The majority of the scenes in Junkyard Empire are filmed locally in Washington, at the Cohen Recycling and Damascus Motors locations.
Junkyard Empire has always stood out in the car restoration genre, because the show encompasses so many aspects of the real-life Cohen family businesses.
Junkyard Empire can capture all of these finer details because the show is filmed on location at the Cohen Recycling and Damascus Motor locations in Maryland.
What makes Junkyard Empire so special?
Television has completely exploded with every kind of automotive restoration program that you can imagine since Junkyard Empire made its debut in 2015.
However, whereas most of the shops featured on these shows focus on building the most eye-catching and over-the-top designs that they can come up with, Andy, Bobby and the rest of the team at Cohen Recycling take a considerably more laid-back approach.
The cast of Junkyard Empire focus on restoring all different kinds previously-loved cars, and in the rare cases where a proper restoration becomes impossible, they focus on getting as many usable parts from these vehicles as possible.
The show gives viewers an inside look into just how complicated the junkyard business can be.
Where is Junkyard Empire filmed?
As you will likely already know if you are a longtime Junkyard Empire fan, the show’s unique approach to the car restoration genre is only one small part of why people have continued to watch the show for five seasons.
Although it is often difficult to admit the daily business operations at the Cohen family businesses, the family drama between Andy and Bobby, and even the inside jokes and games that float between other members of the team are sometimes even more entertaining to watch than the actual restorations.
Moreover, the only reason why this kind of dynamic and rapport can exist on the show is because the Junkyard Empire “set” is actually not a set at all.
Junkyard Empire is actually filmed on-location at the Damascus Motors and Cohen Recycling locations, which are the Cohen family’s real-life businesses (well, technically by Andy’s, but we all know that Bobby has some trouble letting go).
Both Damascus Motors and Cohen Recycling are located just outside of Washington D.C., but these facilities’ exact addresses are as follows:
| Company | Address |
| Damascus Motors | 26100 Woodfield Road
Damascus, MD 20872 |
| Cohen Recycling | 4551 Tanglewood Drive
Bladensburg, MD 20710 |
Both of these businesses existed long before the show even started airing and it is exactly this real-world touch which has given Junkyard Empire such an edge over its competition.
All of the Cohen family businesses
Cohen Recycling is really where it all began for the Cohen family business. Bobby bought this junkyard in the ‘90s and Andy later expanded the business into what we know it to be today.
Damascus Motors was established by Andy later on, as a means to bring in some extra revenue.
If you visit the Damascus Motors website today, you will find that this umbrella now not only includes the Cohen Recycling branch, but also a fully-functioning Automotive Service Center, a vehicle storage center called Hot Rod Alley and a licensed used car dealership.
Of course, the Cohen family also generates some revenue from merchandise sales on this Damascus Motors website.
Are Damascus Motors and Cohen Recycling still open for business?
The most recent, fifth season of Junkyard Empire aired over two years ago in 2019 and 2020.
And while some fans may fear that the Cohen family businesses will suffer if the show does not get renewed soon, both Damascus Motors and Cohen Recycling are still open for business.
These businesses seem to be fairing so well, in fact, that they were still actively recruiting new employees as recently as October 2022, according to Andy’s Facebook page.
Where to watch Junkyard Empire
Even though Junkyard Empire has not yet been officially renewed for another season, you can still catch up on and re-watch all of the previous seasons of the show on a variety of different platforms.
The main hub for Junkyard Empire content and for content from all of Discovery’s Velocity shows is MotorTrend.
If you have an active MotorTrend subscription, you will be able to watch all of the current Junkyard Empire episodes on the MotorTrend website or on the MotorTrend+ app.
However, even if you do not feel like adding MotorTrend to your lineup of monthly subscriptions, you can still stream the show on platforms like Amazon Prime Video (which even has a seven-day free trial in which you can watch all of the MotorTrend+ content that you want), The Roku Channel, fuboTV, Spectrum, Vudu, Apple TV and Google Play.
