Luxury Car Dealer Pulls Out Of Downtown Spokane After Constant Crime

A luxury auto dealership is relocating from downtown Spokane less than a month after multiple vehicles on its lot were vandalized.

The Spokesman-Review newspaper says in September, police arrested a 34-year-old woman who allegedly threw rocks at new vehicles parked outside Land Rover Spokane in the 1300 block of West Third Avenue.

The dealership says the incident resulted in roughly $100,000 in damages to its vehicles, and was certainly not the first time it's been the target of a crime in recent memory.

Over the past year, Spokane police have reportedly responded to 93 separate calls at the Land Rover location on West Third, mostly for trespassing or nuisance complaints regarding passers-by accosting or harassing salespeople at the dealership.

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City of Spokane Councilperson, Michael Cathcart, says Spokane's current downtown vacancy rate is around 30%, and Land Rover isn't the only business that's moved out in the past few years.

“This is a great example of our inability to address some of the criminality concerns downtown resulting in not just losing a business downtown, but losing it to a place outside the city entirely,” remarked Cathcart. "We can’t afford to lose more of these types of businesses.”

Auto dealerships like Land Rover generate a healthy amount of tax revenues for cities like Spokane, which is currently facing a $13 million budget deficit.

Despite Land Rover's apparent relocation due to continuing criminal activities at or near its downtown location, statistics actually reveal that crime has been trending downward in the heart of Spokane, where 27 new businesses have also opened over the past year.

Land Rover Spokane's new location is only seven miles (approximately an 11-minute drive) to the east, at 8412 East Sprague Avenue in the neighboring city of Spokane Valley.

John Hohman, City Manager for Spokane Valley says Land Rover had already contacted him about a potential move to Spokane Valley earlier this year.

Although it could hardly be called a widespread exodus, Land Rover's relocation continues an ongoing trend of luxury dealerships across the U.S. giving up their stakes in the downtown cores of cities which are troubled by crime in exchange for the less embattled confines of the surrounding suburbs.