Abandoned buildings that once housed bustling auto dealerships dot the Sacramento area, urban eyesores that pose huge challenges for developers and real estate brokers already struggling in the recession.

More than a dozen area dealership closures since April last year have produced hundreds of job losses, millions in lost sales tax revenue and millions more in evaporated advertising dollars.

Now, the stark visual evidence of an auto industry in peril remains.

Some empty structures, like the huge, earth-toned Elk Grove Ford facility in the Elk Grove Automall, look to be in good shape. But it sits in a massive, empty parking lot – looking like a prop from an end-of-days disaster movie.

The former Great Valley Chrysler Jeep Mazda Isuzu dealership at 2329 Fulton Ave. – closed in May 2008 – is more dilapidated. Faded window paint touts a long-ago "close out sale," and weeds have sprouted up through cracked pavement on a site encircled by a chain-link fence.

Other U.S. urban areas also are dealing with blight from closed dealerships, which are likely to remain abandoned for months and years to come.

Besides the dismal economy and a sagging commercial real estate market, other factors can make empty car dealerships a nightmare for developers and property brokers.

Abandoned dealerships typically include multiple large buildings on oddly shaped parcels. You can't just plug a 2,000-square-foot retail store into an old 25,000-square-foot dealership, especially if the site is in an auto mall.

Replacing an old dealership with a new one might have been practical five years ago. Today, with Chrysler and General Motors among those shedding dealerships, it's increasingly difficult to find a new auto-selling tenant.

Because of their large size and the sizable tax revenue they generate, dealerships tend to sit on land specifically zoned for car stores. It's one thing to seek a zoning change and knock down the abandoned buildings. But most dealerships have auto-service buildings containing various automotive fluids and even underground gas tanks.

You need to have your environmental cleanup plans and paperwork in order before you call in the wrecking ball. That takes time and money.

"They're very difficult to backfill," said Larry Carr, executive director of Florin Road Partnership. "There are a lot of things you have to deal with."

Carr is part of a cooperative effort to revive more than 40 acres along Florin Road west of Highway 99, between Luther Drive and Franklin Boulevard. The area includes the closed dealership sites of Paul Blanco Chevrolet, Winter Volvo Lincoln Mercury and Senator Mazda, all in the 3800 block.

The Florin redevelopment effort is backed by current and former car dealers, city of Sacramento development officials and others.

"The idea is to do a master-planned community, with new housing, retail stores and offices," Carr said.

While acknowledging the obstacles, Carr also pointed to success stories, like the Paratransit Inc. building at 2501 Florin Road, once the site of a General Motors dealership.

Ron Miller, owner of Sacramento's Ron Miller & Co. consulting firm that's part of the development effort in the 3800 block of Florin, compared the area "to the issue we faced after World War II with military base closures. … They faced many of the same challenges, but there were also opportunities with those bases.

"… With Florin, we're looking at what do you do with something that used to be a dealership. What uses do you have for that?"

Miller said he's optimistic "because of the cooperation we have with the city and the property owners."

Desmond Parrington, infill coordinator with Sacramento's planning department, said Florin's abandoned dealership sites "are a challenge," but he, too, is looking at the possibilities.

He said former car store sites have more development potential than small, scattered parcels zoned for single-family housing and with no surrounding infrastructure.

"Rather than a bunch of those, a dealership is on a much larger site, usually with good freeway visibility and located near major roads. That's a definite plus for those sites," Parrington said. "The downside, particularly if you have a long-standing dealership with auto body and repair, is that you have some cleanup, and that sometimes takes time to address.

Call The Bee's Mark Glover, (916) 321-1184.