Recession turns Ga. dealer's dream into a nightmare

Georgia dealer Rob Doll had planned to give Nissan North America just what it wanted this year: a showcase dealership in a growing Southeastern market.

In better times, Doll's dealership group, which sold Nissans and several General Motors Co. brands, might have been able to achieve his ambitious plans, say people familiar with the project. But not in 2009.

Doll had borrowed $9 million from Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp. to fund construction of a store in Columbus, Ga. The design mirrored Nissan's architectural vision for new stores: sunny and modern. There would be 12 service bays. The store was designed to sell and service the light-commercial vehicles Nissan plans to introduce late next year, with larger service doors and powerful lifts capable of raising loaded cargo vans.

But instead of holding a gala grand opening this year, Doll, 62, will watch as his project, now 90 percent finished, is sold at fire-sale prices. Doll's company, Doll & Doll Motor Co., is in Chapter 11 reorganization, sunk by a one-two punch of depleted capital and depressed real estate prices.

The collapse in car sales ravaged his cash flow, and the deep recession slashed real estate prices, undermining the financial assumptions which underlined his ambitious project.

If no buyer is found, his property will be auctioned on the courthouse steps on Jan. 5, according to a Dec. 8 legal notice in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. The court and Nissan must agree on a winning bid by Jan. 22.

Doll no longer is receiving new vehicles from Nissan, which shut down his existing store across town. Doll's other operation, Doll Cadillac-Pontiac-Buick-GMC in Americus, Ga., also has no new-vehicle inventory because Nissan canceled his inventory financing. Calls to that store last week were not answered.

Doll's Chevrolet store in Centreville, Ala., also is closed, Alabama authorities say.

Doll's tribulations took an even worse turn this month when, in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings in Georgia, he learned that his adult daughter had died unexpectedly at her home in Florida. Doll, a Vietnam War vet who is active in Georgia Republican Party politics, declined to be interviewed for this story.

Meanwhile, according to one of the participants in the construction project who asked not to be identified, a group of Doll's friends from around town have collected $1.2 million in cash to help Doll as his business implodes.

The death of Doll's daughter briefly halted the dismantling of his assets. But creditors and potential bidders soon were meeting again to acquire the Columbus Nissan franchise -- with or without the uncompleted showcase store.

According to a key project participant, the $9 million simply wasn't enough.

"He just ran out of money," says Larry Phillips, owner of Phillips Construction Co., which was building the dealership. Phillips says the project's cost had exceeded $11 million before his crews were forced to stop work on it. Nissan's requirements for a new dealership in a market the size of Columbus had called for a 21,000-square-foot store. Doll's was 42,000, on a 14-acre site.

Phillips, a soft-spoken man with a Deep South accent, knows the local dealerships. In recent years, as brands sought more modern architecture, his Columbus firm has constructed BMW, Acura, Ford, Mercedes and Dodge stores in town.

Phillips knew Doll and his family when he contracted for the job. He quoted Doll a modest contractor's fee for the job. Now Phillips' own company is out $1.6 million on the project. Phillips fears he will never get it and that the unpaid bills will destroy his company.

"I don't think we can take a $1.6 million hit and survive," he says. "I've known Rob a long time, and I'm not mad at him. Bless his heart; he's going to suffer more than I am."

In the Columbus community, the project's collapse also is endangering Phillips' subcontractors, the small construction firms that buy the sort of heavy pickups and commercial vehicles Ford and GMC sell -- and which Rob Doll Nissan was to begin selling in 2010. Phillips says he has worked with the subcontractors' fathers and grandfathers over the years but believes they will be wholly justified to sue him over the Doll project.

"I put my faith in the Lord," Phillips says. "Whatever happens here is His will. I just hope He sees fit to find Rob a buyer and clean this mess up."

Jay Stelzenmuller III, the second-generation owner of Columbus' Jay Automotive Group, is one of three retailers bidding to buy Doll Nissan out of bankruptcy. The others are another Columbus dealer, Carl Gregory, who owns Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ford, Honda and Hyundai stores in three states, and SE Columbus Automotive, which owns Eastern Shore Toyota in Daphne, Ala., near Mobile.

Stelzenmuller's original bid would have kept Doll as a minority partner and made him president of the Nissan dealership. But, he says, Nissan objected to that plan and wanted Doll removed from the dealership altogether. Nissan declined to comment on the Doll situation.

Stelzenmuller, 63, has known Doll since Doll came to Columbus as a store manager in the 1990s and calls him a friend. At a Christmas party last year, he talked to Doll about the industry's worsening conditions and the new Nissan store.

"I warned him to be careful with what he was doing," Stelzenmuller recalls. "But at that time, all of us car dealers thought the economy was going to turn right around. I don't think my advice meant much."

People familiar with the project's collapse say Doll's current Nissan troubles had as much to do with GM as Nissan.

Doll had great success as a Nissan dealer, Stelzenmuller says. But Doll had acquired the Cadillac-Pontiac-Buick store in Americus out of bankruptcy. It needed cash as the 2009 sales market floundered. Doll began tapping his personal assets, selling stocks and cashing in his life insurance policy to keep construction going on the Nissan store.

Stelzenmuller and others say Doll had a sound plan. The new Nissan store would only use six of the site's 14 acres. The rest would be sold for commercial development as gas stations or retail stores, generating enough cash to bring Doll's debt down from $11 million to as low as $3 million.

"It's some of the best commercial property in town," Stelzenmuller says. "But we saw what happened to the real estate market in 2009."

As Doll was shopping the acreage, Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp. discovered the Cadillac-Pontiac-Buick store was out of trust and canceled its inventory financing -- as well as financing for the Columbus Nissan store because the two stores' finances were commingled.

In August, news of Nissan Motor Acceptance's intent to foreclose on the $11 million store project surfaced. Buyers rarely agree to pay full price for land that is certain to be auctioned off in foreclosure.

At least two of the bidders want no part in the $11 million store.

"It's way too much building," says Carl Gregory, who owns a local Honda store. If selected, he would put Nissan into one of his existing showrooms.

Stelzenmuller has problems of his own. A year ago he renovated his Columbus Saturn store before being stunned by GM's decision to kill the brand. Unless required to buy the almost-completed building to get the Nissan franchise, he would put Nissan into the Saturn store.

"Nissan's a great franchise, and we'd like to have it," Stelzenmuller says. "But you'd have to sell an awful lot of cars to pay for an $11 million building. Somebody's going to take quite a haircut on that deal."