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You seem to have some knowledge of this. Can you see Bernie Moreno possibly building a downtown showroom in that space for his Collection Auto Group just as a showroom w/o the tower? Bringing all of his brands including Ferrari under one roof, or is it his intention to ultimately have a stand alone Ferrari dealership. Any thoughts? ----------------------------------- I kind of doubt an all under one roof concept. Under today's North America rules, Ferrari's preference is to be a stand alone dealership. They will however allow shared floor space with a Maserati franchise (both under FCA umbrella), but with reasonably clear divisions in the floor plans so the two makes aren't closely parked next to each other. It will be all Ferrari or Ferrari/Maserati combo and nothing else. There has been all under one roof concepts before, but Ferrari has put a stop to it. One that comes to mind is Midwestern Auto Group in Columbus, they had Ferrari, Aston Martin, and Bentley all squeezed into one building and Ferrari forced the dealer principle to move Ferrari to separate themselves. Bernie's space in N. Olmsted is to the max, he has been expanding onto Brookpark Rd. of late and with more land available I could see one of his franchises moving to another new building on Brookpark to lean out the pile up in N. Olmsted, but I highly doubt it will be Ferrari, there is no way in hell they'll approve putting a Ferrari dealership near strip joints and adult bookstores. So the the downtown location is still the preferred Ferrari dealer location. As far as building the dealership without the office/condo building, I'll have to get back to you. I was told the Ferrari liked the "forward statement" the project made, in other words, this dealership would be a game changer, not just for Ferrari, but for all exotic car dealerships. Most Ferrari North America dealerships, with the exception Wynn hotel franchise in Vegas are just boxes, some are in nicer areas than others, some are 2 levels with a lot of glass (like Ferrari Long Island), but I'm not sure if any are real game changers, this is one big reason why this project is still alive. Of course Bernie's reputation, sales #'s and customer service ratings don't hurt either. If I find anything more, I'll leave a post.

I've been digging around and just want to add that this concept is certainly not dead. Will it end up as originally planned, I'm not sure, but don't believe as said in the original cleveland.com article that Ferrari wasn't interested. I'm hearing quite the opposite, they were very impressed. There is a bit of turnover and upheaval at the top of Ferrari at the moment and in that transition this proposal was not seen as necessary by Ferrari leadership, however with the new guard moving in (Sergio Marchionne) Ferrari is looking to up production by 3000 cars worldwide in the near future. As that new business plan takes shape, expansion (a few more dealerships) in inevitable. Bottom line, don't be surprised if this story pops up again in 2015.

Glad you guys felt me feedback was a worthwhile read. I apologize for all the grammatical errors. I do want to make a correction. Bernie's dealerships are on pace for $600 million this year, not $800 million, that number is the projection for 2015, factoring growth of existing and additional dealerships opening. Also, the head of Ferrari North America is currently in limbo. Marco Mattiacci, the most recent head of FNA, was given the task to run Ferrari's Formula 1 racing team and I'm not sure how much power interim president has to approve such a dealership project. One other important factor is the power of Chrysler/Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne. As I mentioned in my earlier post, Fiat owns Ferrari, and while Bernie has a terrific reputation, especially at the USA corporate headquarters of Mercedes Benz, Bernie currently has no dealerships under the Chrysler/Fiat umbrella so that's another strike against Bernie. There are rumors amongst Ferrari circles that it was Sergio Marchionne that moved Marco Mattiacci to run the Formula 1 team so his power cannot be underestimated. All of this is "inside baseball", but is a part of the many branches that have to be considered. Another poster brought up if any dealer contracts may be up soon, I honestly don't know. As far as Bernie's choice for location, personally I like the urban environment over a suburb. That being said, poor road conditions and low sports cars don't mix and for that reason many owners avoid driving downtown, those that do are showoffs or are doing so at their own risk. While this concept may be shelved for now, this will not stop Bernie. He will push and push to the ends of the earth to own the "crown jewel" whether it's in this concept form or traditional dealership form.

