AS YOU'RE HAULING DOWN I-264 east toward Virginia Beach, Bayside Harley-Davidson jumps right out at you from the side of the
interstate. It's a two-pronged attack on your line of sight — the first being the looming six-story motorcycle display tower,
the second the H-D orange, two-sided billboard towering between the highway and the dealership.
Bayside's tower is now a local landmark so widely recognized that radio traffic reports use it as a reference point when reporting
the rush-hour jams that lead into the Portsmouth, Va., area's massive underwater tunnels.
The Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia is a big industrial mix of water and steel, gleaming window glass and patina'd
history. It could be easy to get swallowed up in this mishmash of shipyards and skyscrapers.
But Bayside Harley is something of a powersports anchor, not only for the tower and billboard and the store's 43,000 sq. ft.
presence, but for its place among the local community of HOG members and V-twin aficionados. Indeed, anchor is a fitting term given the area is home to the nation's largest concentration of military installations. It's estimated
that about 300,000 active-duty soldiers, reserves, retirees and military family members call this area home. (FYI: The U.S.
Navy is Virginia's largest single consumer of electricity.)
It's here, near Naval Station Norfolk, Portsmouth Naval Hospital, Norfolk Naval Shipyard and Yorktown Naval Weapons Station,
that Bayside owners Maurice and Cynthia Slaughter have found their niche.
When Slaughter was first lured to Harley from the automobile business, the Motor Co. offered him the Portsmouth region. He
first envisioned Pittsburgh smokestacks and grime; however, Slaughter soon realized the unique benefits of operating there
— first and foremost being the available talent. He received dozens of employment referrals from potential customers, many
of whom were in the military. To this day, most of Bayside's senior management is retired Navy.
"They bring management and logistic skills, and their own health care," Slaughter says. "They're used to managing people.
They're used to challenges. They're used to getting opportunities. That's the fortunate part about being in a market like
this —?the kind of talent I'm able to attract.
Moreover, an active military market offers market stability. "Not only do we have the largest Naval installation in the [country],
we have the peripheral businesses that feed off of it," he notes.
It's this management team that's enabled Slaughter over the last 12 years to expand his business to four dealerships stretched
across two states. The team has also facilitated a military-chain-of-command, top-down management style that frees Slaughter
to run the company rather than micromanage employees.
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