June 14, 2016 — (UPDATED June 16) Of the nine dealership acquisitions through the first two weeks of June, four occurred in the Denver market. In two separate transactions last week, the Larry H. Miller Group acquired three stores from Doug Moreland — Cherry Creek Dodge in Denver, Fiat of Denver and Colorado Chrysler Jeep of Aurora — and AutoNation acquired Centennial Chrysler Jeep, also from Doug Moreland. (Update is at the bottom of the story and includes buy-sell information announced yesterday).

(For more on the dealership buy-sell market, click Dealership Buy-Sells.)

The moves have been in play for several months as FCA has several stores in the Denver area where its brands have been spread out among multiple owners. Look for AutoNation to merge the Centennial store with the Dodge Ram dealership in Denver. Meanwhile, there likely will be another announcement or two in the coming weeks in the Colorado market.

For AutoNation, Centennial is its 18th dealership in the Denver market and 30th FCA store overall.

The Larry H. Miller Group acquired seven stores from Doug Moreland in April 2013 in the Arizona market.

The June numbers are on pace with last year’s June which saw only 19 rooftops change hands. Overall, number of transactions and rooftops sold is down from last year, mainly due to a second quarter that has seen fewer deals (54) than the month of March alone (55).

Other acquisitions the first two weeks of June include:

• Ken Garff Enterprises acquired Hooman Toyota of Long Beach, CA (renamed West Coast Toyota)
• Steve Dominguez acquired Hanigan Chevrolet Buick GMC in Payette, OR, General Motors’ 25th oldest dealership in the U.S. Mike Hanigan was going to sell to Todd McCurry (who had bought his Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram store earlier), but GM exercised its Right of First Refusal and brought in Dominguez as the buyer, according to a story in the Argus Observer. Dominguez owns Toyota, Ford, Lincoln, Chrysler Dodge Jeep and Ram stores in the northern California area. Bringing Dominguez into the deal likely was part of GM’s strategy to increase its minority-owned dealership numbers. The dealership had been in the Hanigan family for 91 years.
• The Boucher Group acquired Schmit Ford in Thiensville, WI. Tom Schmit’s father and uncle opened the store in 1948.
• The Smith Automotive Group (John Smith Jr) acquired Leigh Automotive, the Tuscaloosa Mercedes Benz store owned by Jack Leigh.
• Brad Deery (Deery Brothers of West Burlington) is acquiring the Honda dealership in West Burlington, IA from the Wisconsin-based Home Run Motors.

Update: The Thompson Organization, outside of Philadelphia, has sold its Porsche and Audi dealerships to the Sloane Automotive Group the Sloane Automotive Group. Thompson also sold its Volkswagen dealership to the Fred Beans Auto Group.

Steve Germain added Lexus of Naples to his portfolio, now totaling 16 dealerships. The dealership had been owned by his brother Bob Germain.