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Motorcycle USA finds a new home Don Becklin, owner of Motorcycle USA/Motorcycle Superstore, walks through the cubicles of the former Musician's Friend building in Medford Thursday. Friday Jul 13, 2012 at 12:01 AM Jul 13, 2012 at 2:25 AM Don Becklin made it clear the Rogue Valley is Motorcycle USA/Motorcycle Superstore's long-term stomping grounds. By GREG STILES Don Becklin made it clear the Rogue Valley is Motorcycle USA/Motorcycle Superstore's long-term stomping grounds. The owner of the pre-eminent online motorcycle media and retailing empire has purchased the former Musician's Friend building on Chevy Way in north Medford for $3 million. The president and founder of Motorcycle USA/Motorcycle Superstore said his burgeoning company will move into the 44,800-square-foot building on just more than 3 acres in early 2013. "This facility is a long-term investment, showing we're committed to Medford and the Rogue Valley," Becklin said. "Are there challenges here? Yes. "We may have lost big employers such as Musician's Friend, but there are companies that can fill the gaps. "Hopefully, our local governments will work hard to keep employers like ours here and encourage new ones to join the group." The building more than doubles the amount of space presently occupied by the company's 130 employees at its two locations on East McAndrews Road. It is roughly 13,000 square feet bigger than the new headquarters building Motorcycle USA/Motorcycle Superstore had on the drawing board. "We had to act fast," Becklin said. "I liked what we were putting together with our new construction. We had building plans in place and it was really going to be great. In a way, I was sort of wishing it hadn't come along and become a temptation. But those guys at Guitar Center were motivated to get out from under it, and it was really the perfect fit. They were doing the same things we do, just in a different industry. We got it at a decent price, it gives us an opportunity to grow, and it sort of fell into our lap." Musician's Friend was locally owned when the building was constructed in 1992. When Guitar Center acquired the company in 1999 for $48.3 million in stock and assumed its $18.4 million debt, the building was priced at $1.75 million. Bain Capital Partners acquired Guitar Center in 2007 and early last year announced the consolidation of Musician's Friend operations to Guitar Center headquarters in Forest Lake, Calif. The building behind Airport Chevrolet Buick GMC Cadillac has sat empty since the end of 2011. The two-story structure housed Musician's Friend executives, marketers, accountants and Internet operations — much like Motorcycle Superstore does at two locations on East McAndrews Road. "It would be one thing to buy a building and use it for something completely different," he said. Bill Thorndike, Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development Inc.'s board president, said the acquisition was good for the local e-commerce sector and the right kind of business to fill the space. "You hate to see an asset like that sit idle," Thorndike said. "It's such a logical use, a building ideally equipped for Internet commerce. I think the thing we're so impressed with is that this is a sector of the economy where businesses really do have the ability to expand smartly. Don is probably in as good a position as any company to grow more quickly to utilize that space than others." Becklin said he felt bad for backing out of the construction project, but there were too many temptations with the Musician's Friend building: network cabling, server setup and dedicated air conditioning systems. "We'll rearrange and reconfigure a few things, but we won't dramatically alter the front third of the building," he said. "In the back, where there were cubicles and office space, we're going to departmentalize it and make it more ideal for our needs. One of the issues we're facing where we are at is parking, and there is plenty there (on Chevy Way)." Becklin founded what has grown into a $100 million motorcycle accessories venture in 1998 at his Grants Pass garage. The company submitted plans for a two-story, 31,524-square-foot headquarters on the northwest corner of Grumman Drive and Status Way, not far from Lithia Motors' Dodge dealership, in 2011 after acquiring a 4.46-acre site from Lithia's real estate division for $1.22 million. But the visionary building with horizontal metal siding and a glass-and-steel canopy never came to fruition as the Chevy Way site became a far-cheaper option. "I wasn't sure what direction to take for a while," Becklin said. "We may use the property for future development; we don't have a specific need right now. But we are going to hold onto it for a while." It's one thing to attract a business to Southern Oregon, but logistics often is an issue. Like Harry & David and Musician's Friend, who have distant shipping outposts, Motorcycle Superstore has a presence in Louisville, Ky. "When you think back to our roots in the valley and Harry & David, this is a good place to access people to work here," Thorndike said. "But from the standpoint of logistics, being on the West Coast is not where the customer base is — by its nature the Rogue Valley will always attract companies and owners interested in lifestyle first and jobs second. The key is keeping companies like Motorcycle USA and Fire Mountain Gems (in Grants Pass) prosperous and growing here." While rising gas prices pushed some people into the motorcycle market, recessionary forces struck a counter blow, keeping growth in check, Becklin said. "We've seen decent growth, but it hasn't been predictable," Becklin said. "The motorcycle industry is not booming. To a certain degree we've been maximizing opportunities in a sector that involves discretionary spending. It's still a pretty substantial purchase for most people. The real growth has been in the used bike market. When people buy a pre-owned bike, they get themselves geared up with riding apparel, just like if they had a new bike." That's when they turn to the Superstore website for tires and oil filters. "All that helps," he said. "But we need the new (sales) market to grow at a rate we haven't seen in a while." Internet Retailer recently ranked Motorcycle Superstore No. 186 among all Internet retailers in June. Two years ago, the company was ranked No. 7 among sporting goods websites by Internet Retailer. "We continue to experiment with new technologies and new things," Becklin said. "We're looking at social media or you name it, that people weren't using two or three years ago. We have to stay on top of it, especially on the technology side. The challenge is to get into new things, and it's not easy to embrace that." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 541-776-4463 or e-mail [email protected].