ENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESS
LEROY "LEE" MARKQUART’S QUALIFICATION

In 1980, Lee Markquart purchased Wood Motor Company, a Chevrolet dealership in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. At that time, the dealership was selling about 900 new car units/year and Lee rapidly increased that to 1100 units/year. Lee, as part of his agreement with Chevrolet, had to build a new dealership serving Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls. He financed this new facility by using an SBA 503 loan of $500M and a $500M 7a guarantied loan with First Wisconsin National Bank of Eau Claire. Total project cost was $2.2MM.

The SBA eligibility criteria at that time for auto dealerships were 1,000/units/year and because Lee was locating the facility in a labor surplus area (Chippewa County) an additional 25 percent was added so that the eligibility size standard increased to 1,250.
503 eligibility required a business net worth not greater than $6MM and a pre-tax profit of not more than $2 MM. Markquart Chevrolet, Toyota, Mazda, Mercedes Benz, easily met these eligibility requirements.

Today, the Markquart family of dealerships has grown to three dealerships with over $120MM in sales and increasing employment from 55 to over 300 individuals. Lee Markquart clearly meets the initial qualifications for SBA’s "Entrepreneurial Success."