Bud Kouts invests $1M in renovated showroom

There’s a bright, new addition on Michigan Avenue at Bud Kouts Chevrolet. The family-owned Lansing business recently invested more than $1 million renovating their sales and service building.
 
“Basically, we renovated the showroom, the parts department and the customer lounge,” says Jim Iding, who owns the business with his brothers Richard and Patrick and Iding. “We didn’t expand the outside of the building, but we increased the size of the customer lounge inside.”
 
Upgrades include brand new tile, ceilings, paint, furniture, heating, cooling and façade improvements to the building’s exterior. Work on the project began in September and the Iding expect work on the exterior to be complete this week. Staff moved back into the building after interior work completed in December.
 
“It’s made a much better environment for employees and customers,” says Iding. “Basically everyone who has come through has raved about it. The building was old, so it is quite the change.”
 
The Bud Kouts building has good reason to be old. The dealership, called Wolverine Chevrolet prior to 1955, has been located in its current Michigan Avenue location since just after World War II, when it moved from Downtown Lansing. Iding’s father purchased the business from Kouts in 1977, and it has remained in the family ever since.
 
The final stage of the renovation will complete in the spring when landscaping work will take place in front of the updated building.