Biker haven revs up

LINDON — The newest steel trusses in the ceiling were made in 1903, and the wooden floorboards are weathered from decades of service as roofs of Geneva Steel brick buildings.

It's definitely not the average motorcycle dealership, and that's just the way Dave Tuomisto wanted it.

"I wanted to build a building that was kind of an all-American building, selling an all-American vehicle," said Tuomisto, owner of the new Timpanogos Harley Davidson dealership at 935 N. 1200 West in Lindon.

The walls, floor, ceiling and lights of this shop echo with the now-silent sounds of Geneva Steel and other aged Utah landmarks, including the old Coca-Cola plant in Salt Lake City and an Ogden military base.

In fact, 70 percent of the building is made with reclaimed materials — bits and pieces Tuomisto gathered and saved from the landfill or from the energy-wasting process of melting down and re-creating.

One glance around the building and it's obvious — the weathered steel trusses, riveted lattice columns from old railroad bridges and Douglas fir, tongue-in-groove floorboards all ooze decades of history.

"My dad hated everything old, so I grew up with everything new," Tuomisto said. "I hate everything new, and now I like everything old."

The only new things Tuomisto wants for his Harley Davidson "resort" that will open quietly in June, but with an official kickoff on July 25, are the sleek, chromed-out motorcycles.

Since buying the dealership in 2006, he's gone from 200 sales a year to nearly 700.

This resort will not only be a haven for those bike lovers and a memorial to a company that created and propelled the Utah County economy — it's also Tuomisto's first attempt at a "green building."

"This building is my attempt to lighten my footstep on Mother Earth," Tuomisto said. "You take a bunch of scrap iron and spend a lot of money and build a really neat building."

Near the repair shop and showroom, giant acorn-shaped lights dangle from giant hooks and chains in the high ceiling. Those lights used to line the railroad tracks by Geneva. Now they'll light up Marley's restaurant, which will serve gourmet "sliders" — small hamburgers, turkey or chicken on dinner rolls.

As founder of the Bajio Mexican restaurants, Tuomisto has the restaurant experience to ensure that motorcycles and menus won't be mutually exclusive, as they've been for other dealers.

Downstairs, ridiculously heavy 14-ton shelving units serve as more steel foundry reminders, and all the building's bricks spent time in the walls of the Geneva fire station.