After some hard times and last year's chapter 11 bankrupcy filing the popular Northwest coffee cafe chain, Tully's Coffee has been sold. The source of the winning bid is what is facinating, Tully's was bought via bankrupcy court auction by a group of investors being lead by Patrick Dempsey, a Hollywood actor famous for his role as McDreamy on the ABC hit drama Grey's Anotomy .
Dempsey's investment company called Global Baristas LLC agreed to pay 9.2 million dollars for the chain. A competing bid came in higher (that bid was about 10.6 million) from a second group that had partnered with Starbucks however the judge has since ruled that the auction was fair and that Dempsey's group with win the company.
Tully's has it's headquarters in Seattle and operates a total of 47 Tully's branded cafes around Washington and California. Some of those Tully's locations are here in the Spokane and Coeur d' Alene area. Look at the bottom of the article for a list of local area Tully's Coffee locations.
As a result of the sale none of Tully's employees will be laid off, In total Tully's employs about 500 chain wide.The close on the sale is expected towards the end of this month.