A Tuesday afternoon view of the future Holden's Hot Wheels building that is currently under construction near the corner of 1st Street and 5th Avenue.
There has been earth moving and building renewing on 1st Street, between 4th and 5th avenues across from Creative Leisure that has had some people wondering what’s going on.
The man behind all of the commotion is Shawn Holden, owner of Holden’s Hot Wheels, who is gearing up to move his business to the more visible 1st Street location by the end of the year.
Holden, who has been selling and installing automotive accessories for 17 years on 2nd Street, bought the historic building five years ago intending to make this move. Now he feels confident enough to do so.
“We’ve just been saving again, to be smart with our business to make the move and stay in business, ” Holden said. “We feel that it is the time. ”
Right now crews are remodelling the inside of the existing buildin, g to serve as office and retail space, as well as adding a garage, larger than the one Holden currently has. Christine Holden, wife of the owner, said the new garage will not only have more floor space, but a larger door so they can work more on larger vehicles such as trucks and trailers.
Shawn Holden said he hopes the new location will draw in more pass-through traffic and, with currency rates the way they are, Canadian customers who might have missed them at their current location.
They plan on renting out the old location and have a few people considering it so far, though nothing is definite,
While estimates on completion of the work vary, from the end of October to sometime later in November, both Shawn and Christine Holden are excited for Havre to see the changes.
“It’s pretty exciting going to be able to serve people more efficiently and have a lot of cool stuff, ” Christine Holden said.
