Adesa to offer dealers unique ways to bid on used vehicles in Hoffman
Adesa, an international wholesale auction house for used vehicles, is opening its first Illinois location on Oct. 28 in Hoffman Estates.
Adesa, at Beverly Road and Prairie Stone Parkway, features eight lanes, like a highway, for simultaneous auctions. Dealers can bid online and in person. The new business also will feature a restaurant and cyber lounge, another first for Adesa, which operates 76 locations in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
"Our customers have been asking for us to come to this market for a long time and we felt the location in Hoffman Estates was close to O'Hare (International Airport)," said General Manager Troy Peterson, 48, of Palatine.
The 27-year-old Adesa is a unit of Carmel, Indiana-based KAR Auction Services. While some facilities have retail sales, the Hoffman Estates site is strictly for dealers. Vehicle sales are not open to the public.
The new site is in the midst of hiring about 100 workers.
The company broke ground in early 2015 on 65 acres with the option to expand to more than 130 acres, without incentives from state or local governments. The property has four buildings with about 167,000 square feet where dealers can inspect, bid and pay for vehicles and utilize the body shop and other services.
Cars are expected to arrive daily and auctions could be weekly. Dealers will be given maps on auction days to locate vehicles on the property to inspect them before bidding. All types of makes and models are expected to be sold, Peterson said.
While only about 15,000 transactions per year are expected during the facility's first two years of operation, officials from the company said a higher goal of 75,000 could be reached sometime after that.
New technology will allow bidders around the country to follow live bidding sessions on each of the eight lanes. Bidders can go the company's website or use a mobile app to bid. Numerous monitors around the facility will allow dealers on site to see how the live bidding sessions are taking place, Peterson said.
Those who are at the facility can make their bid known by shouting out, holding up a clipboard with their assigned number, or providing another signal that the auctioneer will know in advance, Peterson said.
"Some dealers raise their hand, wink or gesture by their chin," Peterson said.