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Allsport’s new digs a ‘dream come true’

Eric Holt, owner of Allsport, sits atop a Polaris 600 RMK snowmobile at his new shop in the Spokane Valley.
Christopher Rodkey Staff writer
Eric Holt, owner of Allsport, sits atop a Polaris 600 RMK snowmobile at his new shop in the Spokane Valley.

The best showroom for a motorsports dealership might be the great outdoors.

But for Allsport Polaris/Honda, which recently opened a new building in Liberty Lake, 35,000 square feet is as close as to the great outdoors as one can get and still have a roof overhead.

The new showroom is stocked full of motorcycles, ATVs, and snowmobiles, all arranged in neat rows.

“There’s nothing like this store in our industry for hundreds of miles,” said owner Eric Holt. “It’s incredible, and it’s my dream come true.”

Holt bought Allsport in April 1984, when it was just a motorcycle salvage yard. In 1989 he added a line of Polaris vehicles, and in 1999 he added Honda.

“Those were very big steps and a big contribution to our success,” he said.

Holt began construction on the new building earlier this year, and said a number of factors make it a great place.

The store is near the freeway, giving excellent visibility, he said, and there are no longer any problems with parking. The store even features a double loading ramp where ATVs can be rolled up a ramp and set into the beds of trucks.

The new building also frees up a lot of space for Allsport, Holt said. Previously, the company had to warehouse a lot of its inventory in different storage areas. Now the store has more room than it can fill.

“We can display products all year,” Holt said. “We used to have to take people out to the warehouse.”

Allsport has a full-service repair center and one of the biggest parts inventories in the region, he said. The company has 28 full-time employees.

Above all, the goal is to make a good shopping experience for customers, he said.

“We want to make a comfortable shopping environment,” Holt said. “A powersports dealership is a form of entertainment. People come here to hang out and we wanted to make it a little entertaining for them.”

As far as the competition, Holt said he thinks he’s taken a big step ahead.

“Most people in this area have never seen a shop like this,” he said. “I think we raised the bar in town for sure.”