April 2, 2011 12:05 AM
DAYTONA BEACH -- The store where Bruce Rossmeyer started his Harley-Davidson empire will no longer sell motorcycles.
"The Original" Bruce Rossmeyer Harley-Davidson, at 290 N. Beach Street, closed Friday and will reopen in the fall as a museum and souvenir/apparel store.
Mandy Rossmeyer Campbell, the company's spokeswoman, said Bruce Rossmeyer had stored many collectibles at the Destination Daytona store in Ormond Beach before his death in a 2009 motorcycle accident and had always wanted to open a museum celebrating Harley-Davidson's history in Daytona.
"We love the original location on Beach Street, and we want to keep it, and we thought it would be the perfect place to follow and make sure that we carried out his vision," Rossmeyer Campbell said.
The museum will feature private motorcycle collections from across Florida, as well as chronicle Harley-Davidson's growth in the state.
Although Bruce Rossmeyer started his nationwide Harley-Davidson business at Beach Street in 1994, the company's motorcycle sales are now headquartered at the 109,000-square-foot Destination Daytona dealership. Rossmeyer Family Enterprises owns 13 Harley-Davidson locations nationwide, including stores in Boston, Mississippi and Colorado.
Rossmeyer Campbell said the Beach Street location was a natural choice for the museum and apparel store, since most of the motorcycle business has shifted to Destination Daytona in the six years since it opened. She said the company is considering a plan for renovations and will have the museum open in time for Biketoberfest.
"We have thousands of visitors every year that come to that store for T-shirts and apparel, and that's going to remain the same," Rossmeyer Campbell said.
Downtown Daytona Beach has struggled with attracting new business in recent years, with a long-closed car dealership and empty window fronts. However, Kevin Manley, who owns real estate on South Beach Street, including the Ivy Lane Bistro and Cinematique building next door, said he doesn't think the dealership's temporary closing will have a bad effect on downtown as a whole.
"I've never really thought of that as a big draw for downtown, personally ... I know as far as our business goes, Cinematique and Ivy Lane, we're kind of a different clientele," he said.
Enzo Furlani, who runs Indian Motorcycle down the road at 402 N. Beach Street, said having the Harley-Davidson dealership nearby brought him business because customers knew North Beach Street as a motorcycle area. However, he said, he believes customers will adapt to the transition from dealership to museum.
"I think it's very odd, but it will definitely still be an attraction," Furlani said. "Harley will always be a very powerful company to deal with."
The Rossmeyers closed other stores in recent years but have said it was part of the company's long-term planning strategy. They sold Shelly Rossmeyer Motorcycles at Destination Daytona in 2009, and shut down the Pompano store in March after trying for a year to sell it. The company also changed the management of the New Smyrna Beach dealership in efforts to attract business, said Shelly Rossmeyer Pepe, the head licensed dealer at Destination Daytona. She said they chose to focus their South Florida resources on stores in Sunrise and Fort Lauderdale where they had largely invested.
Most of the Beach Street store's employees will be offered jobs at other local Rossmeyer dealerships, Rossmeyer Campbell said. Tom Cottrell, who said he had worked with Rossmeyer Harley-Davidson in the parts department on and off for six years, said he was told he'd be on the list for rehiring. However, he said he was frustrated about not being given advance notice.
In the past two years, Harley-Davidson Corporate ramped up activity during Bike Week at the Beach Street location after previously having displays at the Ocean Center. Mike Morgan, a spokesman for Harley-Davidson, said he doesn't expect that to change.
"We had an outstanding experience on Beach Street this year, and would look forward to having a similar presence there again next year," he said.
Georgia Turner, director of specialized markets for the Daytona Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, said she thought having the new attraction would pique visitors' interest in Biketoberfest.
"From a tourism aspect, that's what we're so excited about: having another world-class museum," Turner said. "And anything they do is going to be world class."
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Topic: Beach Street Harley stops selling motorcycles (Read 1147 times)