Webb brothers close Wheaton car dealership, prep for new car storage business

“Weird” is the best word John Webb can find to describe his family's departure from its car dealership on Roosevelt Road in Wheaton.

“It's very strange,” he said. “We all spent a good portion of our lives there and now it's kind of bittersweet.”

The Webbs stopped selling new cars at 1830 E. Roosevelt Road in Wheaton about 15 years ago, when they moved the business to the corner of Ogden Avenue and Finley Road in Downers Grove, where they continue to operate.

After the move the family kept the original Packey Webb building open for used car sales and express service. Now the building has been demolished after 54 years of operations.

The family's patriarch, Patrick “Packey” Webb, built the then state-of-the-art facility in 1962. John said running the Ford dealership was a lot of work and stress for his father, who worried about feeding his 11 children while trying to stay afloat as a businessman.

Still, John said his father loved his job because it gave him an opportunity to care for his community.

“It was a family-run business and he took pride in getting local Glen Ellyn and Wheaton residents good deals and providing them with transportation,” he said.

John estimates more than 132,000 cars were sold at the Wheaton location, where 80 to 90 employees were regularly employed over the years.

In 1977, Packey bought another Ford dealership in Indiana. Four years later, he purchased a Dodge dealership in Glen Ellyn. All the boys — you know, the ones “the whole town is talkin' about” — grew up in the business, sweeping floors, washing cars and working as a porter. There was no question, then, that they would follow in their father's footsteps.

Packey died in 1992, leaving the businesses to his sons. John said they are already in the process of teaching the third generation how to run the place.

The former location will be turned into a new self-storage facility for high-end, luxury and classic cars that will be co-owned by the Webbs and a developer who has launched a similar humidity- and heat-controlled facility in Lisle.

“The property was too big for just regular retail, too deep for a strip mall, too small for a big box,” he said. “It took us eight years to find something that would go in there. We decided this was the best option.”

John said he thinks the business will be a nice addition to Roosevelt Road, considering there are some “dilapidated buildings in the area” — including their own.

“We're moving up and moving on and trying to make it a better place than we left it,” he said.