Kirkland, Wash.--Founded as a
Chevrolet dealer in 1933 by Lee Johnson Sr., the
third-generation family ownership of Lee Johnson
Chevrolet-Mazda is completing a $10 million expansion of its
9-acre site near I-405 that it has occupied since 1968, said
brothers Brett and Tod Johnson, dealer principals.
“We had the vision in
the mid-‘90s to expand,” Tod Johnson said, “and Mazda that we
added in 1987 wanted us to have a separate showroom, so we
started the design process a few years ago and began the
actual construction in August 2005. We will be completed with
the expansion in September.”
Johnson also said that when the renovation and expansion of the Chevrolet and Mazda stores are completed, the brothers plan to build a new Kia store between the two showrooms and move the nearby Kia store they purchased last February to the main Lee Johnson site.
Already completed are the 7,000-square-foot Chevrolet showroom with second-floor offices and the 66,000-square-foot parts and service center behind that showroom, the brothers said.
“We will have about
the same space in the Mazda showroom,” Brett Johnson said,
“but we have doubled the space in service and parts area
because it’s an important aspect of our business. When we were
planning the expansion, our parts manager, Steve Roberts, said
parts and service are not the back end--it’s the backbone of
the business, and that has proved to be right. Our partner and
general manager, Dick Meyers, also said the future is in
service, so we planned for 70 stalls.”
Tod Johnson added that their service department may be the largest in the state. “We also have six detail stalls and an outside wash area,” he said.
Service Manager Cliff Kemp, a
25-year veteran at Lee Johnson, said he can use 72 total
stalls if needed in the service department and that about 30
technicians and six service writers are on staff, plus six
detail personnel. Brett Johnson said that, on average, 2,200
vehicles are serviced at the store each month.
The parts department, which
occupies 10,000 square feet of the service center, has a staff
of 21, said Roberts, who has been at the store for 12 years.
He said he was the parts manager at Blade Chevrolet in Mount
Vernon before that.
“We sell over $600,000
a month in Chevrolet, Mazda, and Kia parts, and stock about
$650,000 GM, $250,000 Mazda, and $130,000 Kia parts here,” he
said. “About 65 percent of our wholesale business is sheet
metal, the remainder being mechanical parts.”
All of the parts arrive at a central shipping point and are transported by elevator to an upper parts storage are, Roberts said. From there, the firm’s delivery trucks are loaded for deliveries to wholesale accounts.
The new service center
features a lighting concept that provides high output with
soft lighting but low energy use, Tod Johnson said. “We
received a grant from Puget Sound Energy to put these new
lights in, and they work very well. They will pay for
themselves in one to one and a half years.”
The brothers said they also installed a Columbia/Shenandoah boiler in the service center that burns the used oil accumulated in the shop and heats the entire 66,000-square-foot facility. They said they had oil heaters in their old facility, but the new unit is much larger, more efficient, and burns very clean.
“It’s an environmental
issue, we don’t have to have our used oil hauled away, and we
can save a great deal on utility costs,” Tod Johnson said. “We
think it will pay for itself within two
years.”
The Johnson brothers, noting
that they also own Speedway Chevrolet in Monroe and Dewey
Griffin in Bellingham--a Buick, Pontiac, GMC, and Subaru
store--said they have the space on their site for a fourth
brand and may add an import or domestic line at some
point.
Lee Johnson Chevrolet-Mazda completing $10 million expansion
