Why This Matters
Independent auto shops keep vehicles on the road. The real estate system is making it harder for them to exist. This is why ARES was built.
The Real Problem
Independent auto shops don't fail because their owners lack skill. They stall because the real estate system was never built for them.
In most communities, an independent auto repair shop is one of the most practical businesses operating. It employs skilled tradespeople. It serves customers who can't afford dealer service rates. It keeps older vehicles running safely for another year, another season, another family. These are not marginal businesses. They are infrastructure.
And yet, when an independent shop owner tries to grow — to open a second location, to move out of a space they've outgrown, to find a lot where they can finally build something permanent — they run into a wall that was never supposed to be their problem.
"The biggest barrier to opening or expanding an automotive business isn't capital or demand — it's land. ARES is here to fix that."
— Raymond Spieldenner, Founder
Automotive operations are classified as industrial uses, which narrows the zones where they're permitted — but the bigger problem is that compatible land in high-traffic areas is already developed for something else. By the time an operator is searching, the viable sites are occupied. What's left is off the main road, grandfathered into a precarious status, or zoned in a way that needs careful interpretation to understand whether it even qualifies.
Most available land fails environmental screening because of prior industrial or automotive activity. The contamination is real. The discovery almost always comes after weeks of time and money have already been committed.
CoStar. CREXi. LoopNet. These platforms weren't built for automotive compliance requirements. Using them for an automotive property search means manually chasing information that should be filtered before you ever see a listing.
Failed due diligence. Wasted broker time. Deposits lost on sites that never worked. Independent shop owners absorb these costs silently, every cycle, because the right tool has never existed — until now.
Many commercial property owners refuse automotive tenants outright — citing cleanup liability, mess risk, and long-term contamination exposure. This supply-side rejection further shrinks an already scarce pool of available automotive-compatible properties.
The Core Belief
None of these problems are unsolvable. They are information problems. The EPA history exists. The zoning classification is a matter of public record. Lot dimensions and configurations can be assessed before anyone visits a site.
The issue is that this information has never been organised specifically for automotive operators — and surfaced at the beginning of a search, not at the end of a deal.
When compliance screening happens first, independent shop owners stop losing deals they should never have been pursuing. They see fewer properties — and every one they see is one that can actually work.
The Difference ARES Makes
Weeks of pursuing unsuitable sites are eliminated before they begin. Clients spend their time on properties that have already cleared the compliance filters — not properties that will fail them.
Due diligence costs, broker fees, and lost deposits on failed deals are among the most predictable — and preventable — expenses in automotive real estate. ARES exists to stop them happening.
Shop owners move on the right site with EPA history, zoning status, and lot suitability already confirmed. Not hoping the property works out — knowing it does.
Ready to Stop Losing Deals?
The compliance screening that independent shop owners have never had access to — until now.