Big plans are in the works for one longtime Niles business that will add space and the opportunity for jobs to its current operations.

Nate Zolman, of Zolman Tire, located at 1901 South 11th St. in Niles Township, said his sole Michigan facility is getting a pretty hefty facelift.

“We’ve had hopes for over five years to make this happen and then with the economic downturn of 2008, 2009 — being optimistic that everything will turn back around eventually — we decided to (have a) basically ‘build it and they will come’ mentality,” Zolman said.

At the end of February, Zolman Tire will move its current operations to a temporary facility — still on South 11th Street — just across the street from Wendy’s and south of Speedway, at 1420 South 11th St. in Niles to allow for demolition and complete reconstruction of its current facility.

Zolman said he has been wanting to build a new facility at the corner of South 11th Street and Bell Road for five years.

“It’s been a great facility and great location for the community for our business,” he said.

His family-owned and operated company, with numerous locations in the South Bend area, has been on that property for the last 25 years, Zolman said, since it was known as Martin Tire.

“We were always a silent partner in Martin Tire,” he said. “When we started expanding, Granger and Edison Road in Mishawaka, our Notre Dame store and our South Bend store, it just made sense to put our name on that one also.”

In 1998, Zolman became the only owner of the business.

Now, on average, the facility services 60 customers per day.

“Well over 80 percent of our customers are return customers,” Zolman said. “(About) 70 percent of them are waiting on their vehicle (at the facility) and 30 percent are dropping their vehicles off.”

Zolman, with the help of attorney Mike Bell of Kotz Sangster Wysocki and Berg in Buchanan, who he said was instrumental in the process, worked closely with the Niles Charter Township Zoning Department in order to see his vision for a new facility come to light.

The zoning department is the first step for many business owners who are hoping to expand or renovate their business.

“They’ll sit down with me,” said Stefanie Woodrick, zoning administrator. “We’ll open up the zoning book, we’ll see how they’re zoned, we’ll kind of bounce things back and forth and see what they’re wanting to do.”

A lot of businesses in the township, Woodrick said, haven’t attempted to make changes to their property since 2005.

“With that particular property,” she said, “due to the size of it, we did have to go before the zoning board of appeals for a couple of variances.”

“One of the concessions we had to make,” Zolman said, “(Is) my building can not be any larger than my old building.”

That was definitely a challenge, Zolman said, “trying to build a facility with the footprint, the exact square footage no bigger than our current building.”

That fact put limits on Zolman’s design but he made it work.

“We had to make that same square footage as efficient as possible,” he said. “So what we did is, we made five 12-by-14-foot doors facing south to accommodate any size consumer consumer vehicle from box trucks on down. Then on the north side we have three 12-by-12-foot bays.”

Currently, he said, Zolman staff are working out of nine “small, not deep enough, not wide enough, not tall enough … extremely outdated bays.”

The new bays will be wider, with more space and more convenience for technicians, which will make it possible for them to work on more customers in the same amount of time.

“We’ll be more efficient with less bays,” Zolman said.

“Think of it like a restaurant,” he added. “If a server takes an hour to serve that one table — say it’s $20 a head for that one hour — well, if you’re able to satisfy the customer and turn that table twice without having the customer feel rushed or reducing quality, it’s the same concept.”

In addition to the redesigned work space and customer waiting area, Zolman said the company will install environmentally-friendly ground water hydraulic hoists as opposed to the original oil-based hoists and move tire storage above the showroom with a specialized conveyor system.

“The conveyor system is so no one hurts their backs, lifting and unloading, making it employee ergonomic-friendly,” Zolman said.

The new customer waiting area will be more modern, he added, with wi-fi capabilities.

“This is actually the first new facility in our company’s history,” Zolman said. “The Niles location was definitely the most dilapidated facility (and is) the largest volume store of our satellite stores that we have.”

Location and community also factored into the plans, according to Zolman, who said staying in the Niles area was important to him.

“We’re happy to invest in the Niles community,” he said. “Niles is a great place to develop. (It) and the greater community just seems to have a real good, hometown customer base (with) hardworking, good family values.”

With the paperwork, the legalities and the planning all behind him, Zolman and his Niles crew are now gearing up for their new temporary home.

Demolition and construction is scheduled to begin in the first week of March. Zolman said starting Friday, Feb. 25, he, along with an estimated 25 contractors and his employees, will physically move all of the facility’s equipment to their temporary location.

“We’re physically moving all of the equipment … and we’ll be 100 percent functional to a limited degree in a different location,” he said.

Construction is expected to last six months.

“So we should be in our new building Sept. 1,” he said.

For her part, Woodrick is hoping the new facility will encourage other business owners to look at their property and possibly make new changes as well as bring more people to the South 11th Street corridor.

“Not only do I think but I really hope that it will make just in general that whole corridor more attractive,” she said. “it’s something positive in general for our community.”