Troy Duhon completes 'emotional' purchase of West Bank Ray Brandt car dealerships

Louisiana auto magnate Troy Duhon on Monday finalized the purchase of Ray Brandt's West Bank car dealerships, completing what he described as an "emotional" expansion of his Premier Automotive Group empire to include the Chrysler outlet where he sold his first car 40 years ago.

Duhon, one of New Orleans' more recognizable local car salesmen through his billboards, television advertisements and charity work, now controls a cluster of four outlets in Harvey, just off the West Bank Expressway, as the Brandt estate moves to complete the sale of the dealer network Ray Brandt built before he died in 2019.

The purchase, which includes dealerships for Nissan, Hyundai-Genesis, Volkswagen and Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram vehicles, gives Duhon 10 outlets in Louisiana and 30 more locations in seven other states, making him the largest Louisiana-based car dealer.

The price tag for his part of the Brandt estate wasn't disclosed, but industry watchers said Duhon's new dealerships would have been valued at around $80 million when the option to buy the properties is included.

Duhon's purchase is part of the broader sale of all 13 Ray Brandt Auto dealerships and collision centers for a total of about $280 million. The liquidation will help end the dispute over the late car mogul's estate that flared between his widow, Jessica, and his two adult grandchildren, Alexis and Zachary Hartline.

The original deal, agreed to in November, would have allowed Duhon to buy six dealerships while Saints owner Gayle Benson was set to buy the remaining seven.

However, carmakers intervened to exercise their controversial "right of first refusal," which meant that two stores Duhon had agreed to buy — the Chevrolet in D'Iberville, Mississippi, and the Kia on the West Bank — went to other buyers. Duhon was also required by the parent company of Chrysler to sell that carmaker's outlet in New Orleans East in order to buy the one in Harvey.

"I knew going into the deal what I was challenged with," Duhon said in an interview Monday. He expected that Kia would not want him to buy next to the sister Hyundai-Genesis stores in Harvey, and that Chrysler would require him to sell in New Orleans East.

"Chrysler knew that West Bank store meant a lot to me because my daddy opened that store in 1970 and I sold my first car there in 1983," said Duhon, 59, who acquired his first dealership in 1995.

Duhon said that the Nissan store in Harvey also has emotional significance: It was where he first met his wife, Tracy.

"She came in to buy a car and I teased her. I say, 'You know that was the last car you ever paid for.' So, for us, it was more of an opportunity to go back to where we came from," he said.

Duhon said that he is simultaneously selling five car dealerships in northern California to concentrate on his Louisiana businesses.

"Them people up there are crazy," he joked. "But to be honest with you, this is where we're from, so we would rather bring our resources back here and do more through our foundation." 

West Bank expansion 

Duhon has been vocal about his faith — he is a born-again Christian — and has spoken publicly in the past about his father's struggles with alcoholism, which led the elder Duhon to give up the car business and become a full-time Pentecostal preacher when Troy was still a boy.

Troy and Tracy Duhon's Giving Hope NOLA foundation has funded a bible studies center in the 9th Ward, as well as a food pantry in Marrero and an addiction rehabilitation retreat center in Lacombe. They have also funded nine overseas orphanages, including ones in India, Russia and Gambia.

As they focus more on the West Bank, where they were both born and raised, Duhon said he and his wife now want to expand the Marrero food pantry and to open a new 30-day addiction center there.

"When I was coming back from signing documents to close the deal Monday, I saw the line at the Giving Hope food bank on Lapalco was backed up all the way to Barataria," a half-mile away, Duhon said. "That's why I know we have to expand." 

Still, while Duhon's latest deals have been focused on building up the West Bank and exiting northern California, he is coming off a year that saw him expand his car network into several states and move up the national car dealer league table.

In its latest ranking, Automotive News put Premier Automotive at No. 43 on its list of the top 150 dealership groups in the U.S., based on its 18,792 new vehicle sales in 2022.

Last year, Premier added seven new dealerships and entered three new states, including Virginia, Georgia and Mississippi. The Louisiana Automobile Dealers Association said Premier had sales of $1 billion when it named Duhon "Dealer of the Year" last year.

Two of Duhon's four children, Josh, 27, and Abigail, 23, work with him, though he said it will be up to them whether they stay in the car business.

Duhon said the Brandt deal was a rare case where a legacy business of that size comes up for sale. He noted that it ended up being a very complicated deal because of the interventions by five car companies to exercise their "right of first refusal," to bring in their preferred buyers.

Duhon said he has been both winner and loser when carmakers step in to assert that right, and understands that car companies use them to increase diversity, reward favored dealers and encourage new investment.

But he notes that a dozen states have changed the law to block or make it harder for carmakers to block deals. He would like to see the law changed similarly in Louisiana.

"Let's say I want to retire and sell my business to my right-hand guy who's been with me for 30 years and I know he's going to keep everybody employed," Duhon said.

"Then all of a sudden the manufacturer ROFRs it and all my staff is out of a job," he said, using an abbreviation for the right of first refusal. "That ain't right."