A new showroom for Atlantic Marine at the corner of Oleander Drive and Wrightsville Avenue will serve as the boat dealership’s sales center for new boats as well as increase awareness of the company, said business manager Jordan Davis.
“At Wrightsville Beach we are very destination-oriented and driven by word of mouth, but this will give us some additional exposure from the traffic,” Davis said. “Also a huge portion of our client base drives back and forth past this location twice or more a day.”
With around 10,000 square feet of space, the new showroom was designed by architect Blair Goodrich and built by Ken Dole and McKinley Building Corp. The building was designed to be versatile for inventory, and with high vaulted ceilings and tall glass garage doors, the space can easily be transformed.
With room for a variety of new Grady White, Chris Craft and Chaos Boats, Davis said the showroom will provide a new buying experience for Atlantic Marine’s clients.
“I think this is going to be a completely different buying experience than anyone is used to,” he said. “Sometimes it is a lot nicer to learn about all the features and go through the models in a comfortable setting versus outside.”
In addition to the new showroom, Atlantic Marine recently added a storage location near Wilmington International Airport. Davis said the company’s expansion could be attributed to an uptick in business and the Grady White Freedom boat series.
“The lifestyle we are trying to sell is now the entire family going out on the boat instead of boating being something for dad and his friends,” Davis said. With Atlantic Marine’s new inventory stationed at the showroom, the used and brokered boats will get prime placement at the Wrightsville Beach location.
All operations at the Wrightsville Beach location will continue as normal, Davis said.
Within days of opening the new showroom, Davis and Atlantic Marine owner David Floyd said they have already noticed a difference in the potential clients the building is attracting.
“It is too soon to say sales are up, but we certainly have had a lot of folks stopping by and people that didn’t know anything about it,” Davis said. “So we are reaching new customers here and that was one of the goals with opening this new showroom.”
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