A pair of Midwest dealership groups expanded via dealership purchases from Michigan’s Spartan Auto Group, which sold its remaining four stores in the state in two transactions.
Serra Automotive Inc., of Fenton, Mich., one of the largest privately held groups in the country, bolstered its presence in the state with its Monday purchase of Lexus of Lansing. The acquisition marks Serra Automotive’s first Lexus store.
Serra Automotive bought the store from the Criscuolo family, which owned Spartan Auto Group.
The dealership was renamed Serra Lexus Lansing. Lansing, Michigan’s capital, is located in the middle of the state.
Serra Automotive said it plans to relocate the Lexus dealership to a new facility in Okemos, east of Lansing, where the group already has BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche dealerships across a 20-acre site.
Serra Automotive said the move is pending Lexus’ approval, but noted it plans to build the facility and move in 2024.
The acquisition was the group’s first purchase since it bought a Michigan Ford store in May, the company confirmed. Serra Automotive also in April bought a Michigan Buick-GMC dealership.
Serra Automotive has dealerships across Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio and Tennessee. It ranks No. 12 on Automotive News‘ list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 40,047 new vehicles in 2021.
In a separate transaction, the Criscuolo family on Monday sold Lexus of Ann Arbor, Spartan Toyota in Lansing and Wolverine Toyota in Dundee to Germain Auto Partnership.
The three stores are Germain Automotive Partnership’s first in Michigan, the group confirmed. Germain Automotive Partnership, of Columbus, Ohio, is owned by Rick Germain and his sons. It is independent of Germain Motor Co., which has three dealerships in Ann Arbor, and is led by Steve Germain, Rick Germain’s brother.
The Spartan Toyota name remains, while the other dealerships were renamed Germain Lexus of Ann Arbor and Germain Toyota of Dundee. Dundee is south of Ann Arbor, near the Ohio border.
Germain Automotive Partnership said it now has 16 dealerships across Ohio, Florida and Michigan. The Michigan acquisitions were the group’s first since it bought a Lincoln store in Florida in December 2021, the company confirmed. In November 2019, Germain Automotive Partnership bought five dealerships in Columbus from Sonic Automotive Inc.
Spartan Auto’s Rosario Criscuolo, a longtime dealer who was dealer principal of the four Michigan stores, died in July at 71.
In 1984, he acquired and became dealer principal of Spartan Toyota in Lansing. In 2008, he added a Toyota dealership in Monroe and operated it there until he relocated it to Dundee in 2019.
Kerrigan Advisors, a sell-side firm in Incline Village, Nevada, represented the Criscuolo family in the transactions.