Drive Right In

Gas prices might be surging and the economy might be tanking, but Bill Plemmons RV World plans to travel in a different direction.

The recreational-vehicle dealership wants to expand its operations in Rural Hall and build on its existing customer base that extends throughout the country. And it helps that many seasoned RVers don't let high gas prices keep them home.

Owner Steve Plemmons recently purchased 34 acres behind his dealership at 6725 University Parkway, bringing his complex to about 50 acres. He wants to use the additional land to construct a service building of up to 30,000 square feet and to create the Bill Plemmons Memorial Rally Park, which will have 330 sites for RVs to park.

"It's for the future," he said.

Obviously, the dealership, which has 75 employees, including in its Raleigh location, wants to grow its business with the overall expansion. But the service addition, which is expected to add up to 25 jobs throughout the company, including service technicians, is also out of necessity.

The dealership needs more space as the service side of its business is growing, Plemmons said.

The rally park will also "bring people to the state of North Carolina and to Winston-Salem," he said.

The dealership is host to several rallies during the year. Its biggest is an annual rally in October, but it is on a much smaller scale than the proposed rally park would accommodate.

The city-county planning board has recommended approval of the proposed expansion and rally park. The proposal is expected to go before the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners next month.

Bill Plemmons RV World's expansion plans come at a time when retail registrations and shipments of motor homes and towable RV-travel trailers are down significantly in the industry.

For the first half of the year, motor-home registrations in the United States were down 32 percent, at 18,017 units, compared with a year ago, and registrations of towable RV travel trailers were down 18 percent at 107,435 units, according to the National RV Dealers Association in Fairfax, Va.

Phil Ingrassia, a spokesman for the dealers association, and Kevin Broom, a spokesman for the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association in Reston, Va., which represents RV manufacturers, cited several reasons for a decrease in industrywide sales.

"RVs are discretionary purchases and when we're in the kind of economy we're in right now with some uncertainty in the housing market, Wall Street and other financial things, people are holding their money a little closer," Ingrassia said.

Broom said that the biggest issue is the availability of credit as it relates to the country's mortgage meltdown.

"There are consumers who go into a dealership and they'd like to buy, but because of tighter lending requirements, they are not qualifying for loans anymore," he said.

He also said that consumer confidence is down and that home values have declined in parts of the country, leaving people less willing to use equity from their homes as part of the loan-qualification process.

But, Ingrassia said, every market is different. Some dealers have been hit hard by the country's housing issues while others have not.

He described Bill Plemmons RV World as a bright spot in the industry, citing Steve Plemmons' honor as the dealers association's 2007 Top Quality Dealer of the Year.

Plemmons declined to give sales figures, but he said that his new and potential customer sales are down 25 percent to 30 percent. Offsetting some of that decline is that sales from existing customers and service work is steady.

The dealers association expects business industrywide to pick up by mid-2009.

People are using their RVs and rentals are up, even with high fuel prices.

"RVers simply adapt," Broom said. "When fuel prices go up, they take shorter trips. Instead of taking the 3,000-mile trip across the country or something like that, they stay close to home."

Local RVers agreed.

Judy Baylin of Winston-Salem said that RVs are an economical way to travel.

Wilma Coram of Winston-Salem said her family took its annual trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C., this year, but has stayed closer to home on other trips, going to places such as Galax, Va.

A study by PKF Consulting, found that "typical RV family vacations are on average 27 percent to 61 percent less expensive than other types of vacations studied."

Baylin and Coram both attend rallies and like them.

Baylin, who has attended Plemmons dealership's annual rally, said that there are not a lot of options for rallies locally and calls Plemmons' proposal a grand idea.

"They are very family conscious," she said. "They really do try to keep everything very nice."

Neighbors of Bill Plemmons RV World had mixed reactions to the proposed expansion.

Jack Kiger, 86, has lived in his home on University Parkway for 58 years. He is concerned that the dealership will get too big and cause a lot of traffic in the area.

But Thomas White and his wife, Sophia, who have lived in the area for 53 years, like Plemmons' plans.

"I don't see anything wrong with it," White said. "That's progress, and I go along with progress."

An analysis by the planning board's staff found that the project would increase traffic on University Parkway, but that the rally park would be in the rear of the dealership and largely unseen from University. The staff said that the land for the park is essentially inaccessible topographically from adjacent properties to the north, east and south and that the Town of Rural Hall is in favor of the expansion.

Plemmons said that rally parks are gatherings of people who are mostly retirees and members of various RV and camping clubs with an average age of older than 60.

"They're not beer drinkers and rowdy people bothering people," he said.

Typically, the people who attend rallies at his dealership like to have fun talking and networking with people, doing fundraisers and shopping in the local community, he said.

He said that rally parks are not campgrounds and not for long-term stays.

"A rally park is really a place where people come and stay a few days, a weekend or maybe a week, and then they leave," he said.

Stephan Dragisic, a spokesman for Visit Winston-Salem, said that Winston-Salem has been host to some rallies, which come in all shapes and sizes.

Though people who attend rallies in Winston-Salem don't tend to eat out as much at restaurants and stay in hotels, they do help the area economically because they tend to go to art shows, festivals and shop in malls and grocery stores.

"It's still a very positive impact on the community," he said. "It's just a little bit different model than a traditional convention attendee or a leisure traveler because they don't stay in hotels and they traditionally have their own kitchens."

■ Fran Daniel can be reached at 727-7366 or at fdaniel@wsjournal.com.