“Love” is what makes a Subaru a Subaru. However, it’s the behind-the-scenes training that gives customers a one-of-a-kind experience.

Riverside Tech Park in Frederick, Maryland is home to one of Subaru of America’s 15 technical training facilities. Here, dealership technicians are trained on Subaru’s latest products and technologies. The company officially moved a training location to Frederick in 2013, and in 2019, St. John Properties built their current state-of-the-art facility, where Subaru trains their staff. As Subaru’s service and sales businesses grew, they needed a central location that could support them. Technicians from as far away as Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Delaware now train at the facility.

“We chose St. John Properties’ Riverside Tech Park location because it is an attractive business park with well-maintained exteriors, and it is easily accessible for students. There are nearby hotels and restaurants for traveling students as advantages to the location,” said Rene Galvez, Multimedia Training Manager at Subaru’s Frederick location. St. John Properties helped install lifts, an exhaust system, a compressed air system, movable walls, and a drive-in classroom.

The Frederick facility’s two instructors train around 16 students per day – or 2,500 annually – in the building’s three classrooms and lab space. Subaru wanted the capability of running three classes concurrently with the flexibility to run a fourth class in the conference room if needed. The team requested a classroom with a garage door and lift so that they could drive a car into the room. The second classroom features a folding wall that can expose the shop with just one lift. When instructors teach the complex systems inside vehicles, students need to take notes, but that can be difficult while standing. “These two rooms allow the students to sit at their desks taking notes while the vehicle is running close by, and the instructor has access to a projector and white board.”

The facility also features a multimedia production studio, where Galvez creates short-form training videos for technicians across the county, as well as office cubicles, a conference room, shop space, a storage area, and a teardown lab – here, students learn about component overhaul; one class might overhaul transmissions while another uses the shop for electrical diagnosis on vehicles.