Humanitarian: PGW headquarters involved leap of faith

Sometimes it takes a leap of faith to fulfill a dream — or build a business.

Our 2024 Tire Business Tire Dealer Humanitarian Gus Herlong, co-owner, president and COO of Palmetto Garage Works (PGW), took that leap of faith about three years ago when he renovated a pair of long-abandoned buildings in downtown Columbia, S.C., into a state-of-the-art headquarters and adjacent Midas auto service shop.

Since PGW's founding in 2008, the company had been growing the Midas/SpeeDee franchise to 25 stores from the original five, while operating out of a house converted into office space. The headquarters soon got too crowded with the staff of 15 practically tripping over each other, Herlong told me.

So in 2021 he didn't just move to a new office space; he decided to invest about $3.6 million to renovate a downtown building that had been vacant for 60 years and an adjacent dilapidated building that was outdated and abandoned for almost five years.

The journey to build a new headquarters wasn't quick or easy.

His mother urged him to start the project. She found the property for sale and kept pushing Herlong and his father and co-owner Jim Herlong to consider it for the headquarters.

"And we were like, have you lost your mind? What are we going to do with that? Like, it's not a store. Like, how do you make that a store? And she just ignored us and just kept sending it," recalled Gus Herlong, who finally decided to look at the two buildings.

Located a mile down the street from the headquarters and a few blocks from the state capitol building, the buildings were on a block of neglected structures. One of the buildings used to house a Studebaker car dealership before morphing into office spaces.

So PGW hired an architect and contractors to develop a plan to redesign the interior and exterior of the buildings.

"We came in and gutted the whole thing, started over and put exactly what we wanted in place," Herlong said.

"So it was, 'Let's go take a humongous leap of faith, buy two office buildings, one of which hasn't had any occupancy for over 60 years, and build a new store one mile away from our flagship and move our headquarters down there,'" Herlong said, noting this was happening right after the pandemic.

In addition to erratic pricing and supply issues, he had to fight city hall for permits for redesigning the buildings and allowing for a vehicle entrance right off the street into the shop service bay.

The buildings were repainted inside and out. A brick facade was added to make it look like one building.

The new headquarters, which opened in 2021, features:

• Multiple offices with doors, enough to accommodate future employment growth;

• A conference room where management can meet with managers and vendors;

• A training/community room for employee training, onboarding and teleconferencing with other stores. The room also is used for blood drives and by other local businesses (such as restaurants) that need a meeting space;

• A large lunchroom with a $5,000 coffee machine, saving employees from buying expensive lattes at a coffee shop; and

• A bullpen area of cubicles that houses the new business development center to handle all online appointments, taking the burden off the stores.

The center handles texting customers; following up on missed appointments and rescheduling; monitoring and responding to online reviews; and listening to customers store calls to identify any needs for further coaching.

"It's created an environment that is unmatched from any Midas franchise, from a standpoint of training, meeting space, everybody has their (own office)," he said.

"Having this space has created a lot of fun and a lot of enjoyment in coming to work. But it's also provided us with the tools to be able to enhance our training, enhance our coaching, build out our team for more growth, and we're now providing a reckoning force of an auto service option in downtown Columbia."

He feared the new store would cannibalize his nearby Midas store, but the opposite happened. Both stores are doing well, he said.

All his downtown Midas stores are thriving, despite being so close to each other. In addition to the Midas shop a mile away, Herlong has another nearly 3 miles on the other side of downtown, along with three competitors' shops nearby.

"We were on either side of the city, and we threw one in the middle. No other brand has done that. Both stores on either side of the city have grown. The one that's one mile away has exponentially grown, and this (new store) is one of the top stores in the country, so, of course, it's one of our top stores.

"So it was a huge leap of faith that has paid off," Herlong said.

On top of that, the renovation, like his humanitarian efforts, had a ripple effect on the neighborhood as other vacant buildings on the block have since been bought and refurbished, too.