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FAIRMONT -- This week marked the 30th year that the Hawkins Chevrolet dealership has been in Fairmont.
Over the past three decades, the business has expanded from the original site of the former Motor Inn in the 1300 block of East Blue Earth Avenue to include buildings and lots across the adjoining streets.
The dealership will continue its growth in 2019 with the opening of Hawkins Collision Center, a body shop, on the north side of Blue Earth Avenue, across the street from the main office. The site is being readied for construction, which will begin later this month, with hope for a June opening.
"It wasn't something we planned. It wasn't something we'd been dreaming about," said Tom Hawkins, who heads the dealership, but the decision to add a body shop stemmed from necessity.
At the end of 2017, Don's Body Shop, which had done all the body work for Hawkins Chevrolet, closed when owner Don Shiakoski retired. Shiakoski had offered to sell the shop to Hawkins, but he had no interest at the time, and Shiakoski ended up selling his building to another business.
"Don's was one of the busiest body shops around, from an insurance standpoint," Tom Hawkins said. "We started hearing that it was about a two-month backlog for body work. We looked at the market and found out that it was somewhat underserved, so we looked at maybe putting a paint booth in one of our other buildings and doing our own body work."
Steve Hawkins, general manager at the dealership, and Josh Walker, fixed operations director in charge of service and parts, joined in exploring the level of need for a body shop. Their research was prompted by Jeff Smith, a long-time employee of Don's Body Shop, who wanted to join the Hawkins team as their body man.
"If it weren't for Jeff, we probably wouldn't be doing this," Tom Hawkins said, calling Smith "a quality body man and an efficient guy."
"We feel like we kinda hit a gold mine with him," Walker said. "Jeff is a such a great guy. He's a great employee, and he does a great job."
Steve Hawkins said a lot of dealerships closed their body shops in the 1980s, finding them too costly to maintain.
"As we've evolved with technology, it's become more efficient, more affordable," he said."We're going in with everything brand new. We'll have state-of-the-art everything, from estimating booths to paint equipment."
The new equipment and technology incorporated into the body shop will reduce the time for repairs, cutting a weeklong job to a day or two, which will make it popular with insurance companies that pay tens of millions of dollars a day for rental vehicles for their customers. The reduced repair time also will be favored by customers who will get their vehicles back more quickly.
"We think we're going to start with three or four employees, but then if we get busy, we will have room for another two or three body technicians if we need them," Steve Hawkins said.
"We designed the building so it can be easily added on to if we need more room," Walker said.
The dealership already is doing a bit of body work, using one of its current buildings for light prep work and paying Day Plumbing and Heating, new owners of Don's Body Shop building, a daily rental fee to use its paint booth.
"Jeff is already working on a small scale. We purchased the estimating system, and we're working with the insurance companies," Tom Hawkins said.
Tom Hawkins says they will use the "walk before you run" philosophy in getting the new collision center operating, but there are plans for future endeavors.
"The other thing we're hoping, after we get going and adding technicians, is to dabble in custom work," Steve Hawkins said, adding that Walker already has designed a logo using "Red Hawk" as the name for the specialized service. "We hope to have options for people to customize their cars or motorcycles."