BY CARRIE RENGERS
August 13, 2018 03:34 PM
There’s a for-sale sign at Mid America Powersports at 333 N. West St., but it’s not for the business.
“I have no intention of closing it,” says Ross Reed, who owns the business with his wife, Janet.
“We’d just like to divest ourselves of real estate.”
Even their home is on the market.
The Reeds plan to keep the store where it is unless someone buys the property and wants to do something else with it. At that point, they would have to make a decision about the store.
Ross Reed says they’re open to selling the business, too.
“It’s been tough,” he says. “The industry has changed.”
The store, which sells personal watercraft, scooters, side-by-sides, motorcycles and lawn and garden and other power equipment, used to have about 50 employees. Now it has 23.
“We had a much-bigger business at one point, but due to the economy . . . it’s just not the same as it was,” Reed says. “We could easily be in a lot smaller location now.”
The sale of the property, which Landmark Commercial Real Estate has listed, is mostly about planning for the future, Reed says.
“It’s a long-term part of our retirement plan.”