Broadway Volvo will close the book on more than 50 years of Tucson tire-kicking history along a stretch of East Broadway when it breaks ground next month at the Auto Mall on the Northwest Side.
The family-owned dealership that has sold Volvos since 1972 at 930 E. Broadway was the last remnant of an automobile epicenter that enjoyed its heyday in the 1970s, when more than a dozen different businesses sold cars along Broadway from Euclid Avenue to Plumer Avenue.
"We'll have a little more land in a place where it's become kind of one-stop auto shopping for people, the way it used to be here on Broadway," co-owner Mike DiChristofano said of the company's move to 2.2 acres at 830 W. Wetmore Road. "We're just going to keep doing what we've always done, but hopefully sell more cars and grow a little bit."
The move will result in a new name — Volvo of Tucson — but at least until January, Broadway Volvo will still be around, DiChristofano said.
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"We're hoping to break ground in September and it'll be about a seven-month build, so the goal is to be in there by the first quarter of next year," he said.
Frank DiChristofano moved from Glenview, Ill., to Tucson in 1972 to start as general manager at the then-new Wigglesworth Volvo. Eight years later, he partnered with Phoenician Ray Tanner to buy the dealership, which was renamed Broadway Volvo.
In 1990, DiChristofano bought out Tanner to become sole owner. Sons Mike and Rocky, 39 and 41, now run the family-owned business, with Frank acting as a consultant, Mike DiChristofano said.
Mechanic Steve Fitzner, one of Broadway Volvo's 38 employees, has been at the dealership almost as long as the DiChristofanos, having moved from a different Illinois dealership to Tucson in 1977.
"I remember Rocky and Mike washing cars out here when they were 10 or 11, and there are some other people here that have been here just about that long," he said.
Fitzner is not overly woebegone about leaving the venerable Broadway location, Fitzner said.
"I've been working in the same little corner here for a long time, so I'm looking forward to a fancy new place," he said.
The DiChristofanos had long eyed a Northwest Side location with the emergence of the Auto Mall near West Wetmore and North Oracle roads as the city's new epicenter for auto sales, said Rocky DiChristofano.
"We looked at the property when they first started building it around 1990, but we were still partners with the gentleman from Phoenix and at that time, we decided as a company not to move," he said. "We've always done a good business here on Broadway, but obviously in the back of our minds, we knew that things were probably going to lead us out there eventually."
The approximately 1.75 acres at 930 E. Broadway owned by the DiChristofanos should attract considerable interest, said Albert Elías, director of urban planning and design for the city of Tucson.
"I think it's an extremely attractive location for redevelopment, what with it being a gateway location into Downtown and its proximity to the Diamondback Pedestrian Bridge," Elías said.
Mike DiChristofano said the family hasn't made a final decision on what to do with the parcel.
"We really don't what we're going to do yet, but I'm sure it would make a great retail location for someone," he said.
Car dealers began moving from their Downtown locations in the 1940s, some to the area near Sixth Street and Sixth Avenue and others to East Broadway and Euclid Avenue, said Kelley Rollings, whose father, Harry, opened his first new-car dealership in 1925 on Sixth Avenue between Congress Street and Broadway.
"Dealers like to be close to dealers," Rollings said. "We opened a used-car dealership near Euclid in 1948 right across the street from Monte Mansfield, which later became Holmes Tuttle Ford, so we were the first two out there, and then it was the predominant place for dealers in the '60s, '70s and '80s."
In the 1970s, Wigglesworth Volvo, Rollings Chrysler Plymouth, Holmes Tuttle, Selby Motors and Paulin Motors sold new cars on the strip while a dozen other businesses sold used cars or automotive products.
"This was the strip, so there's definitely some sentimental value tied up in our location here, but we're excited about the move," Mike DiChristofano said.