Grand Touring Automobiles breaks ground on dealership
Grand Touring Automobiles broke ground this week on the construction of a new 141,000-square-foot (13,099-square-metre) multi-storey retail and service facility on Dundas St. East, just east of the Don Valley Parkway.
The area is becoming a magnet for high-end automobile dealerships.
The new facility will be more than five times bigger than the current 24,000-square-foot location on Dupont St., which will continue to operate until the new facility is ready in the spring of 2017.
The new Grand Touring site will be the largest luxury automobile dealership in Canada, able to showcase more than 50 new and pre-owned vehicles indoors.
In addition to Jaguar and Land Ro- ver, Grand Touring is the exclusive Ontario dealer for Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Bentley and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
The company is also the exclusive Bugatti dealer for Eastern Canada.
The new Grand Touring dealership will be just steps away from the Mercedes-Benz and Lexus downtown showrooms — both are also located on Dundas St. E. — and a kilometre away from BMW Toronto, which is near where the DVP and Eastern Ave. intersect.
In the works for three years, the Grand Touring facility — which will have five floors and rooftop parking — will be a design and engineering showcase.
It is engineered with one side cantilevered over the flood plain closest to the DVP, offering a highly functional and inspired design from Plaston Ar- chitects and Weis & Associates.
There will be three separate showrooms, 39 service bays and ample space for customer parking. The new facility will have more than 100 employees when it is fully operational in 2017. According to Paul Cummings, Grand Touring Dealer principal and CEO: “Toronto is now the No. 5 marketplace for luxury goods being consumed in North America.
“What you are going to see in the next five years from the brands that we represent is a story amongst itself. It’s incredible the investment they are making and the depth of product that we are going to be able to offer.” Michael Taylor is an occasional contributor to Toronto Star Wheels. To reach him, email wheels@thestar.ca and put his name in the subject line.