NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — If you lived in Nashville long enough, then you probably remember there was a time when car dealerships lined the streets on upper Broadway.
But as the city grows, the appeal for new hotels, restaurants and bars has taken their place.
It's been less than a week of getting settled into Beaman Toyota's new location.
"It feels great. I mean, look at this place. It’s a really nice facility and the salespeople are adapted to what we're doing here, and they really love it. I mean, it's, it's probably the nicest car dealership in the state of Tennessee," said Michael Sadler, senior sales manager.
He says this new spot is much larger and can accommodate more customers.
He knew this day was coming sooner than later.
"As the city continued to grow, and I’m sure not even tip the scales and where it's going to grow. I knew at some point it would be a better deal for us to move out of that location because of just the change."
Beaman Automotive called Broadway in Nashville home for decades, but Sadler says they were getting too big for the downtown location.
So Beaman employees cleared the old lot and traveled nine miles to South Nashville to their new home.
Sadler says they drove the cars off the lot and into their location on Harding Place.
"It was a convoy up and down 24 for about five maybe six hours."
According to its website, Brentwood-based GBT Realty has paid $110 million for the site.
The figures suggest a minimum of six buildings for the site.
Sadler is on his 20th year with the company, and he remembers a time years ago when a person needed a new car they headed downtown.
"As a matter of fact, across the street with a Whole Foods and condos are that was hippodrome Nissan at one time. It was a Nissan dealership. Across the street was a Chevrolet dealership and of course Beaman and Mitsubishi. It was a lot of different dealerships downtown, which is completely changed."
But times have changed for a city on the rise.
Across Broadway, Houston-based development company Hines plans a major redevelopment of the property home to Subaru and Hyundai dealerships.
Beaman Buick GMC is still downtown but they will be moving south on Bell Road before the end of the month.
