Jan. 19, 2018

Big City Motors is getting bigger.

Owner Rod Woelfel bought a vacant lot to the south of his new location on West 12th Street and plans to construct a 20,000- to 25,000-square-foot showroom and shop in spring.

Woelfel merged his consignment business, 12th Street Auto Mart, into Big City Motors last year after leasing the auto mart location to Harbor Freight Tools and Dollar Tree. He then moved his used-vehicle dealership, which also had a home on West 12th, to the former Vern Eide location at 12th and Lyons Avenue.

“We’re still doing consignments,” he said. “But 12th Street Auto Mart now operates under the Big City Motors name.”

Woefel said he’ll use the new building as a showroom for some of the nicer vehicles he’s selling. It also will be the location for the “service work, detailing, window tinting, remote-start installation, paintless dent repair and for installation of glass and windshields and after-market accessories,” he said. The sales staff will work out of the original building.

He’ll continue to use property at 12th and Williams Avenue as an overflow lot for recent trade-ins and bigger vehicles.

Woelfel started Big City Motors in 1989 and has grown it to a staff that includes 10 full-time positions and a few part-timers.