Four dealerships, two in the South and two in the Northeast, changed ownership in either fourth-quarter 2021 or first-quarter 2022.
Here’s a look at the deals involving import and domestic brands.
Springhill Automotive expands
Springhill Automotive Group bought its second Toyota dealership and entered a new state with the purchase of Toyota of Bristol in Tennessee on Jan. 18.
Springhill Automotive of Mobile, Ala., bought the dealership from Mark Mitchell, managing partner of the Mitchell Family Office in Birmingham, Mich., near Detroit, and JR Reihl, who was the dealership’s operating partner.
“Due to the extremely attractive market conditions for dealers and a growing need to get bigger to compete in automotive retail, we were exploring the strategic decision of selling our Toyota of Bristol location and returning our complete focus to the family’s core healthcare business opportunities,” Mitchell said in a statement.
The family office has other dealership holdings, buy-sell firm Haig Partners of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., confirmed, but specifics weren’t available. John Davis, managing director of Haig Partners, represented the sellers in the transaction.
In addition to health care companies, the Mitchell Family Office’s businesses include a hotel and an off-road vehicle company, Mil-Spec Automotive, according to its website.
The dealership buyers will retain the store’s name.
With the acquisition, Springhill Automotive now has six dealerships across Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, said Tal Vickers, the group’s president.
“We’re still looking,” Vickers told Automotive News. “I don’t have anything I’m looking at … this minute. But we still have feelers out. The brokers know that we’re still in the looking mode.
“With so many buyers out there, I think it’s gonna be really tough. I was surprised we were able to get this deal done because of the current environment, but it worked out great. Like I said, we’ll continue to look. We’re not in a hurry to grow, but we’re going to grow strategically and be patient and try to find the right deals for us.”
Springhill Automotive owns Springhill Toyota and Lexus of Mobile, both in Mobile, Ala.; Honda of Jasper and Hyundai of Jasper, both in Jasper, Ala.; and Lithia Springs Ford in Lithia Springs, Ga., near Atlanta.
Logan Parker and Robert Bass of Bass Sox Mercer were legal counsel to the sellers, while David Porteous of the Evans Petree law firm advised the buyer.
Toyota of Newnan in Ga. sold
After planning to sell a majority of his dealership to a publicly traded auto retailer, dealer Walt Gutierrez has sold his Toyota of Newnan store in Georgia.
Gutierrez in July 2020 signed an agreement in which publicly traded LMP Automotive Holdings Inc. was to buy a 75 percent stake in the dealership for $27 million.
At the time, LMP said the dealership generated about $100 million in annual revenue and $5.6 million in pretax income. But by December 2020, LMP had said it and Gutierrez had agreed to terminate the July purchase agreement. LMP CEO Samer Tawfik declined to disclose why the deal didn’t move forward.
The dealership, outside of Atlanta, sold on Dec. 1 to Danny Braden and Rob Gallik, Gutierrez confirmed to Automotive News.
Braden is dealer principal, Gallik said. The two also are partners in three Alabama dealerships: Tameron Honda Hoover and Tameron Hyundai in Birmingham and Tameron Honda Gadsden, Gallik said in an email.
Bob Morris of the Tim Lamb Group, a buy-sell firm in Columbus, Ohio, represented the seller in the transaction.
Quirk Auto adds domestic store in Maine
Quirk Auto Group has purchased Fuller Chevrolet-GMC in Rockland, Maine, adding another domestic brand to its portfolio and giving it a presence in Rockland.
The group bought the store from the Kolmosky family, who had operated the dealership for 40 years, according to a Dec. 17 article in the Courier-Gazette newspaper. The deal closed on Dec. 15, General Motors confirmed.
The store was renamed Quirk Chevrolet-GMC of Rockland.
Quirk has nine other franchised rooftops in Maine, plus used-vehicle centers, according to its website.
First-time dealer buys Subaru store
First-time dealer Dennis Wilson bought a Subaru dealership last month in Concord, N.H., from Sheila Reilly, whose family had owned the store for more than 27 years.
Wilson on Dec. 14 bought Ed Reilly Subaru, according to Nancy Phillips Associates, a buy-sell firm in Exeter, N.H., which handled the transaction.
The store was renamed Capital City Subaru.
A Dec. 20 Facebook post on the Ed Reilly Subaru page announced the ownership transition.
“We are confident that our long-standing values of extraordinary customer service and making every experience a positive one will continue,” said the post by the Reilly family. “Our amazing employees will also still be there, so you will see the same friendly faces you have come to know and love.”
Ed Reilly, Sheila Reilly’s late husband, died in 2018 at age 61, according to his obituary.
Wilson previously was market COO with Prime Motor Group and a general manager for Ira Motor Group, according to his LinkedIn profile.
While at Prime, Wilson said he ran a Subaru store in Manchester, N.H., and said consumers’ “loyalty for the brand” stood out to him.
Wilson said he inquired about buying the Ed Reilly store a year and a half ago — before it was for sale. He later learned it was on the market and met with Sheila Reilly in September.
“The place was very, very clean [and] well kept,” he said, adding that after a roughly two-hour meeting, he and Reilly realized their philosophies “lined up.”
He said he plans within four years to bring the dealership up to image compliance standards with Subaru by either building a new dealership or rehabbing the current store.
Wilson said buying his own dealership had been a longtime goal.
“Anybody who’s been in the car business for a long time at the levels of a GM or beyond thinks it’d be nice to own my own store someday,” he said.