Morgan Automotive Group buys 4 dealerships in Florida, including its first in Miami

Morgan Automotive Group, one of the largest dealership groups in the country, continued its rapid pace of acquisitions with the purchase of four dealerships in Florida in March and April, chairman Larry Morgan confirmed.

Morgan Automotive, of Tampa, Fla., on March 15 purchased Kendall Hyundai-Genesis in Miami from Potamkin Automotive Group Inc., Morgan told Automotive News. The name remains.

The purchase represents the group's first foray into Miami, Morgan said. Planning has begun for renovations that will include a larger showroom and more service bays, he added.

Following the Miami acquisition, on April 27, Morgan Automotive bought two dealerships in Leesburg and one in Fruitland Park from Bill Bryan of Bill Bryan Automotive Group. Bryan, a friend of Morgan's, had unidentified partners in the stores, Morgan said.

The three dealerships are near The Villages, Central Florida's sprawling master-planned community for active residents 55 and older.

"They don't allow any car dealerships in The Villages per se," Morgan said. "But we're right on the outskirts."

The former Bill Bryan Kia and Bill Bryan Subaru, renamed Kia of Leesburg and Villages Subaru, are in Leesburg. Bill Bryan Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep, which also sold Ram, in Fruitland Park, is now named Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram of Leesburg.

Morgan said the area, including The Villages and surrounding communities, keeps growing.

"If you drove through it, you wouldn't believe it," he said. "There's just hundreds of acres under construction with roadways, underground utilities and houses coming up, right in the middle of our footprint. It just made all the sense in the world for us to be there."

The company purchased 10 stores in 2022, including two Kia dealerships in Florida in December from LMP Automotive Holdings Inc. Morgan Automotive expects to close on several transactions in 2023, CEO Brett Morgan told Automotive News at the NADA Show in Dallas.

The latest transactions give the group more than 60 dealerships in the Sunshine State.

Morgan Automotive ranks No. 8 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups in the U.S., retailing 59,378 new vehicles in 2022. Potamkin Automotive, of Miami Lakes, Fla., ranks No. 36 on the list, selling 20,526 new vehicles last year.

In June, Potamkin sold Sacramento Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram in California to Bob Nouri and Pete Shaver.

Fred O'Halloran of MD Johnson Inc., in Enumclaw, Wash., along with the buy-sell firm's president Mark Johnson, represented the sellers in the transaction.