Hello, I've been a lurker for a few years and love this site. Since I'm a huge Ferrari fan with a history of exotic cars in my family (including Ferrari) I'm a little in tune with Ferrari North America and their dealings. Not sure if the insight I can provide will give you a better picture, but here are my thoughts in no particular order on the likelihood of this happening. First let me say the Ferrari community is very strong in Ohio and Cleveland in particular. You might not see many on the road here compared to FL and CA, but believe there are a significant amount of Ferraris in this town and frankly quite a collection of older rare models in private hands valued each at well over million dollars a piece. Unlike the flashy show off owners in FL and CA, the owners here are much more private about it. One question some may have is can a relatively small market like Cleveland supports Ferrari new car sales every year, the answer without a doubt is yes. While Bernie Moreno is very successful here in Ohio and has a strong history in Boston, he comes from a very well connected family internationally and this is a key factor in potentially landing a franchise. His father was one of the most famous doctors in Columbia and his brother is a big time global player in Latin America banking, Luis Alberto Moreno. I don't know if his brother's tentacles reach to Maranello, Italy, but he'll need it. To give you a better idea on how important connections are when it comes to Ferrari, consider just three names of Ferrari franchise owners that own multiple Ferrari dealerships: Roger Penske (you all know the name, racing pedigree, and his power in the auto industry), Giacomo Mattioli another multiple Ferrari dealer in CA, currently owns 3 Ferrari dealerships, he used to married to one of Enzo Ferrari's grand daughters and Lawrence Stroll owns a dealership in Montreal, a billionaire, very important global Ferrari car collector, and race track owner most famously known in the business world for creating the success of brands Tommy Hilfiger and Michael Kors. I bring these guys up because this is just a sample of the inner circle at Ferrari, it's a big boys game and who you know is very important. Where does Bernie Moreno fall in that group, at least money wise, last I heard his sales/service projections for 2014 were $800 million dollars. However, more than any other car company I've dealt with, there is a strong sense of family within Ferrari that I don't see with other makes. Everyone seems to know everybody in this small global family and it would be nice to think that you just throw money at Ferrari North America and you can buy a dealership franchise but it's not that easy. Quite frankly it's near impossible to build a new territory Ferrari dealership in the USA, one of the more recent new Ferrari dealers to be built was in Las Vegas in 2005. There never was a Ferrari franchise in Nevada's history so it took people "in the know" to make it happen. Steve Wynn, creator of the Wynn hotel in Vegas called his buddy Gianni Agnelli during the hotel/casinos design phase. Gianni Agnelli being the head of Fiat (which owns Ferrari) and probably the most powerful and wealthiest men in Italy's history decided putting a Ferrari dealer in Wynn's hotel in Vegas was a good idea, so since Wynn is not a car dealer Agnelli suggested partnering with Roger Penske. Not exactly your average car guys making a deal. The "easier" route is buying an existing Ferrari franchise when it's owner finally decides to sell their dealership (rarely happens) and new owners come in once approved by Ferrari North America, the $$$$ deal is done. How much money, last I heard and this was ten years ago was the franchise fee alone was $15 million, add the land and building cost per Ferrari North America requirements and that adds another $10-15 million plus count on inventory of easily $8-10 million. All of this money to sell 25 cars a year. Ferrari North America controls allocation and the multiple dealers in FL, CA and Vegas get the bulk of Ferraris that come to North America every year. Some smaller dealerships, like MAG in Dublin, OH get the lower end of the stick allocation wise (25 cars/yr). Owning a Ferrari dealership for Bernie is fulfilling a dream for him and just the cherry on the cake from the 20 plus dealerships he has already. You would think owning a Ferrari dealership makes you a ton of money, it doesn't. Service is a big driver of profits like any dealership make, but you're not going to get super wealthy from a Ferrari dealer, it's just a toy for those that make the real money in other business they may have. I can see how Bernie is trying to "WOW" Ferrari North America with this dealership/condo/office concept, but here are some of the hurdles he faces. #1-this potential new Cleveland based dealerlership is too close to existing dealerships, you have Cauley Ferrari in West Bloomfield, MI and you have Midwestern Auto Group in Dublin, Ohio, now you might think having two other Ferrari dealers two hours a part is no big deal, believe me it is. There are fairly strict rules on if a dealership can sell you a car based on your home location. Now because Cauley and Midwestern Auto Group are fairly equal distance wise, Clevelanders can buy from either one, but if Bernie gets a franchise he's going to cut into those guys sales given how few dealers there are, not to mention whatever dealer territory agreements these dealers had with Ferrari North America at time of signing franchise agreements, in other words, those other 2 dealers won't be happy. Could Ferrari pull a franchise from one of those two and give it to Bernie, maybe, if so Midwestern Auto Group may be the victim. I say that because their dealership building is pathetic and not in line with other Ferrari franchises in the USA that have spent a lot of money in upgrades to meet the Ferrari North America's dealer appearance standards. #2-Ferrari has long term plans to reduce production, they already have dropped production by thousand cars or so per year recently, and this occurred even with Chinese market sales growth in order to maintain exclusivity of the Ferrari brand. Last I heard Ferrari North America is very happy with the amount of dealers they have. #3-like I mentioned before, how connected is Bernie and his family to anyone at Ferrari Bernie currently has a Maserati dealer that is doing very well, now about a decade ago when Maserati returned to the USA market having a Maserati dealership that did big sales was a big plus as Ferrari and Maserati were very closely tied at that time, now that's not so much the case. I heard his Maserati sales are equal to what Maserati Beverly Hills is selling which when I heard it was shocked that he was that successful, about top 15 or so ranked in the USA. Not bad for a dealership that is not that old or established, but will this help him prove his case, I'm not sure if means that much anymore compared to ten years ago. In other words, I think Bernie's plan is a long shot. That being said, like many entrepreneurs no road block stops them and he's one of the most positive and can do person I've ever met. It won't be easy, but it wouldn't surprise me if he pulls this off, perhaps on a scale that doesn't include an office/condo tower. By the way, if I was Bernie, I probably would have contacted Pininfarina to do the design of that building instead of Vocom Architects. Pininfarina obviously has designed Ferraris for many years that already helps with creating a bond with Ferrari. Getting late, could say more, but off to bed. Hope this provides some insight.