Rain couldn't stop the celebration of Summit Racing Equipment's newest facility Thursday. The ribbon cutting marked the opening of the company's fourth and largest location, and Arlington's facility is outfitted with warehouse space, a retail super store and a customer support center.
Mechanics and car enthusiasts have been waiting with eager anticipation for the store to open. George Bernreuther, a former toolmaker at General Motors, ordered a part recently and had it arrive the same day to his delight. Bernreuther visited the store today to take a look at the retail outlet. He appreciates the accessibility of the store and the fact that it will attract people from around the Metroplex, among other things.
"The idea of the store is fantastic," he said. "It's great because you can see parts rather than looking on a screen."
Summit Racing offers millions of parts from more than 1,500 manufacturers for all types of cars, including racing, classic and modern muscle cars, trucks and SUVs, and off-roading vehicles. Plus, the company sells tools, paint and body supplies and has a dedicated tech department to answer customer questions.
Vick Abram, a GM employee who is also working on a 1977 Chevy truck, said many of his co-workers have been talking about the new store. He is excited at the prospect of visiting Summit Racing when he needs a part and getting it immediately, as opposed to ordering it from a catalogue, waiting weeks for it to arrive, and sometimes discovering the wrong part was ordered and going through the process again. Other customers in the store expressed the same appreciation to have a store so close.
Summit Racing has built a reputation for being a good partner to everyone with whom it interacts, and General Manager Scott Peterson reiterated this sentiment.
"Our commitment is to everybody here, starting with our customers, that we will serve you in an honorable way," Peterson said. "We will serve and honor our employees. We will be a good partner to the vendors and a good neighbor and a good resident of the Arlington community. We will be a company that you can be proud of and we plan to be here for at least another 50 years."
Located at the southwest corner of Interstate 20 and Highway 360, the 700,000-square-foot facility enables Summit Racing to offer one-day delivery for orders with in-stock parts to customers in most of Texas and regions of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana
"We are very proud to have a company with as wide a following as Summit Racing Equipment to select Arlington for their major expansion in the North American market," said Bruce Payne, the City of Arlington's Economic Development manager. "We also have great expectations that their new facility will become a destination in itself for motoring enthusiasts throughout the state of Texas and beyond. There's every reason to believe that a company with the business philosophy of Summit Racing will do extremely well in the Arlington environment."
The grand opening starts Friday, Sept. 29, at 9 a.m. and goes through Sunday, October 1. Store hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.
Summit Racing joins a growing number of distribution centers in Arlington that includes Blue Apron, UPS, Williams Sonoma and the Arlington Automotive Logistics Center, which broke ground this summer. All of these projects are examples of Arlington's robust economic development program, which was rated as the as the top city for economic development deals in 2016 by the Dallas Business Journal."
Investing in Our Economy" is one of the Arlington City Council's five priorities for FY2018.