SANFORD — A new car and truck dealership is coming to Sanford.

The city’s site plan review committee and Planning Board earlier this week put their stamp of approval on a proposal by Marc Motors to build two dealerships at the intersection of Main Street (Route 109) and Jagger Mill Road in south Sanford.

Slated for construction first is a new Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram dealership. In the second phase, Marc Motors will move its Nissan dealership from its current location near the Center for Shopping to the south Sanford lot, according to documents on file at City Hall.

With these additions, the dealership will expand local choices for area shoppers looking for new vehicles.

A decade ago, Sanford had four new car dealerships, but with the recession and its aftermath, three disappeared for various reasons.

The owners of Walter Reeks Buick retired, Miller Ford closed, and Ballenger Auto, which had sold Dodge and Jeep, converted to selling used cars and added a U-Haul rental center. Marc Motors remained as the sole new car dealership, but it too changed during the recession.

As well as Nissan, Marc Motors had been a General Motors dealership. But when GM filed for reorganization bankruptcy in 2009 and a government bailout ensued, owner Marc Greenberg said he was one of 3,800 dealers who got a letter from the company saying GM was pulling out.

Greenberg has owned the current location on Main Street, wedged between the Ocean State Job lot and a now vacant commercial building, for more than 20 years. But the lot is small, and there’s no room to expand, Greenberg said in a 2013 interview after purchasing the south Sanford lot.

The dealerships will be built at 1754 Main St. – a vacant, 20-acre lot that used to be the site of Vishay Sprague Corp. and its predecessor, Sprague Electric, a manufacturer of tantalum capacitors. The manufacturing plant closed in the early 2000s and was sold to a developer in 2005, and the building was demolished in 2010.

Greenberg did not return a message seeking comment on his new venture Thursday, but in 2013, he talked about his plan for a new location and new dealerships.

“It’s a great value, and the whole town is moving that way,” he said, pointing to retail development in the southern part of town over the past few years that includes Walmart, Lowe’s and Tractor Supply Co.

Sanford Planning Director Beth Della Valle said the Planning Board gave unanimous approval to the plan Wednesday.

The development of the property includes two, 2,200-square-foot dealership buildings, and will have two entrances – a shared roadway with Tractor Supply Co. from Main Street, and an entrance off Jagger Mill Road. Car carriers will be limited to the Main Street entrance.

There was no word Thursday on when ground will be broken for the new dealerships.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.