Santa Maria auto dealership now under construction to become first new major addition to Enos Ranch shopping center in several years
SANTA MARIA, Calif. – Construction is now happening for the first time in several years at the high profile Enos Ranch shopping center in Santa Maria.
At the corner of South Bradley Road and East Battles Street, work is underway for what will become the brand new home of Home Motors Chevrolet.
"We are really, really excited," said Mitch McNulty, Home Motors acting general manager. "We've been talking about it since 2016, so to have this going up and to have the freeway location being with all the other car dealerships and to be able to serve our community out here. We're just really excited."
The dealership, which dates back to 1955, has been located on East Main Street near Marian Regional Medical Center, for several decades.
Soon the dealership will become the latest business to relocate to the Enos Ranch shopping center, the major retail hub located along Highway 101, and in between East Betteravia Road and East Battles Road.
According to McNulty, the dealership will be about 62,000 square feet in size, while the collision center in the back will total about 13,000 square feet, for a total size of 75,000 square feet between the two buildings.
"We should be able we got more room for more inventory," said McNulty. "Definitely more bays for service and then a much larger body shop, so the capacity we have is definitely larger to serve our community. We'll definitely see an increase in everything, whether that's service sales, part sales, collision repair. We should see a good increase in everything.
Once built, the dealership will become the first new addition to the large-scale commercial development in several years, following the opening of Enos Ranch West shopping center in 2022.
Enos Ranch first opened in 2017 and since then has established itself as a major retail economic hub for Santa Maria.
"We've seen huge increase in sales tax revenue into the community," said Suzanne Singh, Santa Maria Valley Chamber Vice President of Economic Development & Government Affairs. "We've seen huge increase in choices for our residents, which is amazing, and economically, I don't think that we would be where we are as a city had this not come to fruition."
In addition to popular national busineses, such as Costco, Dick's Sporting Goods, Lowe's Home Improvement, Old Navy, Petco, Chick-fil-A, Buffalo Wild Wings, and many others, Enos Ranch has also become part of the emerging "Santa Maria Auto Mall."
Along South Bradley Road and Betteravia Road, there are several dealerships that form what has become a formidable collection of new and used automobiles.
With Home Motors on the way, Enos Ranch shoppers will soon have another selection to choose from without having to drive to its current site on East Main Street, which is located near the heart of Santa Maria's medical hub.
"Any time you have car dealerships next to each other, it creates synergy," said Singh. "It's actually good for all the car dealerships. When it's a single car dealership by itself, they don't do as well. When customers can go shop and look at different cars, chances are they're going to buy from one of the dealerships."
McNulty agreed that having different dealerships close together actually is a benefit for all of the businesses rather than a hindrance.
"It's competition and friendly competition, of course, but the ability to have customers go from store to store, and pick out what they want, you'll see more traffic," said McNulty. "You definitely see more traffic in an auto mall versus having destination stores so I think that'll be a huge benefit for all the stores, not just us."
Home Motors expects the new dealership to open in about one year in spring 2026.
