In a world dominated by digital retailing and remote buying, building a standalone destination dealership requires a fundamental commitment to customer experience. On today’s special edition of Inside Automotive, we traveled to Sunbury, Ohio, to sit down with Kevin Moreno, President and General Manager of the newly opened Mercedes-Benz of Columbus North. Celebrating its official grand opening, the facility stands as the first Mercedes-AMG Brand Center in the United States and only one of approximately 12 worldwide.
According to Moreno, the path to opening Mercedes-Benz of Columbus North was a five-year initiative centered on market expansion and strategic relocation. He said he acquired one of Ohio’s original Mercedes-Benz stores, Mercedes-Benz of Mansfield, and relocated the franchise about 45 miles south to Sunbury in Delaware County, which is one of the state’s fastest-growing and wealthiest counties.
Following ground-breaking in February 2025, construction lasted roughly 16 months before the facility soft-opened its doors in June. Moreno said that while the Mansfield location delivered only a single new vehicle in October 2025, the new Sunbury location posted 62 new-vehicle and 39 pre-owned sales in October, ranking as the top-selling Mercedes-Benz dealership in Columbus and second in Ohio.
Moreno, who grew up immersed in retail automotive under his father, auto retailer and U.S. Senator Bernie Moreno, noted that strategic geography combined with brand prestige created an immediate footprint in Central Ohio.
Designing an exclusive AMG destination
While brand centers in cities such as Tokyo, Shanghai, and Beijing focus exclusively on performance models, Mercedes-Benz of Columbus North integrates the nation’s sole dedicated AMG retail space within a full-line Mercedes-Benz dealership. The rooftop retails the complete Mercedes-Benz product lineup, including core SUVs, Maybach, and Sprinter commercial vans, alongside an inventory of performance models.
According to Moreno, 17 of the dealership’s new vehicle sales in October were AMG models, which ranked the store second in Ohio for AMG volume and first overall by AMG sales ratio. To distinguish the physical store from online purchasing alternatives, the facility features an AMG-exclusive delivery bay. Customers taking in-person delivery enter a staging room featuring cinematic brand production, a reveal of their wrapped vehicle, and an automated presentation where the vehicle key levitates out of a presentation case before handover. While the dealership maintains full digital retail tools for remote buyers, the on-site physical touchpoints are engineered to deliver an elevated, memorable handover.
Fixed ops modeled on motorsport precision
Beyond showroom operations, the store’s fixed operations department is structured around high-touch, white-glove service. Drawing inspiration from Formula 1 pit crews, Moreno established a service shop environment that rejects typical garage aesthetics in favor of motorsport precision, cleanliness, and efficiency.
Addressing existing regional service capacity constraints in the greater Columbus market, the dealership launched an active pickup-and-delivery model. When area clients face multi-week service appointment backlogs at competing stores, Moreno’s team provides immediate loaner delivery and concierge pickup, turning fixed operations into a key driver of market share retention and recurring customer loyalty.
