A brand new car dealership opened this past weekend in Fernley. The city has a population of 20,000 and has never had a new car dealership.
The new Fernley Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership held its grand opening on Saturday at 1395 East Newlands Road, on the I-80 corridor.
Representatives say this new 15,000-square foot dealership has the ability to service residents from Fallon, Lovelock, Winnemucca and Elko.
Reno Dodge owner Don Weir had been negotiating with Chrysler on a new location for more than three years. The automaker wanted to find a location in Fallon but Weir convinced them Fernley was the next option.
This past January, Weir told us, “Going out there, I just felt Fernley would have been a better location for it, since you have the I-80 corridor there and we can get all that business coming from northern Nevada, from Winnemucca, Elko, that area," Weir said.
Weir was looking at Fernley as his next location before Tesla and SWITCH announced their moves to northern Nevada. While that was not anticipated, he says that only helps his business because of Fernley's expected growth. City leaders say their population could double, but they expect it to exceed 30,000 in the coming years. The economic and population growth is helping to revive the community.
"We're seeing some of those subdivisions that were once defunct, starting to come back to life and people are starting to look for places to live and places to work," Fernley City Manager Daphne Hooper said.
For more information, go to fernleyjeep.com
