Motor Trucks steers into new Everett facility

Published 9:18 am Wednesday, September 29, 2010

EVERETT — In August, the Business Journal featured a story about the obstacles Marshall Cymbaluk’s Motor Trucks Inc. had to overcome in order to expand to a larger location in Everett.

On Labor Day weekend, the company finally completed the move into the Riverside Business Park — something that had been in the works since 2004. By Sept. 7, they were open for business.

“It went better than expected,” Cymbaluk said.

There were a few minor items, such as landscaping, that weren’t completed in time for the planned move, but Cymbaluk managed to get a temporary occupancy permit so the opening could go ahead as scheduled.

Motor Trucks is a family-owned International truck dealership that handles service and parts as well as new and used truck sales. Established on Grand Avenue in downtown Everett in 1974, the company has long struggled with a lack space. Cymbaluk had been scouting alternate locations in the Everett area since the early ’80s.

But it seemed there were very few industrial locations in Everett that would meet Cymbaluk’s requirements and still be affordable. It was 2004 before serious negotiations got underway with the Port of Everett for part of the former Weyerhaeuser Co. lumber mill site along the Snohomish River. Finally, permits were obtained and construction on the new Motor Trucks facility began in 2009.

Then it was a matter of waiting on construction delays and planning the transition from one shop to the other. Cymbaluk thought about three days would be needed to complete the final move, so a push was made to have everything ready to go for Labor Day weekend.

If there was any silver lining to all of the delays faced by the company prior to the move, it was having plenty of time to plan the transition in advance. The projected three-day-weekend move was actually accomplished in just two days.

“All our employees volunteered to help, plus some employees from our other stores,” Cymbaluk said. “We moved on Saturday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. then on Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and didn’t need to come in on Monday.”

When the doors opened on Sept. 7, everything was business-ready from the parts bins to the service bays. Cymbaluk even had the equipment and machinery cleaned and repainted before being put in place in the brand new facility.

According to Motor Trucks general manager Jeff Cymbaluk, customers are really enjoying the new location.

For a start, it’s much easier for trucks and buses to access the riverfront facility than the old downtown Everett location. A drivers’ lounge is located in the large airy building, the views are excellent and a night parts counter ensures access to necessary parts after normal business hours have concluded. Perhaps most impressive is that the company went from six service bays to a full 21.

There are still one or two things the Cymbaluks have to get sorted out. One pressing matter is signage.

Because the location is new and far off the main road, signage is vital for directing customers to the new location. But current regulations, based on square footage, are restrictive.

“We went through a variance with the city for more signage but it was declined,” Marshall Cymbaluk said. “We’ve just applied again but it has to be posted for another six weeks now.”

Another matter is what to do with the large and now empty property on Grand Avenue that had housed Motor Trucks Inc. for 36 years. Cymbaluk is not hopeful he can sell it any time soon.

“Go back a few years, and I would get a call a month about that property. We pretty much control that whole block,” he said. “But the way the economy is, with every other building for sale, I don’t think anyone is going to jump on it.”

Nevertheless, with a new location already buzzing with business, Cymbaluk is already looking forward to the future.