Business partners Steve Boone and Ron Wynne could not be reached to comment about the business, at 1835 Cooper Point Road, not far from the Olympia Auto Mall. Another person familiar with the business, who deferred to Boone for official comment, acknowledged that the business had closed.
Auto Mall executive manager Alicia Nelson said she noticed that cars were being moved off the lot during the week of July 5. She added that Premier Motors was not part of the Auto Mall association. The Auto Mall has 11 dealerships, she said.
April Smith, who manages Auto Mall Mini-Storage next door to the former Premier Motors, also said cars were moved off the lot Tuesday.
Premier Motors occupied an 11,000-square-foot building on Cooper Point Road, a facility that Boone built to sell Harley-Davidson motorcycles in 1996. He later moved his Harley-Davidson business to Lacey, and the space was leased to a women’s fitness business that later closed.
About a year ago, while U.S. car manufacturers were scaling back their operations or trying to emerge from bankruptcy, Boone and his business partner, Wynne, decided there was a niche opportunity to sell used luxury cars, such as late-model Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lexus and Porsche models.
“We think there’s still a good market for pre-owned high line cars,” Boone told The Olympian in June 2009.
The business got off to a quick start, selling eight vehicles in its first two weeks, Wynne said last year. At the time, it had 25 to 30 cars on the lot with a goal of selling 10 to 20 vehicles per month, he said.
Despite that start, Nelson said 2009 was a “horrible” year for car sales; the one bright spot was in August, during the Cash for Clunkers program. This year, year- to-date car sales at the mall are up 8 percent from the same period in 2009, she said.
“June was the best month so far this year,” Nelson said.
That trend was reflected in recently released state Department of Revenue retail sales data.
Taxable retail sales in Olympia generated by sales of new and used vehicles rose 6.7 percent to $51.4 million in the first quarter of this year from $48.1 million in the first quarter of 2009, the data show.
Rolf Boone: 360-754-5403 rboone@theolympian.com www.theolympian.com/bizblog
