Longmont Ford gearing up for expansion
LONGMONT — Just two years after completing a $3 million renovation, Longmont Ford is in growth mode again, with plans for a new 20,000-square-foot building that will add 16 service bays and bring with it another 20 jobs.
Longmont Ford owner Mike Peebles said he’s hoping to break ground on the new building by June or July and complete construction by the end of the year.
Peebles closed in January on the $578,000 purchase of three acres of vacant land just to the south of Longmont Ford, 235 Alpine St., where the new building will rise.
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Within the last week, meanwhile, Peebles closed on the $8.7 million purchase of Longmont Ford’s current site, which he’d been leasing from former business partner Bob Barbee.
Peebles said the new facility will be used as a reconditioning center for new and used vehicles when they arrive to the lot, as well as added storage and display space. The reconditioning work, for used cars, entails making sure the cars are in good mechanical shape and detailing them. For new ones, it means inspecting them, detailing them and making sure they’re ready for display.
That’s all work that is being done in the dealership’s current building now. But the new space will clear out room for the expansion of sales and service as the business grows, Peebles said.
Peebles is still working through the entitlement process with the city on the new building. Including land, he expects the project to cost about $3 million.
“It’s going to be nice,” said Peebles, who noted that Longmont Ford, which employs about 85 people now, has between 500 and 600 cars on the lot at any given time. “We’re running out of space. … We’re in good times. We’re busy. We’re moving (cars).”
Peebles has owned Longmont Ford since 2005 when he and Barbee bought it from the Weibel family, which still owns multiple car dealerships in Longmont and Greeley. The pair had also co-owned Freeway Ford in Denver since 1995, when Peebles bought a stake of that dealership from Barbee.
Peebles — who also co-owns a Ford dealership in Rifle with former Colorado Rockies great Todd Helton — bought Barbee out of his Longmont Ford stake for an undisclosed sum a year ago, though Barbee remained owner of the real estate until the recent sale. Barbee, meanwhile, bought Peebles out of Freeway Ford at the same time.
Peebles said the splitting of the two dealerships was part of an agreement made between him and Barbee at the time they acquired Longmont Ford. He added that “untangling” the assets has made things simpler for both dealerships.
Peebles said it’s largely been business as usual at Longmont Ford since the ownership shuffle, though the business continues to grow.
Peebles said the combination of housing growth in Longmont, as well as UCHealth’s decision to build a new Longmont hospital not far away, helped bolster his own decision to expand further.
Longmont Ford had 24 service bays when he and Barbee bought it. Their renovation in 2014 grew that number to 43, with the new building’s 16 now in the pipeline.
While there’s been talk nationally of the new-car boom topping out soon, Peebles said that doesn’t necessarily mean sales in Colorado will do the same, given the growth the state is experiencing compared with the rest of the nation.
“The more people that move here, the more cars that are on the road and have to be serviced,” he said.
