After nearly five decades in business, the Tjelmeland Laketown Automotive dealership will be closing at the end of this month.
Joel Tjelmeland Jr., the second generation of the Tjelmeland family to run the used car dealership, said he decided to close the business after being approached by an outside party who was interested in purchasing the dealership’s property at 2030 Stevenson Drive. Tjelmeland declined to disclose who the property’s new owner would be but said it was it was someone outside the auto dealership industry. The new owner will be purchasing the property through a lease-to-buy arrangement.
In a social media post about the sale of the property, Tjelmeland said he was “excited to see new energy come to a corner that has meant so much to my family and me over the years.”
Tjelmeland Laketown was founded in 1978 by Tjelmeland’s father, Joel Tjelmeland Sr. Tjelmeland Jr. has worked at the dealership for 38 years, but there is no third generation of the family interested in taking on the business. Tjelmeland said he had hoped to transition out of the dealership over the next three years, but the party interested in buying the property wanted to move more quickly.
“I thought, well, maybe this is the time,” Tjelmeland said. “It’s a little earlier than I would have wanted in a perfect world, but sometimes you have to know when to fold them.”
The dealership is now selling off its remaining inventory, which Tjelmeland said includes about 15 or 16 remaining vehicles. June 30 will be the dealership’s last day of business.
The office and shop equipment will be listed for online sale by Luke Lee Gaule Auctioneers as of June 14.
Tjelmeland said he isn’t sure what his next chapter will look like after the dealership’s closing.
“I really don’t know,” he said. “But I’m not ready to retire.”