Chris Shoenrock will have his plumbing and heating equipment in the former Colman Building Center, which he purchased and has remodeled.
Posted
Brenda Wade Schmidt
A Colman family business is offering others space in the town’s former building center.
Chris Shoenrock with Shoenrock Properties purchased the Colman Building Center location in January and after some remodeling, is ready for people looking for storage space and offices downtown. He is a plumbing and heating contractor.
Colman Building Center has moved to its new location on Highway 34 in the community’s industrial park with an expanded store and warehouse.
Shoenrock, 40, bought Chester Hardware and in 2014, named his plumbing and heating company Chester Mechanical. He will use some of the space as his warehouse and display area so he has product available locally. He lives between Colman and Chester and also will continue to own Chester Mechanical in Chester.
“It’s just a place for us to keep our stuff,” he said. “That way, we don’t have to run back and forth as much (to serve customers in both towns).”
The rest of the space can be utilized for others looking to store anything small or big, such as a camper in the winter, or for office space inside the former building center showroom.
“There’s way more room here than what I need,” he said.
Shoenrock’s company includes four people who work on all types of plumbing and heating. “We do a lot of cabin maintenance on Lake Madison and Lake Brandt,” he said.
Shoenrock grew up five houses south of his new business location in Colman and graduated from Colman-Egan High School. It’s the community that brought him back, he said.
“One part of the reason we bought some property here is because of the support of the community and the local contractors,” he said. His brother, Rick, also is a plumbing contractor in town.
Colman Building Center, owned by Dean and Peg Gulbranson, opened in its new location Jan. 2, doubling in size. The Gulbransons employ nine people and are looking for three more employees.
Heartland Consumer Power District of Madison provides wholesale power to the city of Colman and assisted both businesses to transition to their new locations with financing from the power company’s HELP fund. The company offers low-interest loans to business in customer communities through the United States Department of Agriculture’s intermediary relending program.
Applications are evaluated for economic development and job growth potential.
“These two businesses are prime examples of the importance of small, family-owned businesses in rural communities,” said Casey Crabtree, Heartland director of economic development and governmental affairs. “Both businesses are filling a need not only in their community but in the surrounding area and are growing like crazy in the process.”
