A Discount Tire store will be coming to Durango after a local church sold a $1 million parcel near Walmart.
New Hope Durango sold the 1.3-acre tract to Halle Properties LLC of Arizona.
Discount Tire, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is a nationwide chain with more than 875 locations, including 46 in Colorado. The closest location to Durango is in Farmington.
Bruce Halle and James Silhasek, two Discount Tire officials, are listed as part of the Arizona corporation that purchased the lot. Halle is the founder, sole owner and chairman of Discount Tire, while Silhasek is vice president and general counsel.
The tire store is scheduled to open toward the end of the year, the company said. The building will be about 7,373 square feet. The business will employ approximately 10 employees in a mix of full-time and part-time jobs.
After years of inactivity for commercially zoned land, the transaction marks a turning point, said Don Ricedorff, a Wells Group agent who represented the Durango church in the transaction.
Postrecession, the transaction is “one of the first sales of properties at values that’s basically the fair market value of the property,” he said.
“This is a retailer saying I want that location, and I’m willing to pay for that location,” he said.
The transaction, which closed May 6, is one of the most significant La Plata County land sales of 2014 to date. In the first quarter, the top land sale of 1 to 9 acres was for only $330,000, according to the Durango Area Association of Realtors.
Parcels in that category spent an average of 354 days on the market. The Walmart-area parcel was not publicly listed. Halle Properties approached the church about the parcel, Ricedorff said.
The sale will fill an empty commercial lot in the busy south Durango area. The area, anchored by Walmart and Home Depot, brings in more sales-tax revenue than any other part of the city.
Retail in south Durango appears to be thriving, if city of Durango sales-tax collections are any guide. The city collected more than $2 million in sales-tax revenue from south Durango in the first three months of this year. That was up 17.5 percent from the same period in 2013.
The south Durango corridor is home to La Plata County’s highest traffic counts and strongest visibility, Ricedorff said.
“It’s the best location in the area,” he said.
New Hope had intended to build a church on the site, Ricedorff said. The church meets in Durango Stadium 9, the movie theater complex near Durango Mall. New Hope still intends to build a church somewhere in the Durango area, he said.
Discount Tire will compete directly with Big O Tires, which is located at 1210 Escalante Ave., as well as other local tire stores.
cslothower@durangoherald.com
This story has been corrected from an earlier version that incorrectly referred to Discount Tire stores as franchises. The company’s stores are company-owned, not franchised.
By the numbers
$330,000 – Highest price for commercial land sale of between 1 and 9 acres in first quarter of 2014.
354 days - Average number of days commercial properties have been sitting on the market.
$1 million - Price Halle Properties LLC paid for 1.3 acres of land for a Discount Tire store.
$2 million – Amount of sales tax revenue the city of Durango collected from retail businesses along the south Durango corridor in first quarter of 2014.
