With a broad grin, Mike Schwartz, BE '81, spins a tale from 21 years ago, when as a college freshman, he and a buddy cashed in their cafeteria meal tickets to buy a $1,200 Kawasaki motorcycle.
These days, motorcycles are Schwartz' major meal ticket because of a trio of booming businesses he has created in New Castle County, Del.
Last December, he unlocked the doors to an $8 million Harley-Davidson entertainment complex, Mike's Famous Roadside Rest. The complex is built around the twin themes of American highway culture prior to 1970 and the Harley "hog," the cycle that both captivates and scares the bejeezus out of drivers everywhere.
Curiosity about Harleys, Schwartz predicts, will be the big draw. Mike's Famous Roadside Rest is backed by the storied 95-year-old motorcycle company, which over the past decade has made an amazing comeback. Last year, Harley-Davidson was the U.S. leader in heavyweight motorcycles, generating $1.76 billion in sales.
The Milwaukee-based company has been encouraging its dealers to create attractions that feature apparel, collectibles and other licensed Harley-Davidson products.
Schwartz has made that desire a reality. His northern Delaware showplace is the largest budgeted Harley-Davidson dealership nationwide. Schwartz' master plan is simple: Focus on the mystique of Harleys and the image of highways, rest areas, motorcycles and motor courts of the 1940s and 1950s. His is a "Route 66" experience that uncovers an extensive array of artifacts gleaned from the era.
The nostalgia-laden complex showcases a Museum of the Road, the Warehouse Grill and Mike's Famous Harley-Davidson dealership, which Schwartz has owned for five years. It's all housed in a 40,000-square-foot building that fuses a replica of Harley's red-bricked, 1903 manufacturing plant on the north side exterior with the smooth-textured, multi-colored enamel panels that emulate the service stations of post-World War II.
With his complex set in the shadow of the Delaware Memorial Bridge that spans the Delaware River and connects Delaware with New Jersey, Schwartz says he hopes to pluck his share of the estimated 100,000 cars a day (30 million annually) that travel Interstate-295. Some 80 percent of the travelers are tourists.
Dressed in a Harley-Davidson denim shirt, jeans and work boots, the burly Schwartz rears back in his chair and expounds on his vision.
"I'm selling nostalgia," says Schwartz. "I saw the opportunity to bring retailing, food and entertainment together, but, unlike a lot of other retailers who are doing this in a trophy property in major cities, we're doing it right on the highway. This was never really my dream. It all kind of fell into place with the success of the dealership."
After graduating from UD with an economics degree, Schwartz' first job was selling paging equipment. Six years later, he bought the company. In 1989, he acquired Wilmington's ABC Ticket Co. By the early '90s, Schwartz, married and father of a young son, was content to run a pair of financially secure businesses.
That was before he jumped on a Harley, rolled on the throttle and thundered down the road.
"I had never ridden a Harley and I wanted to find out what this allure was of 'owning the road,'" he says. "Once I saw for myself what made this bike so popular, I was hooked."
On April Fool's Day in 1994, he purchased a languishing dealership on the outskirts of downtown Wilmington and renamed it Mike's Famous Harley-Davidson.
"The name says it all," says Schwartz. "That's what I wanted the dealership to be. I decided to make buying a Harley a one-of-a-kind experience the buyer wouldn't soon forget."
Through uncompromising customer service, Schwartz quadrupled the dealership's revenues to more than $9 million a year. Prosperity brought yet another challenge: Where to expand?
After searching the real estate market for a couple of years, he bought a 5.8-acre parcel of land in New Castle for $1.35 million. The site was a former Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge, built in 1957 and one of the first Ho-Jo's opened in the United States.
Then, Schwartz uncorked his development plan. Since December '97, he has been redeveloping the site, first restoring the vacant orange-roofed triangular registration gatehouse, then constructing the striking dealership/entertainment/cafe complex.
"My place is rough and solid, like a Harley," he says. "It delivers great emotion and the great American past. Honestly, we'd like to be known as the 'South of the Border' of the north."
When visitors enter Schwartz' complex, motorcycles loop in one direction, cars in another. A bricked courtyard adorned with motorcycle displays leads to the north side of the building, which faces the interstate and sports a 125-foot pole sign with the black, white and orange Harley-Davidson bar and shield. The red-brick warehouse façade has a gabled peak roof with stone caps and windowsills outfitted with timeworn window grids.
Inside, structural steel beams have been used to create a workshop/warehouse design along with 10,000 feet of 100-year-old pine hardwood floors reclaimed from warehouses, rough jagged brick walls, exposed heat pipes, ductwork and lighting fixtures from a bygone era. The floor layout offers a series of radiuses and diagonals that play off a basic rectangle. An art deco feel is prevalent in some areas with terrazzo and tile flooring popular in diners of the '40s and '50s.
On a wing of the second story, there's an historical display in which graphics and audio depict Harleys from the '30s to the '90s-an interactive two-wheel journey down the highways of a bygone era.
The museum also features the only Harley-Davidson ridden around the world, an 83,000-mile journey on a '72 Harley Wide Glide by Guinness world record-holder Dave Barr, a paraplegic rider.
For serious bikers, the dealership provides speedy service. For newcomers, it is a friendly place to learn about motorcycles. Clothing merchandise is displayed on salvaged pallets fitted with caster wheels. The setup enables the showroom floor to be changed easily into a venue for special events, such as fundraisers, business mixers and cocktail parties.
Schwartz says he hopes to draw motorcycle enthusiasts, nostalgia buffs, families and tourists from the I-95 corridor. The marketing strategy is to develop a "cafe" atmosphere where, on any given day, there may be live entertainment, a demonstration, book signings or even swing dancing on Friday evenings.
Visitors eating at the 50-seat Warehouse Grille can savor the atmosphere of a turn-of-the-century manufacturing plant cafeteria while watching mechanics in the service area customizing Harleys. A take-out restaurant, called "2GO!," and a welcome center also are in place.
Projections call for approximately 276,000 visitors and $11.5 million in revenues the first year.
Phase two will center around a 6,000-square-foot restaurant across from the dealership, which will feature American fare with seating for 200. Eventually, a second 250-seat restaurant, a 75-room hotel and a "Mike's Famous" service station will join the complex.
Is Schwartz concerned that the general public still has the image of Harley owners as tattooed, leather-clad riders?
"Most people wouldn't believe this, but you are as likely to run into a president of a bank at my dealership as you are a tattooed rider," says Schwartz. "For many of my clients, a Harley is a life treasure."
-Terry Conway