Beverly Hills Porsche's Move A 'Surprise'
Posted by Daniel Antolin on Nov 10, 2011 - 2:51:02 AM
L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa at Beverly Hills Porsche. Photo courtesy of the dealership.
BEVERLY HILLS—On Wednesday, November 9, the City of Beverly Hills indicated that it did not anticipate finding out through Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa that the Beverly Hills Porsche dealership on Wilshire Boulevard will be leaving the city in 2012. It plans to move to a Santa Monica Boulevard location in Westwood.
"Given the conversations the City has had with Porsche over the last couple of years, their plans to move were a surprise," Beverly Hills spokesperson Therese Kosterman said in a statement. "We are reaching out to them to better understand their decision."
Beverly Hills Porsche said on Facebook that the decision to move to Westwood is based in part on having overgrown its current building space and in order to combine its sales, service and parts departments. BHP's Service and Parts Center is already located in Westwood on the same street block where it will move new and used car showrooms and create an all-inclusive Porsche center.
"We are a privately owned franchise store. Chances are we will be keeping the BHP name as there is already a Porsche of DT Los Angeles," BHP said. "Although I'd vote for a name change to [sic] Porsche of the World!"
What also persuaded BHP's decision to move to Westwood was Villaraigosa's Office of Economic and Business Policy working with city department directors to speed up getting the proper permits processed, a news release from the mayor's office states.
In addition to announcing BHP's move, Villaraigosa called at a November 8 press conference for car dealerships to be exempted from having to pay L.A.'s .507 percent gross receipts business tax. Last week, Villaraigosa called for the tax to be repealed across the board.
Councilmember Mitch Englander and Council President Eric Garcetti plan to present a motion to have the L.A. city attorney draft an ordinance toward that end.
"We do pay taxes!
Loads and loads of taxes! This is a 'city tax' that most other cities
have eliminated or reformed to be fair and balanced," BHP said on
Facebook in response to someone who suggested that the dealership is moving to Westwood
to avoid paying taxes.
Los Angeles' business tax rate is the highest in the U.S., followed by Oakland at .252 percent, Seattle, Wash. at .216 percent and Cincinnatti, Ohio at .210 percent, according to the 2010 Kosmont-Rose Institute Cost of Doing Business Survey.
Villaraigosa
estimates that BHP brought in $100 million in sales in 2010 at its
current location. This about $1 million that the dealership will bring
to Westwood from Beverly Hills in sales tax revenue when it moves. Both cities have a 8.75
percent sales tax.
"While we are always disappointed when a business leaves the City, we are delighted that other businesses compatible with the Beverly Hills entertainment brand, such as Playboy, MGM and Google, have chosen to locate here just within the past year," Kosterman said.
BHP is the second car dealership to open up shop in L.A. in the last 25 years. More than 90 dealerships have left since 1986. The other car dealership was Beverly Hills BMW, which Villaraigosa has also taken credit for luring away from the City of Beverly Hills. Audi took over Beverly Hills BMW's Wilshire Boulevard locations and plans to open for business in January.
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