A 3.4-acre Roswell property described by officials as neglected will be redeveloped into a car rental and sales business.
Roswell City Council on Monday approved rezoning the property at 10889 Alpharetta Highway and three adjacent parcels of land for Enterprise rental car company to use for car rentals and sales. Enterprise agreed to meet some conditions imposed by the city concerning the appearance of the new location.
Roswell officials have voiced concerns in the past about the number of car dealerships along Alpharetta Highway.
“...The elephant in the room with used cars — there’s a stigma to it ...” Tony Kephart, vice president of operations of Daily Rental at Enterprise Holdings, said. “And we understand that ...”
Enterprise plans to remodel an existing 24,700-square-foot building on the property and bring in vehicle rental and car sales operations. The business expects to sell up to 100 cars per month, according to Kephart.
Enterprise agreed to landscape the property and create a streetscape with trees to block the view of the cars for sale. Car sales are limited to the north side of property.
Another condition states the business location can’t be issued a business license for car sales unless the license for vehicle rentals was already granted.
An additional requirement states that trade-in vehicles for the Enterprise car sales lot must meet the same standard of other vehicles for sale.
Kephart said Enterprise only rents vehicles for six to eight months and then transfers them to car sales. The vehicles sold are up to three years old with no more than 40,000 miles, he said.
Enterprise has currently has five locations in Roswell that he said might close and be consolidated on the new property.
Councilman Matthew Tyser described Enterprise as a good business for a site that’s not ideal. The property has been empty except for the existing building since 2015 when a previous car dealer with plans for the site never set up business.
“(It’s) a good business model for what has been a difficult place to do anything else in,” Tyser said.
