EUREKA, Mo. — Dobbs Tire & Auto Centers Inc. is converting a commercial property in Eureka into a retail tire store that it plans to have operating by early May and has plans for an additional store in Illinois later in the year.
The new store, the dealership's 41st retail outlet, will include nine tire and automotive service bays, a large showroom and a customer waiting area, and employ 18 to 20 associates.
Dobbs Tire President David Dobbs sees Eureka — a city of about 10,000 is a growing area in St. Louis County straddling Interstate 44 about 25 miles southwest of downtown St. Louis — as an "ideal" and growing community for the dealership's newest store.
The 12,000-sq.-ft. property west of downtown Eureka formerly housed a business called Fire Master Fire Equipment. Construction modifications and remodeling for the new store are scheduled to begin immediately, Dobbs Tire said without disclosing the expected investment in the project.
This is the first new Dobbs Tire store since 2013, when it opened its 40th store, in Collinsville, Ill.
The High Ridge, Mo.-based dealership also has identified Edwardsville, Ill., a town of about 25,000 inhabitants northeast of St. Louis, as the site for its 42nd store, due to open later in 2020.
Founded in 1976 in south St. Louis by the late Donald W. Dobbs and his father, the dealership primarily operates in and around St. Louis, with 33 stores in Missouri and seven in Illinois.
At 40 stores, the firm is considered the 27th largest retail dealership in the U.S., according to Tire Business calculations.