SIOUX CITY | Bomgaars opened its new Gordon Drive Store in October, ahead of schedule. It's just a hop, skip and a jump away from the store the company closed in order to make the move.
The new store, at 5901 Gordon Drive, boasts 72,500 square feet of selling space in a former Walmart. The building had been extensively remodeled. The nation's largest retailer vacated the building in 2001 in favor of opening a larger Supercenter at 3400 Singing Hills Blvd.
The new store is now the largest of 66 Bomgaars locations in a six-state area.
The old store, at 6001 Gordon Drive, opened in 2000, in a building that began as a Menards. United Rental also leases space in the building.
The original Gordon Drive location had 40,000 square feet to work with. The new location nearly doubles the square footage and bests the location at 1732 Hamilton Blvd., which has close to 70,000 square feet.
People are also reading…
Despite the smaller size, the original Gordon Drive location grew quickly after its millennial opening. Although both that store and the Hamilton store have done very well in recent years, Wingert said, the Gordon Drive store grew more rapidly.
Scores of workers spent a few days moving inventory from one location to another. Once the doors to the original Gordon Drive location closed it was a scramble to keep the momentum going forward until the new store was open.
In the end, the Gordon Drive Bomgaars spent barely a day closed, allowing for a near seamless transition. The hard work and future planning had paid off.
“We basically did a couple of months worth of construction and refurbishing the store,” Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer Torrey Wingert said. “Once we had all the fixtures set we moved the store in about two days, so the store was really closed for one full day.”
This isn’t the first move for the Bomgaars crew, though, over the years the company has moved about 12 locations. After a while, Wingert said, you find a groove and a pattern, and you know just what needs to be done to move a store.
Logistically, it’s a challenge, but practice makes perfect, Wingert said. Between 60 and 90 days of remodeling were done on the new building before the move could start. With all the preparations in place that move took only about two days.
“We’ve done a lot of these over the years where we’ve relocated to new bigger buildings in existing markets,” Wingert said. “We moved our downtown store to Hamilton and we’ve done a dozen or so since then. So you get to be pretty good at the planning and coordinating. And we bring in about 100 people from our existing stores to help move.”
A Bomgaars-controlled entity purchased the building in 2011 with future expansion in mind. The building was purchased for more than $3 million, according to city records.
A long-term lease held by Walmart prevented competing retailers from locating there for a number of years.
That lease had been scheduled to run through 2016. Wingert said Bomgaars officials negotiated an early termination of the contract. That deal was finalized in July.
“We have the freedom now to do what we want,” Wingert said then. “We decided to make a move now instead of waiting another year when the lease on our (existing) building expires.”
In recent years the Bomgaars chain has expanded its coverage area into new states and territory. Further parts of Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, Colorado and Wyoming are now considered Bomgaars country.
Other Bomgaars stores located in former Walmarts are in Denison, Iowa, and Sterling, Colo., Wingert said.
The original Gordon Drive location employed about 40 people, but 10 new jobs were expected to be created with the new store’s opening in October. Further expansions to the store may allow for more jobs as well.
“With most of the retail being on that end of town I think that store and that location is going to continue to grow quite a bit in the next years,” Wingert said.
He said the store had an excellent holiday season.
“It’s been very well received by the community,” he said. “It’s done considerably more business than the old store and it’s kind of exceeding our expectations. We’re very pleased.”
Additional services will likely be added to the location in the near future to further expand the clientele.
“We’re looking at opening a new small engine repair shop that we’re adding onto the west end of the building,” Wingert said. “It will be for lawnmowers, snowblowers.”
The small engine repair shop will likely be open in the spring, Wingert said. They’re looking at the future to keep moving forward.
"It's just another service we'll add," he said.
“We had a good winter and holiday selling season,” he said. “We’re looking at spring now to see if we can kind of keep that momentum going.”
One thing that won't change as the company grows is attention to its customers.
“We’re going to keep doing what we always do,” Wingert said. “And that is good service.”
