CPG NEWS - Another Dealer Sucumbs To Hard Times

Posted Jan 25/2011

Harley-Davidson of Maryland will host a retirement party Feb. 5 and is set to close permanently Feb. 28. 

“The business is closing, in part, due to the down economy,” Tina Ice, 66, who has owned the Elkridge dealership since 1991, plans to retire and move to Wallace, N.C., where she and her husband will build a new home.

“Selling the dealership was an option, but it would have been harder than a retirement, which serves to strengthen the other dealers in the area,” she told Elkridge Patch. There are Harley-Davidson dealers in Essex, Laurel, Annapolis and Frederick.

The dealership is down to 18 employees from a high of 54 several years ago. For the past seven years, the dealer has occupied a 36,000-square-foot, visible from U.S. Route 1. There is speculation that high real estate costs played a role in the dealer’s demise. “Harley wanted her to build this and she did; now it’s closing—very sad,” GM Jack Corbin told the newspaper.

“They needed to move [from their old site] for a long time. Unfortunately, the building they have now has costs that make their overhead very difficult,” says Bob Henig, owner of Bob’s BMW in Annapolis Junction.

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