Jack Schmitt looks to fall opening of Wood River location

Though it’s been months under construction, the official ground-breaking took place Wednesday for the new Jack Schmitt dealership at the intersection of Wesley Drive and Illinois Route 143 in Wood River.

Representatives are shown from the City of Wood River, Riverbend Enterprise Zone, General Motors, First Clover Leaf Bank, EWR Architects, Impact Strategies, Federico (Chrysler, Dodge, Ram & Jeep), Zieser Kia, Think Tank PR & Marketing, and the Jack Schmitt dealer family. Some 60 people attended.

The building will be the newest, most state of the art Chevrolet facility in the St. Louis metropolitan area, Schmitt said. It’s being relocated from its longtime, much smaller location on Vaughn Road in Wood River. The new location is part of an automotive corridor that already includes three major automotive dealerships.

The main building is 34,000 square feet and the out building is 7,500 square feet. The facility will include many environmentally friendly/green technologies and initiatives.

Construction started in October 2013 and will be completed by August o September.

There will be three electric vehicle chargers on the outside of the building for customers with electric or electric hybrid owners convenience.

The dealership will feature a fleet of new Chevrolet courtesy vehicles for customers in the service department as well as free customer shuttle service.

When completed the dealership will have nine acres to display and stock new and used vehicles.