LAKE CITY – The transformation of the Macke Motors Inc. property in Lake City will continue this summer with a $750,000 landscaping job.

The project comes just a year after a $3 million expansion and renovation was completed.

The primary entrance to the Chevrolet and Buick dealership off of Main Street, which is also Iowa Highway 175 in Lake City, will be closed. It will be replaced with a new driveway off Rainbow Road on the east side of the property. A three-tiered fountain will be placed there and brick pavers will lead to the front door of the showroom.

“There’s going to be brick and pavers all over the place,” said Gus Macke, the owner of the dealership.

The parking lot on the south side of the property will be paved, and additional landscaping will be done on all sides.

Macke said Stone Creek Landscape & Nursery of Fort Dodge, will do the work.

The dealership recently received the 2014 Chevrolet Mark of Excellence Award. It has received that honor six years in a row and seven times in the 47 years since it was founded.

A group of General Motors and Chevrolet officials went to Lake City last week to present the award.

Clifford Forsythe, district sales manager for General Motors, said the award is based on the dealership’s sales effectiveness, customer satisfaction and customer retention.

Brian Van Cleve, Chevrolet zone manager for western Iowa, South Dakota and part of North Dakota, said just five or six dealerships in his zone receive the award every year.

Van Cleve said Macke Motors Inc. is “well regarded within General Motors.”

He said the dealership’s updated property “just exemplifies the direction that Chevrolet and Buick are heading.”

Macke Motors Inc. was established in 1968 in downtown Lake City. It moved to its current location on the community’s west side in 1971.

There are two related dealerships: Macke Ford Inc. in Coon Rapids and Macke Gowrie Inc. The dealership in Gowrie opened in April 2014 after Macke bought the former Lee Benson Motors.

The $3 million project in Lake City produced a new auto body repair shop and an expanded showroom. The new facilities were finished in May 2014. Sande Construction and Supply Co. Inc., of Humboldt, was the general contractor.

Macke said he has 80 employees at three dealerships.

“I like to hire grads from Iowa Central,” he said, referring to Iowa Central Community College.

He said he has two graduates of the college’s accounting program working for him. He said that one graduate of the college’s auto body repair program works for the dealership, and added that he plans to hire another one.