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When Terry Lee Hyundai opens in Noblesville next spring, it will become the 10th new-car dealership operating on a six-mile stretch of State Road 37 in Hamilton County - and development isn't done.
Ed Martin Auto Group plans to relocate its Toyota store from Anderson to land fronting the highway north of 141st Street, and several sources said a dealership will be part of an as-yet-unannounced project at the heavily traveled 146th Street intersection.
When construction in the pipeline is complete, every major manufacturer will have planted its-flag from Fishers to Noblesville.
"It's a testament to the growth of the area," said Marty Murphy, executive vice president of the Automobile Dealers Association of Indiana. "It's no different than new grocery stores: They go where the people are. The same thing is happening here."
And Hamilton County's residential explosion has merited an extra market or two. The county population more than doubled from 1990 to 2013, according to census figures, and is projected to do so again by 2050.
The growth spurred commercial development along State Road 37, a major north-south thoroughfare akin to Carmel's Keystone Parkway or U.S. 31 - albeit with less-restrictive zoning rules.
Don Hinds Ford in Fishers was among the first dealerships to stake a claim on the new territory, and others followed suit.
"They like to be around one another," said Murphy, the trade group executive. "It becomes a destination, generates more traffic. ... If we can get you to stop and look, there's a chance...