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Modern Classic Motors will present conceptual plans to the Southern Beaufort County Corridor Review Board on Monday to build a new home for its Mercedes-Benz line along U.S. 278 in greater Bluffton.
Modern Classic Motors shares ownership with Hilton Head Honda. The Honda dealership should open its new 23,000-square-foot dealership next month on 17 acres just north of the Island West neighborhood.
The Mercedes dealership would be built on the same parcel, said Michael Petty, general manager of the Honda dealership and acting spokesman for both dealerships.
Mercedes would be just west of where the Honda dealership is under construction and would occupy 2.5 acres of land, according to documents submitted to county planners.
The project would have one single-story building with a showroom and a service center, according to the document.
The presentation on Monday will be of conceptual ideas for the dealership. Size of the building or the number of cars that would be housed there has yet to be determined, Petty said.
Dealership officials have previously said the U.S. 278 site offers a better location, better visibility and more space than the one on the island.
If the Mercedes brand moves, it will leave just two car brands -- Chevrolet and Saab -- at Modern Classic Motors, the last new car dealership on Hilton Head.
With plenty of space left on the 17 acres, it is possible those two brand names would move to greater Bluffton, Petty said.
U.S. 278 west of Bluffton has become a popular location for car dealers. The New River Auto Mall opened in Hardeeville in 2002 and now boasts Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Infiniti, Porsche, Jaguar, Nissan, Hyundai, Mazda and Land Rover.
O.C. Welch Ford-Lincoln-Mercury consolidated its Bluffton and Beaufort locations into one large dealership across the street from the auto mall last May. Stokes Brown Toyota also opened a dealership just west of Island West that same month.
