Business

Boyd moving to Spartanburg Highway

Cam Boyd and son Les Boyd say the move will be positive for the dealership.

By Bill Moss, Published: September 8, 2012

The Boyd family has been selling cars at Five Points in Hendersonville for 80 years. In a year they will be moving to a new location that gives them more room and puts sales and service under one roof while helping Hendersonville High School expand.

"It's exciting. The whole thing is exciting," said L.C. "Cam" Boyd Jr., who in recent years has transitioned operating duties to his son, L.C. "Les" Boyd III.
A 10-acre tract of land on Spartanburg Highway will be the new home of Boyd Chevrolet.The Boyd dealership will move to a 10-acre parcel of land on Spartanburg Highway that is now home to a Citgo station, car wash and Laundromat, a trailer park and the old Caboose restaurant. See sidebar: http://www.hendersonvillelightning.com/business/730-development-displaces-spartan-heights-families.html Once the land is cleared, contractor Cooper Construction Co. will begin work on a new 26,000-square-foot building that will put the showroom, parts and service and new and used car sales under one roof.
Gone will be the days of crossing five lanes of Asheville Highway to reach the used car lot. The Boyd move will help turn Spartanburg Highway into the town's motor mile; it joins Hunter Nissan, which is also building a new showroom, and Bryan Easler Toyota on the commercial stretch west of Upward Road.
"The biggest thing for us is we've been landlocked here for a long time," said Les Boyd, who is now president of the dealership. "Once we brought on Chevrolet we needed more space."
The Boyds wanted to make sure that the $6 million investment in land and building benefited other local businesses.
"Our biggest goal was to do as much as possible with local people," Les said. "We did choose Cooper as our contractor. Our intention is to partner with G.E. for all our outdoor lighting."
GE has retooled its East Flat Rock plant to make the new energy-efficient and brighter LED streetlights, which the company sells worldwide.
"Their approach to us was to almost become their showroom" just down the road from the plant, Cam Boyd said. "It'll help both of us."
The Boyds hope to be in the new facility by the fall of 2013. By then the new four-lane Upward Road should be done, and Spartanburg Highway is expected to become a more widely traveled entrance to Hendersonville.
"We see a lot of growth already on Spartanburg Highway and we see that continuing as a growth corridor," Les Boyd said.
The Boyds sold the dealership property (though not the used car lot across the road) to the school system for $2.75 million.
"I gave them a $600,000 donation when we sold the property," Cam Boyd said. "They had an appraisal and I had an appraisal and rather than argue about it I said I'll sell it to you for my appraisal and donate the difference."
The sale gave the Boyds the option of setting the closing date. Cam Boyd has asked the Board of Commissioners to go ahead and make the purchase, and lease the property back to him for 18 months.
"It helps us and I think it would help them to go ahead and take control of the property," he said.
Started in 1932 as a Pontiac dealership, the company added Cadillac in 1948, Buick in 1960 and Chevrolet two years ago.
"We're excited to be moving into a new clean space," Cam Boyd said. "We've been in this spot for 30 years."