Yesterday, we wrote to the PR folks for GEE Automotive to ask for the latest on the shuttered dealership — is it still for sale, is a buyer near, or will the inventory be cleared off the lot any time soon. Finally got a response today, in the form of the following press release claiming Steve Huling is to blame for a sale not going through. 6:05 PM UPDATE: A response from the Huling family is in the comments following this post (excerpt: “This whole episode is yet another attempt by the Gees to blame the Hulings for Gees’ lack of execution.”) Also, linked after the press release, is a document also sent by the GEE PR representatives, from Ryan Gee to Steve Huling:
Full unedited text of press release sent by GEE Automotive PR representatives:
SEATTLE – Steve Huling, the former owner of West Seattle’s Huling Bros. Auto Center, today killed the opportunity to keep the dealership’s three locations open by refusing to assign the property leases to a company willing to purchase the company from GEE Automotive.
“I am in complete shock that Steve Huling refused to assign the lease in order to keep those dealerships open and give his former employees the opportunity to return to their jobs,†said Ryan Gee, CEO of GEE Automotive which purchased the dealership from Huling less than two weeks before a major scandal erupted in the news media involving employees now facing criminal charges for cheating a mentally vulnerable man out of more than $100,000.
The damage to the reputation of the dealership and loss of goodwill caused a huge decline in business, forcing Gee to announce in September that it was seeking a new buyer for the dealership in order “to give it a ‘fresh start’ with a new owner.†GEE Automotive has lost its entire investment in the dealership, and is sustaining losses in excess of $300,000 per month.
Gee said the buyer was willing to buy the dealership based on just two conditions:
Confirmation from the manufacturers that the franchises had not been terminated, and
Confirmation that the Hulings would transfer assignment of the property leases to the new buyer.
While GEE Automotive bought the dealership, the Hulings own the property upon which the dealerships sit.“In a direct conversation between Steve Huling’s attoney and the buyer, my understanding was that Mr. Hulings’ attorney was told Thursday that the buyer would wire him the $180,000 in past rent today,†Gee said. “But, despite that Huling, flatly refused to reassign the lease, and thus killed any possibility of selling the dealership. I simply cannot understand why Steve would not want to keep the dealerships open,†said Gee. The dealerships had 160 employees.
On Oct. 3, Gee sued Steve and Tom Huling in King County Superior Court for their failure to disclose their knowledge of the criminal investigation of their employees for theft, fraud and money laundering for cheating a mentally vulnerable man out of more than $100,000. The lawsuit seeks to rescind the transaction and be restored to the position it was in prior to contracting to purchase the dealership.
As mentioned above, the GEE PR reps also included a PDF of a letter from Ryan Gee to Steve Huling, talking about the proposed deal. Read it here. For previous coverage, this WSB post includes a link to the GEE lawsuit against the Hulings; this one links to the Hulings’ eviction lawsuit against the Gees.
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