KALAMAZOO— Saying it was a “no-brainer” to maintain the headquarters of the Harold Zeigler Auto Group in Kalamazoo — and to grow jobs and the business here — company President Aaron Zeigler dedicated the group’s new 24,000-square-foot Chrysler, Dodge Ram dealership Thursday evening.
“We’ve been very, very passionate about being in Kalamazoo and creating good-paying jobs in Kalamazoo,” he told more than 300 business leaders, civic leaders, customers and others, before he, members of his family, John Plecha, Great Lakes Business Center Director for Chrysler, and others cut a ceremonial ribbon to open the facility.
Ron Kitchens, chief executive officer of regional economic development organization Southwest Michigan First, said the event was an occasion to applaud.
“We’re here to remind ourselves that communities have to stop and applaud,” Kitchens said, referring to businesses that are in the process of growing jobs here and developing properties here.
Likening the business world to a football game, he said, “We don’t wait until the end of the game to applaud the players. … It is critically important that we stop and say, ‘Thank you,’ and applaud those in our community who continue to invest here, develop here, grow jobs here.”
He said the multimillion-dollar expansion that the Zeigler Auto Group announced in November 2010 and has underway is more validation that the economy is coming back and that the Kalamazoo community is doing well.
Aaron Zeigler said the business that his father Harold started 36 years ago, and for which he built his headquarters building here in 1988, has basically tripled in size over the past eight years. He has repeatedly declined to say how much the business is spending to expand here and in suburban Chicago.
The business has grown from 32 franchises in 11 locations last year to 38 franchises in 14 locations currently, and its staff has grown from 650 to about 825. That includes its local staff, which has grown from about 275 people to 375, with another 25 left to hire here.
The new, two-story Zeigler Chrysler Dodge Ram dealership features state-of-the-art parts and service departments, a multi-media conference room, a fitness center for employees, and upscale waiting lounges with a fireplace for adults and a Wii game system for their children.
Those in attendance included many of the contractors involved in the building project, as well as Michigan Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker, R-Antwerp Township, former Michigan Speaker of the House Chuck Periconne, and various Kalamazoo and Portage city commissioners.
http://www.mlive.com/
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