Foothills Lincoln Mercury Mazda plans to open a satellite service center on the South Hill that would be the first Ford Motor Co.-certified facility of its type in the Pacific Northwest and one of only about a dozen nationally.


Chris Marr, general manager of the Foothills dealership, at 202 E. North Foothills Drive, says the new facility, which will be called Lincoln-Mercury Auto Care, will be built on a two-acre, commercially zoned piece of land near the northeast corner of the Regal Street-Palouse Highway intersection. The vacant development site is located east of and behind the KAYU-TV building and a McDonalds restaurant.


Foothills Properties LLC, which is affiliated with the dealership, and Urban Land Investments Inc., also of Spokane, will develop the $1.8 million project, Marr says. Construction of the 10-bay, 10,000-square-foot structure is expected to begin this fall and to be completed by next spring, he says. Bernardo-Wills Architects PC, of Spokane, has been chosen to design the building, but a general contractor hasnt been selected yet.


Foothills Properties, which recently completed the purchase of the development site, will own the building and will lease it to the dealership, Marr says.


Ford Motor Co. launched Auto Care Service Centers as a pilot concept about seven years ago to win back Ford and Lincoln-Mercury owners who take their vehicles to independent service and repair shops, rather than dealership service departments, after their warranties expire. The idea behind the Auto Care concept is to provide geographically convenient, extended-hour neighborhood-type service, with close customer-to-technician contact and competitive rates, but using dealership-quality technology, Marr says.


Tim Hebron, a Dearborn, Mich.-based alternative service project coordinator for Ford who was in Spokane earlier this week to help plan the project, says eight Auto Care service centers have opened so far across the country, one other is under construction, and three more have been approved, but have yet to get under way.


Marr says the South Hill facility will be very much of a pilot operation.


It will include, for example, a customer walkway down the center of the service-bay area from which customers can watch their vehicles being serviced, he says. The idea is to promote interaction (with technicians). Its just the opposite concept from most auto-service shops, he contends.


The new facility also will include a customer lounge, a childrens play area, a couple of work stations that customers with laptop computers or other work materials can use while theyre there, and a parts department with an accessories and apparel area, he says.


Along with doing engine-related maintenance work, the Auto Care center will offer service on brakes, tires, shocks, and struts, and will sell tires, Marr says. The facilitys primary focus will be servicing Ford and Lincoln-Mercury vehicles, but it also will welcome other makes of vehicles, he says.


Noting the planned Auto Centers proximity both to soccer fields and to shopping, Marr says, We see it being able to fit in to the active lifestyle (of area residents), so theres a method to the location.


The facility is expected to employ up to about 16 people, some of whom likely will be recruited from independent service shops here, he says.


Marr and Raymond T. Kish own Foothills Lincoln Mercury Mazda through a company called Spokane Lincoln Mercury Mazda Sales Inc., of which Kish is president and Marr is vice president. The dealership employs about 95 people.


The dealership dates back to 1947 under various ownerships, but has been under the current ownership since about 1981. It formerly was located downtown, on West Third Avenue, where it did business as Downtown Lincoln Mercury Mazda. It moved to its current location in late 1994, after taking over and renovating a former Pay N Pak warehouse store there, where it also acquired more than six acres of land.