Dec. 19—ROCHESTER — In 2024, a long-empty Rochester Big Box store will be revamped into a car dealership as a new home of

Nissan of Rochester.

Todd Penz and his father, Dan Penz, own the Nissan dealership at 4642 East Frontage Road, along “Car Row,” next to their Buick GMC of Rochester dealership. Under the Penz Automotive Group umbrella, they also own

Subaru of Rochester

at 4840 Maine Ave. SE.

They recently rolled out plans to partially demolish the former Toys ‘R’ Us building at 808 Apache Lane SW and renovate the property to house their Nissan dealership.

Toys ‘R’ Us closed the Rochester store in June 2018 following the company’s bankruptcy.

The once-popular toy retailer built and opened the store in 1991

on land it acquired from Lowell Penz.

The Penz family and E&M Investments purchased the Toys ‘R’ Us building

for $3.9 million in 2019. The building has been mostly empty, though it have a short run housing

MedCentral Outlet + Transport

from July 2022 to

May 2023.

The cavernous 45,628-square-foot store will be trimmed down to 25,000-square-feet in size, which is larger than Nissan’s current 14,000-square-foot complex. The 218 parking spots for inventory vehicles will be double Nissan’s current parking space.

Once completed, the facility will include a car wash and service bays as well as a showroom and offices. The new site will also feature several electric vehicle charging stations.

This move will place Nissan next to

Rochester Chevrolet,

which the Penzes once had part ownership.

Todd Penz anticipates that work on the facility will start in January with a projected timeline of having the site ready to occupy during winter 2024. The dealership has about 25 employees on staff.

Why move Nissan from its current northwest location to the Apache Mall area?

“We have a north store (Buick GMC), a south store (Subaru) and now we’re going to have a central store to better cover Rochester,” said Penz. Nissan has just outgrown its space. This allows them to have a new and comfortable space.”

No plans have been made yet for what will happen to the current Nissan facility.