German luxury is coming to Glendale! Developer West Valley RE, LLC recently acquired a 14-acre parcel near Loop 101 and Union Hills Drive, where they will break ground in August on a new $30M BMW dealership. The full-service dealership, which will be a top-tier facility with an Alpina designation, will open to the public in April or May of next year and will offer new and certified pre-owned BMWs, leasing, parts and service.

The prime commercial real estate was purchased by West Valley RE for a staggering $2.4 million after gaining unanimous approval in a special meeting called by the Glendale City Council. The city bought the property from PDS Realty earlier this year and had originally intended to construct a park-and-ride on the lot. However, that changed when West Valley RE contacted the economic development team in Glendale about building a BMW dealership.

West Valley RE will lease the property to Visionary Auto Group, which will manage operations of the dealership as a BMW franchisee. Before the plan was put into action, the high-end manufacturer performed extensive demographic and marketing research to make sure Glendale was a good fit for them, and this development will not only help the city’s economic group make future deals, but the dealership will open their doors with approximately 100 already-filled job positions, and they expect to add an additional 50-100 more jobs soon thereafter. 

Although plans for the park-and-ride were put on the backburner to make way for this new development, Glendale Public Works Director, Jack Friedline, stated during the special meeting that the city does plan to continue searching for other properties for constructing a park-and-ride. Presently, their focus is on the north Glendale area, and they hope to acquire something within the next six to nine months.