After several years of declining sales, auto dealerships in Puyallup are noticing slight improvement. One that attests to that is the Harnish Family Auto Group.

“We sold over 5,000 cars a year at one point,” said Keith Harnish, a co-owner in the Harnish Family Auto Group along River Road. “Now we’re on the way to build that back up again.”

Since the beginning of 2008, Harnish has witnessed a lot of change in an industry he’s been a part of since 1977.

Two years ago, General Motors shut down the Saturn franchise and closed Harnish’s Puyallup Saturn dealership, despite it being one of the top five performers in Washington state.  The Saturn closure was a casualty of the national recession, Harnish said.

Recently, Harnish sold the Lincoln dealership to the Korum family, and it was folded into Korum’s Ford dealership — a national trend among the Ford-Lincoln franchise.

Yet Harnish said he’s been able to maintain his Subaru dealership, as well as pick up and revolutionize two national ailing franchise dealerships: Chevy and Buick.

Harnish’s Chevy dealership recently completed an extensive renovation. And next in line is Harnish’s Buick dealership at the corner of River Road and 9th Street Northwest.

“We have saved over 100 jobs for Buick and Chevy,” Harnish said. “This will provide a huge amount of revenue for the city.”

An anticipated renovation in the plans for Harnish’s Buick dealership will total about $2 million.

To make it possible, Harnish petitioned the City of Puyallup last year to vacate a strip of right-of-way which abuts his Buick-GMC dealership site on the east side of 9th Street Northwest.

The petition went in front of the Puyallup City Council at its regular meeting Jan. 3. The council had a first reading on an ordinance that would allow the vacation of right-of-way, and it conducted a public hearing to address the petition, as specified by state law.

Colleen Harris, the development services manager for Puyallup, said city staff members recommended the vacation.

“Any time we have excess right-of-way, we encourage folks to consider looking at vacating it through a city-council process,” Harris said.

Harris said vacating the right-of-way is when the public portion is sold back to the adjoining property owners. In this case, that’s Harnish’s property.

“That public right-of-way that was previously owned by the city will become part of Harnish’s property,” Harris said.

The 15 feet of vacated right-of-way is not being used for public street or sidewalk use, and city staff members said it will not have any adverse impact on the configuration or functionality of 9th Street Northwest.

Harris said the 15 feet of right-of-way that Harnish would purchase will exist behind the sidewalk. All the street improvements on the purchased right-of-way would be done by Harnish. Harris said that includes curb, gutter, asphalt widening and storm drainage improvements.

At last week’s meeting, the Puyallup City Council made a motion to pass the first reading of the prescribed ordinance to allow vacation. Conditions of the ordinance include requiring Harnish to pay the city the full appraised value of the right-of-way, which is $8,250, and any additional administrative costs.

If the city council passes the second reading on Jan. 17, the ordinance would go into effect five days following the publication of the ordinance.

Harnish intends to use the vacated right-of-way to accommodate his expansion and redevelopment of the Buick dealership.

“The benefit of this vacation to the city is that it removes public ownership and puts it into private ownership, therefore putting it back on the tax rolls,” Harris said. “It also allows the adjoining property owner to develop more efficiently.”

Harnish said the adjoining lot he purchased just south of his existing lot will be for more parking to accommodate an expanded service shop. Harnish anticipates adding at least 50 jobs once an expansion is completed for Buick.

Across his Subaru, Chevy and Buick dealerships, Harnish said he is approaching 150 jobs. All are family-wage jobs with good benefits, he said.

Reach Puyallup reporter Andrew Fickes at 253-841-2481 Ext. 313 or email at andrew.fickes@puyallupherald.com.