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Three auto retailers added to their dealership portfolios with the purchases of single stores in the first and third quarters, while a former dealership executive general manager and partner bought their first dealership in a second-quarter purchase.
Here’s a look at the deals involving import dealerships and stores in Indiana, New Jersey, California and Alabama.
Barnes Crossing Auto acquires Duell’s Evansville Hyundai in Indiana
Joe Marshall, owner of Barnes Crossing Auto Group of Tupelo, Miss., last month bought Duell’s Evansville Hyundai in Indiana from Doug Duell and Amish Patel.
The dealership is now named Hyundai of Evansville.
The sale was final Aug. 3, the same day Duell and Patel sold their Evansville, Ind., Kia dealership to Lou Fusz Automotive Network.
Duell, now retired, told Automotive News that he acquired the Hyundai dealership in 2011. It was Indiana’s top-volume Hyundai dealer in new-vehicle sales for two of the past four years, a Hyundai spokesman confirmed.
Barnes Crossing has more than a dozen franchised dealerships selling Buick, Chevrolet, GMC, Ford, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Toyota and Volkswagen vehicles, Marshall said. The group also has one used-vehicle store.
“I have a big Hyundai store in Tupelo, Miss., a really good Hyundai store in Columbia, Tenn., so I like the Hyundai brand,” Marshall told Automotive News.
Marshall and his then-partner Terry Kilpatrick formed Barnes Crossing in 2010, when they bought their first dealership in Tupelo. The group, now owned by Marshall, has dealerships in Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina and Tennessee, Marshall said.
Paul Kechnie and Mark Shackelford, the Texas and Midwest partners for Performance Brokerage Services, a buy-sell firm in Irvine, Calif., facilitated the transaction.
Integrity Automotive acquires Nissan store
Integrity Automotive Holdings of Mamaroneck, N.Y., expanded again with the July 25 purchase of its third Nissan store, buying a dealership in Springfield, N.J., from World Auto Group and Chris Preziosi.
Jeffrey Weiner and Michael Ianelli of Integrity Automotive bought Nissan World of Springfield in New Jersey, which they renamed Nissan City of Springfield.
It’s the third Nissan store acquired by Integrity Automotive and the second purchased from World Auto, according to Weiner, Integrity Automotive’s CEO. Integrity Automotive in May 2021 purchased a Nissan store in Red Bank, N.J., from World Auto.
The Integrity group now has five dealerships spread throughout the New York metropolitan area, including New Jersey, with two additional acquisitions in progress that the company hopes to finalize by year’s end, Weiner said.
Weiner said the group chose to buy the Springfield Nissan store because of its location.
“Route 22 in Springfield, N.J., is a great place to sell cars,” Weiner said. “It’s a high-traffic area and we expect it to be one of the best-performing Nissan stores in the country.
“It’s a really great store with everything going for it.”
Springfield is about 25 miles west of the New York state line.
Weiner, who is dealer principal of the new Nissan store, said that while they will add staff, no other major changes are planned.
Former general manager and partner buy Honda store
Veteran dealership executive general manager Vladimir Rajcic and co-owner Bob Kashani purchased their first new-car dealership, RocketTown Honda in Lompoc, Calif., in June.
The dealership’s name refers to the city’s nickname, based on the nearby Vandenberg Space Force Base, formerly an Air Force base. Lompoc is in Santa Barbara County.
“I was looking for a Honda dealership,” Rajcic said in a phone interview, adding that he has experience running Honda stores. Rajcic said he previously worked for Rohrman Automotive Group of Lafayette, Ind., at dealerships in Illinois representing several different brands.
The Honda transaction closed June 15 and the seller was dealer Chris Zikakis. RocketTown Honda was his only dealership, according to John Chisholm of dealership brokerage firm Dealer Solutions Mergers and Acquisitions, with U.S. headquarters in Stuart, Fla.
Kashani, a real estate developer, owns a substantial but minority share of the Honda store, said Chisholm, vice president of Canadian sales at Dealer Solutions Mergers and Acquisitions since January. He previously was the company’s chief development officer.
Chisholm represented the seller in the transaction, but said he worked closely with both parties.
“A lot of stars lined up” to make the deal happen, Chisholm said, including “the price of the real estate [and] the total cost of the package.”
Bill Penney adds Toyota dealership
Bill Penney Motor Co. in the first quarter expanded its holdings in Jasper, Ala., buying Scott Crump Toyota from Scott Crump, according to the Daily Mountain Eagle newspaper.
The transaction closed on Feb. 22, Southeast Toyota Distributors, the distributor for Toyota stores in five Southeast states including Alabama, confirmed to Automotive News.
The group renamed the dealership Bill Penney Toyota of Jasper. Jasper is northwest of Birmingham.
This marks the group’s third store in Jasper and its second Toyota dealership, with the other in Huntsville, Ala.
Bill Penney Motor, via partners Zack Penney, Hunter Johnson and Ryan Hensley, also acquired Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram of Jasper and Ford of Jasper in Alabama from Automotive Group of Jasper. Bill Penney Motor also has a Mitsubishi store in Huntsville, according to its website.