COLONIE — A plan to demolish a long vacant hotel on Troy-Schenectady Road and build two luxury auto dealerships was introduced to the Planning Board at its last meeting.
A year ago, the New Country Motor Car Group introduced a sketch plan for a Porsche dealership at the nearly 11-acre home of the former Cocca’s Hotel and Suites The latest iteration would add a Lexus dealership to the mix and a three-story parking garage to stockpile inventory and for employee parking.
The 33,761-square-foot, two story Lexus dealership would be built on the west side of the site while the 27,365-square-foot, two-story Porsche dealership would be built on the east side. Both would sell new and used cars and offer a full range of maintenance and repair services.
The parking garage would be built behind the Lexus dealership along the northern edge of the property. It would be about 76,500-square-foot and stand about 32 feet tall and have capacity to hold 269 vehicles. It would not be visible from Route 7, though, because it would be shielded behind the Lexus building which would stand eight foot higher.
There would also be 156 ground parking spaces outside of the parking garage.
The plan was presented by attorney Victor Caponera, who represents New Country, and Dan Tompkins, of Environmental Design Partnership.
Cocca’s closed in 2015 and sold the land to New Country, a Saratoga-based car dealership with outlets across New York as well as lots in Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Florida. Dealerships specialize in Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Lexus, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, MINI, Porsche, Toyota and Sprinter vehicles as well as Certified, one-owner and pre-owned vehicles of nearly every make.
The nearest Porsche dealership is on Route 146 in Mechanicville. It is one of two in New York state with the second being outside Syracuse. New Country currently has a Lexus dealership on Route 9, just a few miles from the proposed dealership on Route 7.
In 2019, New Country gave the Verdoy Fire Department, located right across Troy Schenectady Road from the rotting motel, permission to use the structure as a training facility. The town’s 12 departments took advantage, and used to building to simulate real life fire situations such as roof cuts and breaching walls.
