T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Jim and Kristie Johnson, the longtime owners of Showroom Auto in Marshalltown, are phasing out the business at the end of the month and shifting their focus to JBI Properties.

Jim Johnson was 21 years old when he walked into Showroom Auto Groom on Linn Street for a car detailing in 1990 and learned that the business was for sale. Johnson, a 1986 MHS graduate who had been the head cook at That Place in Conrad, quickly decided he wanted to take it over and would figure out a way to make it happen.

“I had big dreams and hopes when I bought it. (The previous owner) had told me it could be a very successful business. I remember going into the bank, telling them I wanted to buy it and how great it was gonna be someday, and they kind of laughed at me,” he said. “I had to borrow money from my parents for the down payment, so after that, it just took off.”

At the time, Showroom was strictly a car detailing operation, but Johnson and his wife Kristie expanded it to include truck accessories and detailing and a body shop. He purchased a building on the land that now houses Supermarket Villachuato, rented out the front to Anytime Fitness and utilized the back. After over three decades and countless satisfied customers, the Johnsons are stepping away from Showroom, now located at 107 N. Center St. across the alley from Villachuato, at the end of the month and shifting their focus to JBI Properties, which is housed out of the same building.

“In the truck accessory world, I always thought it was kind of a young man’s game because when you’re young, you kind of know what’s cool, you enjoy it, you love doing it. As you get older, you kind of lose a little bit of the flair, plus you don’t want to crawl around on the ground into cars and stuff,” Jim said. “So, after 35 years, we just decided it was probably time.”

Jim said they got serious about property management eight or nine years ago and have primarily handled rental units and house flipping, but they may do more new builds in the future. While neither of he and Kristie’s two children were interested in the vehicle detailing and accessory business, their son has worked with them on four properties, and their daughter who is based in Huxley also works in the property management business.

After the 2018 tornado hit, the old building where Villachuato now stands was totaled (it was demolished that October), so they moved into their current location across the alley and later sold the land to Villachuato Owner Angel Regalado. Even at that time, they wondered if it was time to phase out Showroom.

“The community and the people and the customers came back, and that was what inspired us was the community. And we knew it wasn’t the right time. We just kept going forward, and it was (our decision) to stay,” Kristie said.

JBI will be based out of the same location at 107 N. Center St. with modified business hours, and Jim, who serves as the vice president of the Marshalltown Central Business District (MCBD) board of directors, plans to stay involved in the community and place a focus on constructing “nice housing for a reasonable price.”

“One of the things we do (is) we sell homes on contract, and we love that because we take these homes that aren’t being cared for, we go and rehab them inside and out, and the look on people’s faces when they can buy them from us on contract (is wonderful),” he said. “And we have some great people that own some awesome homes, and they take care of them. And they’re just thrilled to death to own, so yeah, we like that.”

As for Showroom, they plan to honor any pending parts requests but will stop taking new appointments.

“We want to thank the community. We’re gonna miss the people, the customers, but that’s gonna be the biggest thing. And honestly, we’re worried about that because we enjoy the people coming in,” Jim said. “We’ve got customers that have dealt with us almost the entire time we’ve been open, and just yesterday one called us that we’ve scheduled (for) the last two days of business, and his dad came to us. He says ‘We have been bringing cars to you guys for 30 years.’ I said I tell you what, I’ll give you the last two spots of Showroom’s business, so he thought that was pretty cool.”

Another customer told them he’s been bringing his new trucks to Showroom since 1990 and isn’t sure what he’s going to do now.

“We’re gonna be sad to close the business. We will be. It’ll be sad for a little bit, but…,” Jim said.

“It’s time,” Kristie added, finishing his sentence.