LANCASTER, OH (BRAIN)—Industry veteran Dan Peters is not so much relocating Lancaster Bicycle as he is launching a mini-empire.
By late summer or early fall, he hopes to have moved his three-year-old shop into about 10,000 square feet on the ground floor of a three-story, 150,000-square-foot building from the 1920s he’s leasing. And Peters’ long-term plans also call for an indoor bike park, climbing walls, remote-control racecar tracks and an indoor airsoft/paintball arena.
On the ground floor, Lancaster Bicycle will have as its neighbor Crook’s Cycle Right, a bike fit and coaching center. “I can sell the bike and then send them down the hallway to get fit. It saves me from having to do it,” said Peters, former manager of Bike Source in Columbus and a onetime Kenda sales and promotion rep. The bike park will also be built on the ground floor.
With his extra showroom space, Peters hopes to add a first-tier bike brand, such as Specialized, to the Raleighs, Diamondbacks, Lynskeys, Lapierres, Redlines and Surlys he currently sells. He’s also adding a women’s department—something he couldn’t do in his current 1,700-square-foot location—and will expand into outdoor gear, offering products from QBP Outdoor.
A firm open date is still up in the air as Peters works to renovate the 90-year-old building, gutting the entire space and installing all new electrical and lighting. “The newest stuff in the building was from the mid-’80s, so that’s been causing delays,” he said.
