Lithia Motors expanded its South Florida portfolio after paying a combined $51.4 million for a pair of West Palm Beach dealerships.
In the larger deal, an affiliate of Medford, Oregon-based Lithia, led by Bryan Deboer, paid $27.9 million for Acura of Palm Beach, a 10-acre car retail site at 6870 Okeechobee Boulevard, records and real estate database Vizzda show. Another affiliate of Lithia acquired West Palm Beach Hyundai, a 5.4-acre dealership at 2301 Okeechobee Boulevard, for $23.5 million.
Oak Terrace, Illinois-based Ed Napleton Automotive Group sold the two properties to Lithia. Ed Napleton paid $7.5 million for the Acura dealership in 2009, records show. The site has three buildings completed in 1986, 2004 and 2016.
In 2010, Ed Napleton acquired the Hyundai dealership, which includes three buildings completed in 1966 and 1969, for $4 million, records show.
With more than 298 dealerships across the U.S., Lithia is among the nation’s biggest retail automotive groups, according to the company’s website. Lithia entered the South Florida market in 2021 with its $43 million purchase of two Audi dealership complexes in Fort Lauderdale and Coral Springs, published reports state.
The following year, Lithia paid a combined $96 million for nine auto dealerships in Miami-Dade County previously owned by the Lehman family and the late Miami philanthropist Ron Esserman. Lithia also owns an industrial complex in Doral. The firm paid $28.5 million for the property in 2022.
In other recent Palm Beach County dealership trades, Miami-based investor Jon Samuel bought a shuttered car lot in West Palm Beach. In June, Samuel paid $24 million for the property, which he is leasing to Palm Beach County to use as a public bus depot. In February, Alpharetta, Georgia-based Krause Automotive Group bought two Nissan dealerships in Green Acres and Riviera Beach for a combined $30.5 million.