Beaman to sell automotive business - Nashville Post

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Announcement of looming deal does not note whether Midtown real estate will be included

Nashville-based businessman Lee Beaman announced Thursday he will sell his auto dealership empire — including his highly visible Broadway business in Midtown — to Hudson Automotive Group of Charleston, South Carolina.

Expected to close this fall, the deal will include two Beaman Automotive dealerships in Nashville, locations in both Murfreesboro and Dickson, and “all current inventory and fixed assets,” according to a release. The company is home to about 450 employees.

Terms of the deal are not being disclosed.

Of note, the release does not specify if Beaman will sell the Midtown property from which he operates Beaman Toyota. That massive site has been mentioned for years as prime for redevelopment. Somewhat relatedly, the Reed family property home to Subaru and Hyundai dealerships — and located across Broadway from the Beaman site — is under contract to be sold to Houston-based development company Hines (read here). A major redevelopment of the site, with multiple high-rises, is planned.

Founded by George “Hoolie” Hudson in 1948, Hudson Automotive is headed by CEO David Hudson and has a roster of over 1,500 employees. It maintains locations in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina.

With Beaman Automotive’s 2019 reported annual revenues of $414.1 million, the looming sale will involve what the release describes as “two of the largest automotive dealer groups in the Southeast region.”

Beaman’s parts warehouse division, which will be part of the sale, typically ranks in the top 20 in wholesale parts sales related to the manufacturers Beaman represents. The automotive collision center, billed as the largest in middle Tennessee, is also part of the transaction.

The Midtown dealership has a main address of 1525 Broadway.

Beaman, who garnered local headlines in the past as one of the most vocal opponents to mass transit proposals by then-mayors Karl Dean and Megan Barry, praised David Hudson, company CEO, and Hudson Automotive Group.

“My father Alvin Beaman founded this company in 1945, and it was only three years later that David’s grandfather began Hudson Automotive … in Providence, Kentucky,” Beaman, company CEO, said in the release. “Their commitment to doing right by their employees and their customers is unparalleled.”

Alvin Beaman began with a Chrysler dealership and expanded to include a Pontiac dealership in the early 1950s at the site on which the Beaman Midtown businesses are still located.