Beisser Lumber expands with new showroom in Johnston.
When Beisser Lumber purchased the Grimes land where its metro-area offices and lumberyard are located, then-CEO Kim Beisser was taking what looked like a leap of faith. Son-in-law Dave Ling, current Beisser CEO, says Kim didn’t see it that way.
“He had a 10-year plan, and he built the facility to fit that plan before it was needed,” Ling says. “At the time, it seemed huge with plenty of room for us to grow. And he was right. We did grow to fit that plan.”
By 2024 the 17 acres in Grimes that house Beisser’s offices, lumberyard, and millwork facility were bursting at the seams.
“We’ve been limited on space for a while, especially in the yard, where it can get congested with forklifts, delivery trucks, and customers. We were keeping up with all our orders, but only just,” Ling says.
Ling followed in his father-in-law’s footsteps and started talking with the leadership team at Beisser about creating a new 10-year plan and what that would look like. “With Kim, everything was built on belief in the team at Beisser, our community, our customers, and how we can serve them better. That was behind all those growth decisions over the years, and that’s what’s behind this decision now,” he says.
The decision he’s referring to is the expansion to Johnston, a second location that will house Beisser Lumber’s millwork division, door shop, and new showroom.
Early in 2024 Beisser put together a team of employees to turn an existing 56,000-square-foot office building into a multipurpose facility that could become the hub of the Beisser vision.
“The Grimes location was great,” says Ling. “The building has great visibility from the interstate and is easy to access, but we also had to think through the space and whether we could customize it to fit what we had in mind.”
Ling says John Murphy, Amy Larsen, and Rob Walker were integral in coming up with that plan. Larsen transformed a huge empty rectangle into office space. Walker worked with employees and vendors to optimize racking and space in both the warehouse and millwork area. And Murphy sorted through product lines and vendors to determine the best use of showroom space.
“I think the initial conversation was that the showroom would be about 3,000 square feet,” says Murphy. “We ended up with more than double that size.”
Ling says, “John and Amy did a lot of research, and they encouraged us to rethink the showroom to use more space to show off the wide range of products we offer.”
“It’s not just the quantity of products we can display,” Murphy says, “but everything is bigger. We can show the oversized windows and doors that are so popular now. We went from 20 door displays at our previous space to almost 100 here. We’ll have dozens of windows on display from three different brands and 50 feet of deck instead of just one sample. And just about everything we have on display can easily be swapped out as new products are introduced.”
“We take it seriously as part of our job that we are bringing the best, newest products to our customers so they can bring the best options to theirs,” says Ling. “New and different still has to make sense.”
Although most of the Beisser office staff will remain in the redesigned space in Grimes, Larsen was tasked with creating functional workspaces at the new location.
“We have several people who will work out of this new location, and we also wanted to have spaces for our Grimes staff when they come over to meet with clients,” Larsen says. “We included conference rooms, open work areas within the showroom, and temporary offices for staff or customers to use.”
“Our builder clients are excited about the new space,” Murphy says. “And we’re excited about that. Their input has helped us with product selection and display design to serve them better. And the partnerships we’ll be able to build as a result are part of why we created this space.”
Larsen says she’s grateful for the ability to show customers more products during the design phase. “We have so many more options on the floor than we used to have. Customers will be able to see actual products in the right size and the different options available so they can make more-informed decisions.”
To stock all those products (see “Beisser Showroom by the Numbers”) and the materials for the millwork side of Beisser’s business, Walker reached out to a vendor who worked with him to create a custom racking system for the extensive storage space.
“We basically emptied out two buildings from our Grimes location when we relocated here,” Walker says. “The total square footage on the ground isn’t much different, but we increased our capacity dramatically because we have so much more space vertically.”
To juggle all those elements of the move, Beisser worked closely with the City of Johnston so the millwork team and much of the warehouse stock could relocate before the showroom was complete.
“The city has been great to work with,” Ling says. “While the showroom piece was still in process, they worked with us to get inspections done for partial occupancy as we finished the front.”
In addition to creating more suitable office space for the staff at the Grimes location, the move provides capacity for growth there as well as at the new building.
“We now have more underroof space in Grimes for product that we previously had to store uncovered,” Walker says. “And the move helps us improve our efficiency in both locations. Our trim team members were key in helping us design the new space to make their jobs more efficient and cleanup easier. Some of the automated systems we have now have cut tasks from 45 minutes to 45 seconds, for example.”
Years ago, when Kim Beisser confidently purchased the Grimes property, he was building on confidence in more than just the market.
“What he put into that property was ahead of its time,” Ling says. “He believed so much in the company and in our customers that he could prepare for growth. We’re approaching this move the same way.”
You’re Invited
Beisser Showroom Grand Opening
Come check out the new Beisser Showroom during the HBA After Hours event.
Thursday, June 5
from 4:30–6:30 p.m.
7901 Birchwood Court, Johnston
Beisser Showroom by the Numbers
- 50 Feet Deck Display
- 6×8 Tiled Patio Space With Multiple Railing And Lighting Systems
- 165 Total Employees, 40 At New Location
- 400+ Years Experience Building Trades Combined
- 4 Seats At The Coffee Bar And Thousands Of Feet Of Display Room For Wandering
- 3 Patio Displays
- 3 Window Brands On Display
- 2-Story Home Façade Display With 5 Full-Size Exterior Doors
- 7 Full-Size Decks On Display
- 21 Interior Door Styles In Stock
- 100 Doors On Display
- 19 Exterior Doors On Display (Front Entry And Patio Doors)
- 34 Full-Size Windows On Display
- 18 Interior Handrail Styles On Display