Texas City public works to move to old dealership
By T.J. Aulds
The Daily News
Published July 28, 2010

TEXAS CITY — The building that once was home to Texas City Lincoln-Mercury will be keeping the Texas City name it on its facade, but its days as a place to get a good deal on a new car are long gone.

Instead, the city’s public works department will be taking over the space near state Highway 146 and the Emmett Lowry Expressway.

Mayor Matt Doyle said the city paid $680,000 for the old dealership that folded earlier this year.

The purchase was part of an effort to centralize all of the public works facilities into one place, instead of the three used now.

The building came available after the dealership was forced to close in the Spring.

The closure ended a 33-year run for Lincoln-Mercury in Texas City. When it opened in 1977, Bob Higgins Lincoln Mercury was one of the nation’s first Lincoln-Mercury dealership owned by an African-American.

Higgins was just the eighth dealer to open shop as part of the Ford Motor Co.’s minority dealer training program, according to archived articles from the Texas City Sun. He eventually changed the name to Bob Higgins’ Texas City-Lincoln Mercury. When Don L. Wolfe purchased the dealership in the 1990s it became known as Texas City-Lincoln Mercury.

It was also the last of the legacy-named dealerships in the city. Hamon’s Bay Area was sold to Ron Carter Automotive Group and is now Ron Carter Dodge, while Gene Hamon Ford across the street was sold two years ago to Kedge Cook and is now Cook Ford.

The city’s only other new car dealership is DeMontrond Chevrolet and Nissan on the Gulf Freeway. In the 1980s it was Johnny Smith Oldsmobile.

City crews already have remodeled some of the office space, built an outside fueling station cover and replaced some of the parking lots light fixtures. Doyle said the city hopes to have the building completed by Jan. 1.