By GERRY L. DICKERT
editor@silsbeebee.com

Be it the economy or the weather or just simply bad timing, it appeared on many occasions that a new Nissan dealership might not find a life in Silsbee.

With determination and a lot of patience, though, owners Dean Bernal and John Steely have seen their dream of opening a dealership here finally come to fruition.

“We’re finally about 90 percent complete,” said Bernal, who will serve as the day-to-day general manager of the new dealership. “We’ve gotten to the point of enclosing the building in the coming days and then we’ll be putting on the final cosmetic touches.”

The dealership sits on the U.S. 96 bypass a few miles south of the Hwy. 327/96 intersection.

The site will deal exclusively in Nissan products on its new-car lot while providing a wide selection of used cars of all makes and models in its pre-owned area.

“We’ve been working on this since 2007 but due to the economic downturn and the trials in the car business, it slowed our plans down,” Bernal said. “There were a lot of delays and at times there were questions as to whether or not we would go forward at all.”

But construction came to life in the past few months with a tentative opening date of mid-September, Bernal said.

This is the fourth dealership in the group owned by Steely and Bernal. Steely also has a Nissan dealership in Lake Charles and DeRidder as well as a Ford dealership in DeRidder. The two men will co-own the dealership in Silsbee with Steely serving as an investment owner and Bernal being the hands-on operator-owner of the business.

As many of the major brands began to pull dealerships out of the small-town locations because of the recent economic downfall, Nissan began looking at those “orphaned” spots for new dealerships.

That’s how Bernal and Steely came to find their way from Louisiana and into the Silsbee, Texas market.

“We’re young men with a lot of plans,” said Bernal. “I’m 45 and John is 44, so we have 20 or 30 more years of doing this. We’ve been together for 15 years and I’ve been doing this for 23 years. We are energetic and hoping to build our business bigger and better as time goes on.”

Bernal will move from Lake Charles with his wife and they will make their new home in Silsbee.

“I’m looking forward to becoming part of the community,” he said. “Small town is the place to be. I’ve lived in New Orleans and New York, D.C. ... you can have that.

“In a small town, the traffic is lower, the crime is lower. We love living in a smaller town and we’re really looking forward to making our lives in Silsbee.”