Last Frontier KPBM March 2015

34 |MARCH 2015 WWW.KPBJ.COM
business openings
Hudson Motors expanding onto more of Poulsbo site
By Tim Kelly
KPBJ editor
More pieces are fitting into
place at the former Courtesy
Auto Group site on Poulsbo’s
Viking Avenue.
Hudson Motors is expanding
its used car lot that opened
last year when owner Darren
Hudson bought an acre on the
south end of the property for
his business, which also includes
two lots in Bremerton.
The Morgan family that
owns American Building and
Roofing recently purchased
the last available section of
the Viking Avenue complex, a
3.4-acre parcel that includes
the 40,000-square-foot building
that was Courtesy Ford’s showroom
and service building.
Hudson Motors is leasing
about half the showroom/service
building and part of the lot
adjacent to its current space.
That will allow the business to
start offering auto repair and
maintenance service, something
it has not had the space
for at its Bremerton or Poulsbo
locations.
“It’ll take us a few months to
get that part going,” Darren
Hudson said, because they’ll
have to bring in all the needed
equipment for the service
bays.
“It’s a big jump, but it makes sense to
do it,” he added. “It’ll be good for us, and
good for the community.”
Hudson said he’ll hire a service manager
and several technicians to launch the service
operation.
The sales side in Poulsbo will expand
right away.
“We want to have the new sales office
open and cars on the upper lot by March
1,” he said, and he’s hired a general sales
manager, a position he’s always handled
himself.
Hudson already has moved all the cars
Hudson Auto Center opened a lot
in Poulsbo (above) last year on part
of the former Courtesy Auto Group
site on Viking Avenue. Owner
Darren Hudson is expanding
his operation onto the upper lot
and will take over part of the
former Courtesy showroom (left)
and service facility. Hudson is
leasing the additional space from
American Building & Roofing,
which recently bought the 3.4-acre
parcel that includes the buildings.
ABR plans to move its wholesale
building supplies business to the
site later this year.
from his Callow
Avenue lot in Bremerton to the larger
Poulsbo site, but he said his other
Bremerton lot on Loxie Eagans Boulevard
will continue to operate.
Hudson plans to repurpose
the empty Callow site eventually,
by building up an inventory
there of trade-in vehicles
they get that are older and less
expensive than the range of
used cars at the Poulsbo lot.
Another part of the expansion
will be adding RVs and
travel trailers, a market segment
that Hudson said is picking
up again as the recovery
from the recession continues.
American Building and Roofing,
a building supplies wholesaler
with seven Washington
stores, will move its Poulsbo
operation to the former car
dealership site over the next
few months. Property manager
Dave Pruitte said ABR will use
the back section of the main
building for warehouse space
and will store additional roofing
and building materials on
the back of the lot.
Pruitte said that still leaves
approximately 15,000 square
feet of space that will be leased
in the building.
“We’re in the process of talking
to a number of potential
tenants right now, and we
hope to have that done in the
next two or three weeks,” he
said.
He said a hair salon is interested
in the main floor space,
and that the upstairs spaces are suitable
for medical or professional offices. Anyone
interested in leasing information
should call Pruitte at 360-710-7996.
name change | from 28
in 1999, didn’t see this coming. When he
bought out company founder Pete DeBoer
a couple years ago, he brought in another
partner who did IT work.
“We decided we needed to go back and
really diversify more,” Petersen said. “The
printer now is a computer. So it seems like
(expanding into IT services) was a natural
extension of what we were doing.”
Olympic began offering a “Flex IT” program,
an option that allows businesses
to pay for a set number of hours of computer
service each month, which can be
used when needed. That gives customers
the flexibility of utilizing whatever kind of
service they need, Petersen said, whether
it’s computer repairs or system upgrades.
While the standard charge for regular
computer work is $75 an hour, on the Flex
IT plan it’s $55, and $50 for customers who
sign up for autopay.
“We’re also hoping that by switching to
providing IT services, we’ll get more customers
that need printer cartridges,” Petersen
said.
The company also has resumed the service
of picking up electronic waste for recycling.
“There are numerous electronic items
that are not covered by the Washington
State free E-Cycle program,” said Erik
Petersen, Jeff’s son who is vice president
of operations at Olympic Technology Resources.
The company charges a nominal fee for
picking up these items for processing.
“We are firm in our commitment to being
a green sustainable business,” Erik
Petersen said.