Business News

BUSINESS Kunes expansion progress ‘full speed ahead’

BY BRIAN WEIDMAN bweidman@saukvalley.com

STERLING – Right now, the front of the building at 3200 East Lincolnway in Sterling looks like a derecho slammed into it.

The southeast corner of the structure is exposed, and piles of dirt are everywhere.

A few months from now, this work in progress will be a distant memory. The exposed part of the structure will be a showroom, displaying six of the company’s top-of-the-line vehicles.

Last October, the Kunes Country Auto Group finalized its purchase of the 55,000-square-foot facility, formerly the Sauk Valley Media building, with plans to move from its current location at 2502 Locust St. In 60 to 90 days, the transition should be complete, regional manager Tony Wheatley said.

“The progress is full speed ahead,” Wheatley said. “The contractors are here every single day. We were a little slow out of the gate with some design estimates, getting contractors and things like that, but once we got everything set, we were full speed ahead. They’ve been working every single day, and we plan to open as soon as we can.”

Bigger and better is the plan. More new and used cars will be on display in front of the building, close to Lincolnway, as well as behind the building on Lynn Boulevard. It is hoped sales will jump from about 100 cars a month to 200.

“When you build a new building, the manufacturer rewards you with more inventory,” Wheatley said.

The service area is more than doubling. There are now 10 bays at the facility on Locust. Once up and running in the new facility, 21 bays will be operational.

“It’s going to be a good opportunity,” parts and service manager Travis Tomman said. “We can basically double the amount of customers we bring in on a daily basis. Instead of maybe being a week out on a particular appointment for a customer, I’d like to be able to think we’d be able to get him in the same day. That’s going to improve the customer experience.”

Seventeen of the bays will be similar to the ones currently located at the Locust facility, with all new equipment. Four of the bays will be heavy duty, designed to handle trucks weighing up to 20,000 pounds.

“You’ve got a lot of local businesses ,and they’re using their vehicles day in and day out,” Tomman said. “We’re hoping to help them maintain their vehicles. We can bring their

Photos by Alex T. Paschal/Shaw Media ABOVE: An area under construction in the front of the building at the new Kunes location at 3200 E. Lincolnway in Sterling – the old Sauk Valley Media building – will be an indoor showroom that will accommodate six vehicles. With the expansion, Kunes will be able to increase its inventory of new and used vehicles. BELOW: New concrete is laid in the back of the 55,000-square-foot building, where the newspaper’s printing presses used to sit. The area will be home to 21 new service bays, with three of them being dedicated to heavy trucks.

vehicles in, get them serviced right away, and there will be very little downtime. That’s what we’re shooting for.”

Sullivan Construction, based out of Madison, Wisconsin, is the lead contractor on the project. Subcontractors have all been locally hired, Wheatley said.

“We had a couple different walkthroughs and we invited all the local contractors,” Wheatley said. “It was very important to Gregg Kunes, the owner, and us as a company to make sure the people that were doing business here were local people in our community.”

Additional sales and service staff are expected to be hired once the new facility is up and running to handle the expected increase in business. It makes for an exciting time for a dealership located in Sterling since spring 2015.

“The ultimate goal is to service our customers more efficiently,” Wheatley said. “That’s why we did it. To increase business, yes, but to serve the customers, make sure they’re having a good experience, and get them in and out quicker and more efficient.”