Boats, boards and inflatables – Riverside Yamaha is heading into deeper waters.
The Yamaha, Suzuki and KTM dealership is moving all of its marine equipment from its 15 Inglewood Dr. site to its former showroom at 357 St. Albert Rd.
The new showroom and accessory store will offer customers a larger selection of products, from jet and custom weld boats to wakeboards and water skis.
General sales manager Danny Yaggey said Riverside Yamaha has been in St. Albert for almost 45 years and the old showroom is part of their history.
“The structure is there and we ran our business out of there for many years. That’s where Riverside originated and that’s where our name originated,” he said.
“Our thoughts were, why go somewhere else and pay rent when we already own this building.”
In the past years, the dealership rented the space to other stores but they didn’t stay long, Yaggey said.
Being crammed for space and having to keep their marine equipment in an outdoor fenced area at 15 Inglewood Dr., they decided to create a dealership for marine equipment only.
Renovations have almost finished and Yaggey expects Riverside Marine will open in the spring.
“The showroom is almost complete, they are waxing the floor and at any time I can start taking boats in there,” he said.
“As for fully functional, we may have to sell out of this store for a while because we are equipped for it right now and then slowly make the transition by the spring into that store.”
Once the marine equipment moves to the other building, Riverside Yamaha will redesign its second floor showroom to house more accessories.
“And (moving the marine equipment) will open up the floor space to put a lot of product inside. Because we had a lot of our stuff outside and it’s nice to have all your motorcycles inside,” he said.
“The main thing is to make it more enjoyable and comfortable for the customer to shop.”
