Tonkin dealerships sold to Spokane firm

PORTLAND — One of Portland’s oldest and largest car dealerships has been sold.

Ron Tonkin, which operates 21 dealerships throughout the Portland area and in The Dalles, Ore., has sold to Spokane-based Gee Automotive Companies, the Portland Business Journal reports.

Spokespeople for the companies could not be reached Tuesday evening.

According to its website, Gee is a family-run company that operates dealerships in Spokane, Kirkland and Tacoma in Washington, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and Gresham Subaru in Oregon.

The Tonkin chain got its start as a used-car lot in Portland, and after working on his father’s lot, Ron Tonkin helped grow the business into the empire it is today.

In 1986, Business Week named the Ron Tonkin Family of Dealerships as one of seven of the largest “super-dealers” in the United States, with an estimated $100 million in sales.

According to the Business Journal, the company brought in $725 million in 2014, and employed nearly 1,000 workers as of July 2015.

The sale comes nearly three years after Ron Tonkin died in January 2014.

In a statement, his son, Tonkin co-president Edward Tonkin, said that “all Tonkin employees’ jobs, pay and benefits are secure.”

Ron Tonkin’s other son, co-owner Brad Tonkin, will stay on with the new owner as “platform president.”

The Tonkin name will remain on the dealerships, the Business Journal reported.