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From academia to autos, Tim Kelly has variety of business interests

Tim Kelly, owner of Kelly Subaru on Riverfront Parkway, says the nearly $2 million makeover has a heavy environmental emphasis.
Tim Kelly, owner of Kelly Subaru on Riverfront Parkway, says the nearly $2 million makeover has a heavy environmental emphasis.

By Mike Pare 4 min read

He's very entrepreneurial – an out-of-the-box thinker.

photo Tim Kelly, owner of Kelly Subaru on Riverfront Parkway, has a variety of business interests in addition to the downtown Chattanooga dealership.

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Subaru by the numbers

* August 2016 marked the best-ever sales month in Subaru company history* August 2016 monthly sales increased 14.7 percent over August 2015* Subaru has recorded 57 consecutive months of month-over-month growth* Best August ever for Outback, Legacy and Forester modelsSource: Subaru of America, Inc.

Tim Kelly was a comparative literature major, a John Jay Scholar at Columbia University in New York and well on his way to a career in academia when he returned to Chattanooga.

“As the only remaining child in the [auto] business, I got lured back to Chattanooga to run the business,” says Kelly, the owner of Kelly Subaru downtown, who succeeded his father and grandfather in the auto business. “I came back to Chattanooga at a pretty gold moment, right before the Tennessee Aquarium was being built. It’s been great.”