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Business is so brisk at American Classic Car Sales in Sarasota, the company now has one employee who only installs air conditioning in old cars.
That job is important, says American Classic co-owner Larry Gilliland, because the specialty dealership sells many old cars that either never had AC or the system it did have died years ago. That employee is busy, too, given the sales bump at American Classic. Sales are up at least 15% in 2014 over 2013, when it had $4.2 million in revenues. “We see our business continuing to grow,” says Gilliland.
The growth at American Classic is part of a classic-car boom in the Sarasota-Bradenton market. Two other firms, Manatee County-based Classic Cars of Sarasota and Ideal Classic Cars, in Venice, have also posted all-time highs in annual sales. More growth, in sales and space, is projected for the rest of 2014.
“We are killing it,” says Ideal Classic owner Michael Lombardo. “We are exceeding and surpassing our goals.”
All three companies sell cars to clients worldwide, something of an economic indicator: Baby-boomers, it appears, are spending disposable income again and they want cars that remind them of their youth.
The business model is relatively the same at each dealership. The firms track down classic cars from a variety of sources, buy the vehicles, fix them up if necessary and flip them for a profit. Names like Mustang and Corvette are especially big sellers.
Ideal Classic, also a classic car museum with free admission to the public, set sales records in July and August, says Lombardo, and is on pace to double revenues in 2014 over 2013. The sales increase has been so overwhelming Lombardo is considering building a second facility on land next to Ideal Classic's 27,000-square-foot showroom on U.S. 41 in Venice. That second building would be around 25,000 square feet. “We are trying to see how far we can take this before there is a cap and market saturation,” says Lombardo, who declines to release specific sales figures.
Chris Zlamal, general manager of Classic Cars of Sarasota, has a similar explosive growth story. He says annual sales at his dealership surpassed $4 million in 2013 and could grow at least 50% this year. The company, he says, sells about 40 cars a month, mostly to men 45-65 years old who are empty nesters and have paid off their house.
Classic Cars of Sarasota is run out of a 28,000-square-foot showroom in the SRQ Tech Park, a 233,000-square-foot industrial park in Manatee County near the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport. Zlamal moved Classic Cars into the space in February, and he says he will likely lease an additional 20,000 square feet later this year. Zlamal and American Classic co-owner Doug Page were business partners together in Classic Cars of Sarasota but no longer work together.
American Classic's facility, a 24,000-square-foot showroom on Cattlemen Road it moved into in early 2013, has also been a boost for sales. The company paid $525,000 for the property in December 2012, according to Sarasota County property records. The building, which sat empty for five years, was once a box factory and a restaurant cleaning supply business. Now it can hold at least 70 cars. “It was too big for some people,” Gilliland says, “but it was perfect for classic cars.”
Follow Mark Gordon on Twitter @markigordon
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