THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 29, 1995 TAG: 9503290524
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEPHANIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
Performance Buick-Pontiac Inc. will move its automobile dealership from Portsmouth to the Interstate 664 corridor in Chesapeake.
``We feel like the area is going to boom,'' said Paul Scott, the dealership's president.
In August, Performance will jump from dealership-dotted Airline Boulevard to Portsmouth Boulevard, which is largely uncharted territory for automobile dealers. A Chevrolet dealership is a few miles away, but Scott won't have any neighboring competitors.
``Somebody's got to be the first,'' he said. ``I don't know of anyone who has current plans to move out there.''
Before I-664 opened, running north to Hampton and south to the Bowers Hill section of Chesapeake, parts of Suffolk and Chesapeake were isolated from the interstate system.
But the concrete had barely dried on the highway in 1992 when crews began to break ground on nearby housing developments and stores.
``I-664 has become a hot location,'' said Donald Z. Goldberg, Chesapeake's economic development director. ``There are all kinds of new retailers there, and others are still trying to move there.''
Performance Buick-Pontiac, which sells new and used cars, has been on Portsmouth's Airline Boulevard since 1990. The dealership grew out of Mason-Haynes Corp., which began selling cars in Portsmouth about 1940. The dealership changed hands in 1975, becoming Hallmark Buick Inc. Scott purchased the dealership five years ago. ILLUSTRATION: Map
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by CNB