METHUEN — Wall's Lincoln Mercury, a car dealership on Route 110 for the past 33 years, is closing Nov. 30.

The family-owned business at 115 Merrimack St. is closing out the Lincoln and Mercury brands in Methuen, said owner John Wall Sr., who informed his employees Tuesday about the closure. He said he isn't sure what he's going to do with the five-acre property, and will either develop it himself or sell it.

"Personally, it's emotional," said Wall, 65, who started the dealership there in the mid-1960s. "That was my beginning as a dealer. I spent a lot of years there."

But it doesn't mean the end of the Wall brand.

In 1997, Wall opened a Ford dealership in Salisbury. He plans on moving the parts and service business from Methuen to that location, and will keep about 30 employees.

He said about a dozen people will be laid off as a result of the Methuen closure.

"We are resigning our Lincoln-Mercury franchise," he said. "We'll continue in Salisbury as a Ford dealership. ... We will be expanding in Salisbury, adding inventory and looking to expand our service department. This is an opportunity for us to move on and get all our eggs in one basket."

Wall said he has been in negotiations with Ford Motor Corp. for months over the closure, and had a number of different options on the table, including a partnership with Henry Nassar, who recently shut Nassar Ford in Lawrence.

In the end, though, he decided it was best to close out the Lincoln and Mercury brands, which are owned by Ford, and expand his dealership in Salisbury, something he plans on doing in the coming months.

He said he will continue selling certified pre-owned Lincolns and Mercuriews from the Salisbury dealership.

Wall said it was his decision to close.

"The business climate being what it is, sales are down nationally," he said. "We could ride it out, but we felt we were better off to put all our eggs in one basket and do a great job with one dealership rather than spreading ourselves too thin and running two dealerships."

He said a number of factors went into the decision, including the fact that while the Lincoln brand will be around for years to come, Mercury has less of a future.

"There are a very limited number of Mercury products available," he said, "and Mercury was our volume brand."

He said the Mercury Sable and Grand Marquis have been discontinued.

"The Sable was a great seller over the years," he said. "The Grand Marquis was a big part of our volume."

He said that Ford, meanwhile, has avoided many of the pitfalls that have beset Chrysler and GM, both of which entered bankruptcy and have been forced to shut dealerships all over the country.

While Ford also is shutting dealerships, it is working closely with each owner, Wall said.

"Ford has done things a lot different than the other companies," he said. "Their long-term goal, now that market share has shrunk over the last 20 years, is to go to a smaller number of bigger and better dealerships."

In Massachusetts, the number of car dealerships has shrunk from a high of about 600 to around 450 today. That trend is likely to continue as one industry expert estimates there will be no more than 350 dealerships left in the state by the time the dust settles from bankruptcies and the recession.

Wall said Ford will not reopen a Lincoln Mercury or a Ford franchise to replace Wall's in Methuen.

"This will be a closed point," he said, referring to a franchise region.

While Lincoln and Mercury are going away, Wall is not. He said he does not plan on retiring anytime soon, if ever.

"I love being with my sons and grandsons every day," he said, noting that John Wall Jr. is the general sales manager, while son Bryan is the parts and service director and grandson John III is working as a service adviser.

He hopes some of his customers will find their way to Salisbury.

"The Seacoast area is growing," he said. "It's been very steady, solid growth for the last 10 years. This is one of the market areas Ford wants to expand into. That's part of the motivation for them to expand here."

The closest Ford dealerships to the one in Salisbury are Regan Ford in Haverhill and Ipswich Ford in Ipswich.

ÔÇæÔÇæÔÇæ

Join the discussion. To comment on stories and see what others are saying, log on to eagletribune.com.