Polaris buys former Lehman Trike building, set to create 80 jobs in Spearfish

Come December, an estimated 80 jobs will be available in Spearfish thanks to Polaris Industries. The recognized leader in the powersports industry announced Monday they have purchased a 51,000-square-foot facility and paint equipment formerly used by Lehman Trikes.

Although the price was never disclosed, the building itself was advertised for sale at $2.75 million.

When operations begin under the auspice of Polaris, employees will paint Indian and Victory motorcycles made in Spirit Lake, Iowa.

The building housed Lehman Trikes since moving from Canada to Spearfish in 2004 and four years later entered into a supplier agreement with Harley-Davidson to manufacture the Tri-Glide Trike, the first three-wheeled motorcycle introduced by the company. In 2010, a major blow to Lehman Trikes occurred when Harley Davidson announced that they would no longer be using the Spearfish-based manufacturer to assemble its Harley Tri-Glide Trike. Despite numerous efforts to regain traction the business closed operations in March 2012 after the death of its founder John K. Lehman and Champion Investments moved its operations to California.

Two years later, Champion Investments Inc., purchased Lehman Trikes USA and continued manufacturing trikes and conversion kits. But that didn’t last long. In March of this year, the company chose to close the facility for good, laying off an estimated 12 employees.

It is worth noting that Champion Investments continues to operate Champion Arms, which is located on a small machine shop on Industrial Drive in Spearfish.