 square-foot dealership building.

Melrose Dodge closed in June 2009 after 18 years in business, the result of Chrysler LLC's bankruptcy plan to end franchise agreements with dealerships around the country. Chrysler filed its plan in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in May 2009 and, despite appeals by Melrose Dodge and some of the other 788 dealerships marked to lose their franchise agreements in the plan, a judge approved the plan a month later.

The dealership closed almost immediately and Melrose Dodge's 21 employees were reassigned to North Shore Pontiac-Buick-GMC, an adjacent dealership in Malden also owned by Melrose Dodge's parent company, New Hampshire-based Key Auto Group. North Shore Pontiac-Buick-GMC also ultimately closed last year.

The North Shore Buick-Pontiac-GMC lot, which was also sold the day before it was scheduled to go up for auction on June 10, was appraised at $4 million and, like the Melrose Dodge lot, the 4.2 acre lot includes a 38,616 square foot building, as well as 40 service bays in the garage.

McInnis said that former dealership was under agreement, but the buyers had not closed on the property yet and he could not provide additional information.