Collision Centers Are Opening Larger Facilities By Turning to Adaptive Reuse

As collision repair operators add new collision centers and relocate existing sites, many are turning to larger real estate -- and adaptive reuse of unconventional real estate

The top 5 collision industry consolidators — Caliber Collision, Gerber Collision & Glass, Crash Champions, Classic Collision and Joe Hudson’s — together operate over 3,500 body shops.

But that still represents less than 10% of the estimated 40,000 collision repair shops in the U.S.

However, the collision industry consolidators are growing fast:

• Caliber Collision has nearly tripled its number of units over the past 5 years, from 650 in 2019 to over 1,800 by mid-2024

• Gerber Collision, the next largest consolidator, has over 800 locations

• Following its 2022 merger with Service King, Crash Champions now operates over 630 shops throughout the country

• Classic Collision has over 250 body shops and

• Joe Hudson Collision opened its 200th location earlier this year

Although consolidators have relied on acquisitions of existing shops for much of their past unit growth, they are also increasingly opening new facilities.

For instance, roughly 1/3 of Caliber Collision’s 150+ unit openings in 2022 were newly established "greenfield" collision centers. 

These new collision centers are often located in real estate that is twice the size — or larger — than conventional dealer body shop sites.

And many of the new and relocated collision centers were created via the adaptive reuse of buildings that were once used for Big Box retail, grocery and drugstore sales, distribution and manufacturing.

Big Box Retail-to-Collision Centers

Big Box retail buildings have been one of the most recent conversions to collision centers.

Why?

Well many Big Box retail buildings have site and building characteristics that also fit those sought by collision centers:

• 10,000 - 30,000+ square feet in size

• Prominent and accessible on high traffic roads

• Located in densely populated areas

Big Box buildings are also an intriguing conversion due to high ceilings, open floor plans, drive-in docks and ample parking.

So it is not a surprise that more than two dozen former Toys R Us and Kmart stores have been repurposed for an automotive use.

Former Grocery Stores

In 2023 ALDI relocated its 14,000 square foot freestanding grocery store in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to a nearby shopping center that could better accommodate the grocery chain’s newest 22,000 square foot prototype store.

Just 1 year later the former ALDI building was repurposed for auto body & glass repair by Caliber Collision — one of multiple ALDI-to-collision center adaptive reuses that have occurred throughout the U.S.

A New Strip Mall Anchor

Caliber's adaptive reuse projects have not been limited to vacant Big Box buildings.

It has also redeveloped large portions of shopping centers into new collision centers.

For instance, Caliber took over a former tile shop and mattress outlet at the Ellisville Shops in Ellisville, MO.

It now serves as a new “anchor” of the 38,000 square foot suburban shopping center.

And a soon-to-open Caliber Collision center in Tucson, Arizona will not only occupy the ~22,000 square foot former Big Lots store but also ~5,000 square foot of adjacent small shop space and make it the new anchor of the shopping center.

A New Use For Drugstore Real Estate?

More than 1,500 drugstores have closed in past 18 months — largely due to the bankruptcy of Rite Aid and planned closures by CVS and Walgreens.

And these former drugstores — the majority of which are 10,000 - 15,000 square foot, freestanding buildings located on high traffic streets in densely populated areas — may be ripe for conversion into body shops and collision centers.

For instance, Gerber Collision eyed a former CVS in Darien, Illinois as a conversion candidate.

Although Darien City Council narrowly approved a special use permit for Gerber to convert the site, significant litigation and environmental concerns caused Gerber to drop the adaptive reuse project.

But given the increasingly available supply of drugstore real estate, it would not be a surprise to see a drugstore-to-collision center conversion in the near future.

Larger Building Conversions Are Becoming More Common

But the future of collision center real estate could be even bigger.

Many repairs today are still done in specialty locations with separate sites for tire and auto service, collision and glass repair.

There could be vast efficiencies to combining these services under a single roof at one facility, especially in dense areas where it is hard to find real estate.

And they might be especially valuable to large companies like insurance companies, fleet operators and manufacturers.

Some collision centers have even dabbled in the extra-large formats that range from 80,000 to over 150,000 square feet:

• Joe Neubert Collision operates two facilities in Knoxville, Tennessee, including an 84,000 square foot collision center in North Knoxville that was a conversion of a former Kmart that closed nearly 20 years ago.

• The ~70,000 square foot Crash Champions collision center in Milpitas, California sports an upscale design with first class amenities, including a grand glass entrance, a contemporary customer waiting area with interior water features, covered customer parking, and an on-site Enterprise car rental service. The converted warehouse building's expansive size provides for the capacity to repair over 350 vehicles per month.

• Truckworx, a commercial truck dealer in Alabama, expanded and relocated one of its body shops into a 100,000 square foot former Lowe’s Home Improvement Big Box store in Graysville, Alabama. It offers a full suite of collision repair, refurbishment and glass replacement services for trucks, buses, van bodies, trailers, emergency and construction equipment — and even three high tech paint booths that provide complete spot or area painting.

• Brandon Collision, in a 150,000 square former paper plant outside of Tampa, is one of the largest collision centers in the U.S. Brandon Ford acquired the 150,000 square foot former Temple Inland paper board and packaging plant in Tampa, Florida for ~$4 MM in 2014 and converted the old plant into Brandon Collision.

As the collision industry grows and as industry consolidators acquire and relocate body shops — or open brand new greenfield sites — expect a continued trend towards adaptive reuse to facilitate real estate needs.

In many cases it may be cheaper than new ground up construction.

And faster — since a retrofit of an existing building can typically be done in a fraction of the time it would take for a new build.

It may often deliver a unique product — like a facility with significantly more capacity.

Adaptive reuse can also provide an easier path to securing approvals, permits and entitlements by putting vacant buildings to a productive use.

Whatever the reasons, expect adaptive reuse to play a significant role in the growth of the collision repair industry — both as to the number of units and the size of each facility!