Business may be slowly starting to turn around in the Grand Valley. American Tire Distributors, a national wholesaler, is planning a major expansion in our area. The company first contacted the Grand Junction Economic Partnership about two years ago.

"We provided them with data and demographic information for our community as well as real estate information, business referrals," GJEP Interim Executive Director Kelly Marlin explains.

But then, the economy started to slide.

"We didn't hear a lot from them for a while. Then, probably about eight months ago, the dialogue started up again," Marlin says.

Since then, the pieces really came together. Later this year American Tire will expand and move out of its current space near 25 Road and Industrial Boulevard.

Work just started on the company's future home off of 21-1/2 road. The 83,000 square foot building will include office space and a large warehouse.

"American Tire is a distributor to the local retailers. So, they bring the tires here and store them and take them out to the stores that sell them to the customer," Project Manager, Steve Thompson explains.

The Developer, Brookwood Capital, is based in North Carolina. They hired Thompson, a Grand Valley native, to lead the project. Something he is very excited about.

"There hasn't been a lot of commercial construction in the Grand Valley for the last year or two. So, I'm really glad to have work," Thompson says.

He is also excited for how this project will help other local workers.

"During the course of construction we'll be in the 200 range of different people who work for subcontractors, mostly local subcontractors, who will be working on the project," Thompson estimates.

The Grand Junction Economic Partnership says American Tire isn't the only company they've heard from recently.

"Our prospect activity so far in 2011 has been pretty strong, I think. Definitely better than last year. We are having really consistent amount of new prospects coming in each month," Marlin says.

So far, there is no clear picture of how many jobs American Tire may add locally. Construction on their new building should be done by December.