Schomp revs up for expansion: surging BMW sales prompt plans for bigger showroom.

• Author: Schmidt, Donna
• Position: Attitude at Altitude - Lisa Schomp - Ralph Schomp Automotive

Lisa Schomp spends most of her time in construction meetings lately. For three, going on four generations, the Schomp family has run one of Denver's oldest automotive dealerships, with three brands under one roof--BMW, MINI and Honda--located at the corner of South Broadway and Littleton Boulevard in Littleton.

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Business is good and Lisa Schomp, president and owner of Ralph Schomp Automotive, and the leader of the perennially No. 1 ranked ColoradoBiz woman-owned business, expects it to get better.

But the dealership is experiencing growing pains. "Even our customers know that we are just so out of space," says Schomp. "We're almost right on top of each other in our BMW showroom."

Schomp realized her BMW sales were quickly outpacing space when a BMW manufacturer's rep came to her with a request for an upgrade: a bigger showcase for her flagship brand. "BMW came to me a year and a half ago and asked me to build a bigger facility," she said, "mainly because they are looking to further expand the BMW product lineup. ... It was time to spread out!" she said.

Schomp purchased a 26-acre parcel in Douglas County, at the intersection of Lucent Boulevard and County Line Road, from Shea Homes earlier this year. She is moving the BMW brand first, late next year, increasing the brand's acreage from three acres to 17 on the new parcel.

BMW sales are up globally. A recent Business-Week ranking showed BMW to be the fifth most valuable brand asset in the world. Worldwide sales for the first half of 2006 rose 11 percent, with the U.S. the main source of the growth, according to the company. In the U.S., year-to-date sales are up 7.7 percent; and in Denver, sales have rocketed more than 40 percent this year over last. For July 2006 alone, BMW sales in Denver rose 26.3 percent compared with a 13.4 percent drop nationwide.

"Our expansion is good for us and good for the competition," Schomp said. "Competition makes us all look at ourselves and ask, 'Are we doing the best we can do?' Perfection is a hard thing to get to."

With completion of the new 70,000 square-foot facility scheduled a year from now, the new dealership will afford customers easy access from either County Line or Lucent Boulevard. Since the new shop will face south toward C-470, Schomp said the dealership itself will become a three-dimensional billboard for the BMW brand.

To avoid environmental issues, Schomp decided not to build to the north...