The entire front end of the longtime local General Motors dealership is getting a total remodel and the service department is getting a new building too.

Lee Hoffpauir, owner of the local store and several other dealerships in the area, says it was back in 1964 that his family bought the Chevy dealership in Lampasas.

By 1969 the store had moved to its present location, then a fire had destroyed most

of the structure in 1984. It was rebuilt and the facility has been just that way for over 27 years.

“The only part of the building,” Lee says, that wasn’t destroyed in 1984, was the south-side truck shop. That part has been torn down, a new slab was poured, and a new and larger service department is on the way as a part of the construction work.

The sales offices have been temporarily moved into the old body shop building while the gutting of the store’s front end is going on. That’s a bit inconvenient, but rising to the occasion they are walking a bit more and Lee says they’ll use golf carts to make sure no customers on the “far lot” get missed.

The sizable project that’s underway was sort of spurred on by General Motors and its reorganization. Lee says that new dealer license agreements required all GM dealers to remodel to some degree, adding a standardized look to the dealerships.

Though it’s an expensive and somewhat disruptive project, Lee says “It was time.” He says GM is helping a little with some of the costs, with part of their requirement being continued customer satisfaction. Lee says that’s evidenced to GM by those little questionnaires they send out to customers. They’re “important,” he says.

Lee Hoffpauir says they hope to be completely finished with the remodel by mid-April. He emphasized that even though it might be a little busy around the dealership for a couple of months, they expect no changes whatever in the quality hometown service they provide to their customers.