Off Route One – Route 114 – Jimmy’s Allenhurst says Goodbye!

Route 114 dealerships to raze Allenhurst, build sprawling campus

By Ethan Forman

Article Courtesy of:  The Salem News

DANVERS — Two large dealerships on Route 114 are consolidating into one campus on the busy stretch some refer to as Danvers’ version of the “Automile.”

The moves will spell the end of the road for the familiar Jimmy’s Allenhurst banquet facility, 101 Andover St., as of April 1, said the restaurant’s general manager, John MacDonald. If plans are approved, it would be demolished to make way for the new home of Ira Lexus.

The shuffle also involves the relocation of Ira Toyota, which would move to the Lexus property at 99 Andover St.

The Zoning Board of Appeals this month granted variances that would allow the creation of an Ira Motor Group campus, putting Ira Toyota, Lexus, Subaru, Mazda and Porsche at one location.

Along with the increase in dealerships and commercial development on Route 114 has come more traffic. The number of vehicles traveling on the roadway has increased from an average of 33,300 per day in 1998 to 41,600 in 2005, the latest year available from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

Proponents of the dealership plan promise the project will smooth traffic for everyone on bustling Route 114 by shutting off three driveways at the Allenhurst property.

Instead, a new main driveway would be built to the Ira dealerships at the traffic light at Brooksby Village Drive. All cars would turn left into the campus at a light, rather than navigating middle turning lanes, said Danvers attorney Nancy McCann, who represents Group 1 Realty, the company pushing the plan.

The present driveway into the dealerships has become “undesirable for both customers of the dealership and those traveling on Route 114,” McCann said in an application to the board. She would not give a timeline or cost for the project.

Route 114 in Danvers, some residents say, has become an “Automile” of sorts, a term used by dealers on Route 1 in Norwood.

Danvers’ version is more condensed, but it also hosts dealers that have more than one dealership in one location, including Herb Chambers Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac and Hummer and Herb Chambers Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Sprinter, which is down the road from Jimmy’s Allenhurst. There are also stand-alone Michaud Mitsubishi and Kelly Infiniti dealerships.

The move of the Toyota dealership from its present location opens the possibility that the Rosenberg family, which owns the property, could return to Danvers and sell cars from the facility the family built in the mid-1990s. The family sold the dealerships in 2000 to Group 1 Automotive.

“I’d love to have a dealership back in Danvers at my old Toyota property,” said David Rosenberg, president of Westwood-based Prime Motor Group. Rosenberg said he has no concrete plans to move back to Danvers. The lease on the property runs out in December 2014.

A Marblehead resident, Rosenberg said he was well aware of Group 1’s move to create a campus on Route 114.

“I know they were under a lot of pressure by Lexus and Toyota to update their buildings,” Rosenberg said.

A representative of Group 1 could not be reached after several attempts.

End of an era at Allenhurst

Group 1 has wanted to expand its campus and move its driveway for a long time, but Jimmy’s Allenhurst stood in the way, McCann said. The company recently struck a deal with the restaurant’s owners. Terms of the deal were not supplied with the application to the zoning board.

The dealership dance will spell the end of Jimmy’s Allenhurst and Spero’s Sports Pub and Grill.

“People are pretty upset,” said MacDonald, the general manager, who has worked there for 17 years. “It’s an institution.”

The restaurant used to be called Allen & Hurst, according to Jimmy Allenhurst’s Web site.

That was until 1972 when James “Jimmy” Spero Demakes bought it and renamed it. He later expanded it to include four ballrooms and a cocktail room. The facility attracted a lot of repeat christenings, weddings and other functions, MacDonald said, which is unusual in the function business.

All five of former Peabody Mayor Peter Torigian’s daughters had weddings at Jimmy’s Allenhurst, MacDonald said. The function facility was family-run, with the owners doing the cooking, and that brought a lot of repeat business.

“That is one of the ingredients that brought people back,” MacDonald said.

Senior Planner Kate Day said she has not seen plans for the dealership shuffle, which McCann said would not be filed with the Planning Board for at least a couple of months.

Any reduction in the number of driveways along Route 114 is a good thing.

“I think there is some appeal to creating a campus-style approach,” Day said.

Staff writer Ethan Forman can be reached at 978-338-2673 or eforman@salemnews.com.

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