As hundreds of dealers wind down their businesses, a few others are opening their first Cadillac stores.
Bram Auto Group opened Cadillac of Manhattan in a temporary facility last week and planned to start preselling vehicles that were in transit, co-President John Iacono said. Iacono expects Cadillac of Manhattan to sell 700 to 1,000 vehicles annually. Bram Auto Group has 17 stores representing 10 brands in New York and New Jersey.
Cadillac of Manhattan fills the void left when, after nearly five decades, Potamkin Automotive Group closed the brand’s only New York City store in April 2020. Cadillac was headquartered in Manhattan from 2015 to 2018.
Cadillac has recently entered new luxury markets and reestablished itself in key areas that it had ceded to rivals, including Beverly Hills, Calif., where it hadn’t been since the 1980s. Some established Cadillac dealers have acquired stores while others are getting involved with the brand for the first time.
“Manhattan is pivotal and a great opportunity,” Harvey said. “It’s somewhere we want to be represented. It’s somewhere that we believe is a significant business opportunity, and it’s somewhere if you are going to be a global luxury brand, we believe that you need to have effective representation.”
Bram is developing a mixed-use building to house the Cadillac store, located a block from its Toyota-Lexus showroom. The dealership will be on the ground floor, with residential units above. The building is slated for completion in the second half of 2022, Iacono said.
Manhattan customers are “very well-heeled, high-income earners,” Iacono said. “And it seems to be that an EV is on their shopping list.”
