If an implement dealership can be elegant, the new Deer Trail Implement building is.
“We still pinch ourselves to see if it’s real,” Manager Richard Garber said Nov. 17 from a new office that looks out onto the showroom floor.
Deer Trail moved on a three-day weekend this month and until last week was still settling into office spaces, unboxing merchandise, and arranging displays.
“Today is the first day I’ve come to work at 6:30 instead of 4:30,” Garber said. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen my house in the daylight.”
The results have been worth the effort.
The new building more than tripled the size of the former location, with 35,000 square feet of floor space and 15 acres for parking and displaying equipment, compared to the previous 11,000 square feet and 1.5 acres. Adjoining property also is available for future development.
“This was built for the customers,” Garber said. “This wasn’t built as a monument to Deer Trail.”
Construction started in February of this year.
“But the planning behind it has been a 2 1/2- to 3-year process,” Garber said. “The Deer Trail group had made a conscious decision prior to buying that if they did, it would need at least a different or a new facility, and that decision was made before the ink was ever dry.”
Deer Trail officials looked for a new location for eight or nine months and, because three 100-year floods occurred during that time, “we soon found out what flooded and what didn’t,” he said.
The new building, which cost $2.3 million, will carry $300,000 in parts inventory and several million dollars’ worth of new and used equipment. Hastco was general contractor for the project.
The shop area is airy and bright with an assortment of over-sized overhead doors to accommodate large equipment that needs maintenance and repair. The shop has a massive tractor wash and is heated with radiant floors that burn waste oil. To the north sits a separate shop for lawn and landscaping equipment repair. It has its own entrance and a locked fenced area to the side for mower storage.
The building is equipped with lockers and a shower room that doubles as a tornado shelter, rows and rows of shelving, a library with computers and books for technical reference and a mezzanine above that holds computer servers and a break room. Loading docks have not yet been finished.
A conference room, which will hold about 50 people, has restroom facilities and a separate entrance that can be used for agriculture-related meetings when the dealership is closed.
“We’re going to have a lot of classes out here,” Garber said.
There will be a meteorology session as it applies to agriculture, seed and technology groups and other seminars that will be scheduled.
The showroom flooring is a seamless new product made of layers of epoxy and quartz crystals and colored grit. The dry ingredients are sprinkled over a layer of epoxy, then the excess is vacuumed away, and the process is repeated about four times, Garber said.
A spacious enclosed foyer helps keep the cold and heat away from the showroom floor. The foyer opens to reveal large tiles with a grass motif that is a hallmark of John Deere’s “dealer of tomorrow” concept.
Massive limestone blocks have been placed as part of the landscaping, and limestone posts with cedar rails will line the driveway.
A wide assortment of clothing — some in John Deere pink — sits on the showroom floor along with other Deere merchandise, from scrunchies for hair to cutting boards and clocks to windmills and bicycles. Gators and other wheeled toys for children ring the showroom and a special area designated for children is packed with new toys and DVDs.
Just before moving, Garber hired four people to augment the staff that would be needed in the new store. Several more technicians and a salesperson will be added soon.
Garber said that, though the new dealership sits outside town, the move is showing signs of being a good one.
“There’s still a tremendous amount of traffic flowing from western Kansas on Highway 50. We’ve actually had people comment that they didn’t know there was a John Deere dealership in Emporia,” he said.
The only major negative in the move is one that will be resolved, and Garber would prefer that it be sooner rather than later because he is concerned about safety.
A proposal to modify U.S. Highway 50 at the dealership entrance has been approved by the Kansas Department of Transportation, but work is not expected to start until spring or later. The change will improve traffic turning in and out of the dealership.
“The county submitted plans to KDOT and they are just waiting for approval,” he said. “We could see something accomplished this spring.”
The project could be delayed, however, if KDOT rejects the county plan and decides to create its own.
“In the meantime, we have petitioned for lowering the speed limit,” Garber said.
A grand opening is planned after the first of the year.