By Stuart Sudak

For Tom Giannetti, the wheels have been turning for nearly two years on bringing a Harley-Davidson dealership to the southwest suburbs.

But, most of that time, the wheels have done more sputtering than moving – until now. After exploring a myriad of possible sites, including one that drew the ire of residents of a nearby Chanhassen neighborhood, Giannetti’s search has finally ended in Eden Prairie.

Giannetti confirmed Monday that he purchased the LaMettry’s Collision building at 12480 Plaza Drive near Menards, at the northwest corner of Highway 5 and Interstate 494, with plans to transform it into Wild Prairie Harley-Davidson/Buell.

He hopes to have the two-story, 31,000-square-foot dealership, which is much smaller than what he was pursuing in Chanhassen, open for business sometime before Christmas.

LaMettry’s Collision, which is still open at the location, will move to the old Land Rover site on Valley View Road after the deal closes next month.

“We’ve been all over that southwest corridor, up and down the new Highway 212 corridor,” explained Giannetti, who owns St. Paul Harley-Davidson/Buell in Landfall, Minn., with his wife Melanie. “We looked at another building in Eden Prairie, we looked at a couple spots in Eden Prairie, then found a piece of land in Chanhassen. … When the opportunity with LaMettry came up, it was smaller than what I was hoping, but it will be a nice store.”

He did have high hopes for the Chanhassen site, at the southwest corner of Lyman Boulevard and Highway 101. But his informal proposal to build an 84,000-square-foot, two-story dealership was criticized earlier this year during two neighborhood meetings by nearby residents concerned with, among other things, the traffic and noise they feared it would generate.

“They weren’t interested in coming up with solutions to their concerns, they were just interested in saying they didn’t want us to be there,” he said.

Giannetti did buy the land, but decided not to bring his proposal in front of the city of Chanhassen. It had been nearly two years since he beat out other Harley-Davidson business owners for the opportunity to build a dealership in the southwest corridor, and he wanted to get moving on a site.

“We looked at some other options in Chanhassen, but wouldn’t be able to put something together,” said Giannetti, who is undecided on what he will do with the Chanhassen land. “We were trying to do anything we could, but I couldn’t take a chance of locking into some other location and then going through four months of process and not having it turn out.”

So, he decided to look at a site “zoned and ready” for his dealership. Indeed, Giannetti’s plans for the LaMettry building, which is near two auto dealerships, do not need to go through the city planning process since it’s already zoned for commercial use.

“And Eden Prairie was very happy to have a retail store going in that location,” he said.

Prime location

Harley-Davidson’s journey to the southwest metro began after results of a market study it did of the Twin Cities showed the area offered the company tremendous potential and was vastly underserved, Giannetti said.

The planned expansion of Highway 100 and the completion of new Highway 212 were also factors.

“People who buy these motorcycles, which are very expensive, are folks who live in communities like Eden Prairie,” said David Lindahl, the city’s economic development manager. “People everywhere buy them but this is a big market for it, so I think it will be a great addition for Eden Prairie.”

While talking of the reaction his proposed dealership received at two neighborhood meetings in Chanhassen, Giannetti said some wrongly assume what type of people ride motorcycles these days.

“It’s not [people with] piercings and tattoos so much anymore as it is laptops and Rolexes,” he said.

Lindahl is also happy LaMettry is staying in town, and moving to the Land Rover site, which has been vacant for three years. He noted that the site has been a tough sell for many, since it offers only right-turn-in, right-turn-out access off Valley View Road.

“That to me seems like a wonderful fit,” he said. “Auto body doesn’t have a lot of in and out traffic, so the limited access should be fine.”