As published in Toledo Business Journal - December 1, 2019
Great Lakes Freightliner Western Star Trucks’ facility in Monroe, Michigan
Great Lakes Freightliner Western Star Trucks of Monroe (GLFWS) – a full-service Freightliner and Western Star truck dealership with sales, parts, and service departments and part of the Valley Trucks Centers family – has invested $1.3 million in a 9,000-plus square foot addition project to its current vehicle service department. The addition provided eight additional service bays, as well as one inside vehicle wash bay.
Steve Sutton, general manager at Valley Freightliner of Toledo / GLFWS, said, “We wanted to add vehicle repair capacity to minimize customer vehicle downtime and address the need for more service bays industry-wide. With multiple years of record vehicle sales, the need for more service bays is increasing along with it.”
GLFWS’s local and nationwide customers are medium-duty to heavy-duty vehicle operators in the on-highway, vocational, municipal, rental / leasing, and pick-up and delivery markets.
Interior view of GLFWS’s new addition to its vehicle service department
The fast-track project started in early June and wrapped up in September. James S. Jacobs Architects, based in Monroe, Michigan, was the architect for the project, and Rudolph Libbe Inc., of the Rudolph Libbe Group, was design/build contractor and supplied the Varco-Pruden pre-engineered metal building. Rudolph Libbe Inc.’s own craftspeople self-performed excavation and concrete, and GEM Inc., also of the Rudolph Libbe Group, erected the building.
According to Sutton, the original service department was approximately 6,000 square feet and this project more than doubled its size. The project also included a clean burn oil furnace to reuse waste oil for heating, skylights to utilize natural lighting and reduce energy consumption, motion sensing lights for energy savings, and glass panel doors for natural lighting.
“The owner wanted to incorporate natural light into the facility, so we integrated skylights with glass panels into the garage doors. We also removed fencing to the wetlands at the back of the property for drainage and to provide an open view for their employees,” said Jamie Generous, account manager, Rudolph Libbe Group’s Michigan office. “Strong communication, budget, and timely completion were essential as well. Ensuring that our customer’s facility could continue operating throughout construction was extremely important. For example, we worked with them to maintain truck traffic and coordinated our asphalt and water line installation on days when traffic was lighter.”
The company has a total of 35 employees at this location and is expected to add 10 new employees, noted Sutton.
“We are continuing to expand our company footprint by providing a high level of service to our customers,” added Sutton.