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Barney'sMotorcycles.pdf
Barney's Motorcycles

Motorcycle Dealer Rises from Ashes to Rebuild $3 Million Showcase in Florida.
Award-winning store design team incorporates innovations such as fabric duct HVAC system, themed show floor and an in-store. .

ST. PETERSBURG, FL - President Ray Hempstead will always remember June 25, 2000, the day when lightening struck his Barney’s Motorcycles and the dealership burned to the ground for a $2 million loss.

In only a few days afterward, a large white circus tent became the temporary Barney’s while Hempstead and his partner/operations manager, Beverly Newton, began drawing up plans for a new mammoth three-story headquarters with a state-of-the-art showroom. “I didn’t have time to run a dealership and manage a rebuilding, so Beverly created a design team that we entrusted with the facilitation,“ Hempstead recalls.

Spearheaded by Newton, the design team included experienced retail general contractor, R.J. Bunbury, Clearwater, Fla., architects, Collman & Karsky, and architecture/interior design veteran, Massaro Associates. With ownership’s encouragement to innovate and a $3 million budget, the design team created a state-of-the-art indoor air comfort system featuring fabric ductwork, a five-theme show floor, kid’s play area, local motor sports museum with multi-media displays, and other revolutionary ideas that create retail excitement and customer comfort.

Hempstead and Newton’s ideas revolved around indoor air comfort and visual excitement—two elements that subliminally retain customers longer and increase the opportunity for sales. “Our foot traffic is up over 25 percent versus the old store,” confirmed Hempstead.

Both the functionality and aesthetics of the HVAC system were crucial store design elements. Dirk Heller, vice president of R.J. Bunbury, thought the concept of fabric ductwork would not only present state-of-the-art air dispersion and indoor air comfort, but would also lessen roof load bearing, reduce duct surface dust and condensation, and cut duct labor installation and material costs by nearly 50 percent versus metal duct.

Project consulting engineers, Engineering Professionals Inc. specified DuctSox, Dubuque, Iowa, white fabric duct air dispersion.

Both the fabric duct and matching open ceiling architectural design of Collman & Karsky and Massaro create a white deck that allows the colorful motorcycle and watercraft lines of Yamaha, Aprilia, Honda, and SeaDoo, stand out. “We like the fact that [the fabric duct] blends in well but also softens the industrial look of the open ceiling,” said Bryan Karsky, partner, Colman & Karsky.

The resurrection of Barney’s after a devastating fire has created a state-of-the-art motor sports retail outlet that caters to the shopper’s indoor comfort and excites the visual senses. “Shoppers subliminally stay longer in an atmosphere where they feel comfortable,” said Heller. “The longer they stay, the better the chance for a sale to occur.”