Motor Momentum

What was once a hobby for semi-retired entrepreneur Michael Lombardo, a man cave, really, has relatively quickly turned into a thriving classic car business.

So thriving that Lombardo and his team now sell about 25 cars a month to customers worldwide. Prices range from $10,000 to $400,000 for a Rolls Royce. The average price per sale is about $25,000, and the total sales volume has been on the rise. Says Lombardo: “We've been growing by leaps and bounds.”

That's why Lombardo, with Sarasota-based Ideal Classic Cars, recently tackled an old-school business dilemma rarely seen these days, courtesy of the recession: Not enough space.

Lombardo's solution was to more than quadruple the physical size of the company, in what will be at least a $1.5 million investment. He also plans to expand the payroll, from eight to up to 20 by the end of 2013. “We're excited about the growth,” says Lombardo. “It feels good to be doing something in a downtrodden economy.”

Lombardo and his wife, Evelyn Lombardo, currently run Ideal Classic Cars out of a 6,500-square-foot showroom and sales office on U.S. 41 in south Sarasota County. The company also has a warehouse on nearby Clark Road.

The new facility, meanwhile, is a few miles south on U.S. 41 in Venice, where the Lombardos bought a onetime DeSears appliance and furniture store for $950,000. The couple closed on a deal for the 27,305-square-foot store last summer, and they are near the end of a remodel and renovation project that cost more than $500,000.

That store, which will be part car dealership, part muscle car museum and part classic auto memorabilia and souvenir store, is expected to open in February. “We want it to be comfortable for families,” says Evelyn Lombardo, not just muscle car junkies.

The business's quick success and the need to expand took the Lombardos somewhat by surprise. “We really aren't a car dealership,” Michael Lombardo says. “We view ourselves as a museum that sells cars. It's kind of like our personal collection that we sell over and over.”

Lombardo ran four high-end used car dealerships in his native New Jersey for nearly 30 years. He opened Ideal Classic Cars in spring 2010, mostly for something to do. Cars weren't only his career, but his passion, going back to his childhood. Plus, his wife, after having him home for six months in retirement, wanted him to do something outside the house.

Word spread almost immediately that there was a classic car dealership in Sarasota that sold everything from a 1937 Auburn Boat Tail to a 2007 Bentley Continental GT to a 1965 Cadillac El Dorado. “We were overwhelmed with the response,” says Lombardo. “We found there was a lot of camaraderie in the classic car community.”

That community isn't just local. The Lombardos have sold cars to buyers in several countries outside the U.S., including Brazil, England and Australia. Those sales, and others in the U.S. but outside the region, come mostly from the Internet.

Lombardo still owns two of the four dealerships in New Jersey, though he spends a bulk of his time on the inventory side of Ideal Classic Cars. He looks for cars on special order from customers, and he also looks to buy whole lots from collectors and dealers. It's the most challenging part of the job, he says, to find the just right car at the just right price, yet it's also the most fun part of his job.

Past expansion, Lombardo has one other go-big goal for 2013: To double the monthly sales output to 50 cars — fully recognizing his hobby days are long gone. “I wasn't doing this for money at first,” Lombardo says, “but it's evolved into something bigger than I ever thought it would be.”