Travelers south of Downtown on Interstate 95 might soon be able to catch a glimpse of a giant vending machine that dispenses late-model used cars.
The project would be the Carvana Car Vending Machine. Yes, that’s the company’s whose TV commercials feature the kimono-clad millennial and his friends singing and dancing about the car-buying experience as “that didn’t suck, in fact I liked it.”
Carvana, founded in 2013 and based in Phoenix, announced in March it has launched into Jacksonville, one of 13 markets featuring free delivery of its cars that are bought online.
The online auto retailer allows buyers to shop, finance, buy and trade in a car entirely online with delivery as soon as the next day.
So far, it operates just one car-vending machine and that’s in Nashville.
A zoning exception and administrative deviation request filed with the city indicates a proposed location in Jacksonville at 6951 Lenoir Ave. E.
Here’s how it works, according to Popular Science at popsci.com and Carvana:
The company’s vending machine holds 20 cars at a time in a robotic tower. A customer who buys from the carvana.com site either can pick the car up or have it delivered.
If the customer wants to pick it up, Carvana ships it from its Atlanta or Dallas distribution center to the vending machine tower.
There, customers type in their information on a tablet at a kiosk and receive a Carvana-branded 3-inch coin to insert into the machine.
Robotic platforms retrieve the car and automated parking technology delivers it to the customer.
Also, Carvana said it supplies each customer with a personalized video of his or her car vending-machine experience to share on social media.
Carvana created the vending idea in Atlanta in 2013 and advanced the design into the new concept in Nashville, which opened in November.
In making the March announcement, CEO Ernie Garcia said in a news release that Jacksonville is a huge market for car sales. It says its online buying process allows customers to save an average of $1,681 compared with the Kelley Blue Book guide to pricing new and used cars.
By selling online, Carvana can stock in the glass tower just the cars that have been sold and will need less land because it doesn’t have to store cars on a lot.
The zoning requests, filed by landowner Jaymala Inc. and Jacksonville lawyer Paul Harden, include a site dimension plan that shows an 8,524-square-foot Carvana on almost 4.3 acres.
The deviation is sought to increase the maximum height of the structure.
“The automobiles are shipped and displayed indoors in a mid-rise building that requires the 75 foot height,” says the application. It describes the structure as a tower.
At a single-floor height of 14-feet, that would be a five-story tower.
The zoning exception request is for retail sales, stated as an allowable use in that area.
While Carvana announced in March it launched service in Jacksonville, it did not say it will open a car-vending machine in Northeast Florida.
“While we do have plans to bring Car Vending Machines like the one launched in Nashville to as many markets as possible over the next few years, we’re not able to confirm any specifics at this point,” said an email attributed to Carvana co-founder Ryan Keeton.
Jaymala Inc. CFO Kal Patel in Pooler, Ga., said he could not disclose any information.
In announcing the Nashville opening, Carvana said it was fueled by more than $300 million in funding to that point and expected to continue rapid geographic expansion, including vending-machine rollouts.
Carvana has 13 markets in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
Its Florida markets are Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando and Tampa.
The company said it delivers cars to customers who cannot access the car-vending machine.
Carvana says customers have a seven-day test drive and “no questions asked” return policy.
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