Subaru of Santa Monica Sold
 

We have recently closed on the sale of the Subaru dealership in Santa Monica, California.

We sold the dealership to Mike Sullivan (LA Car Guy Dealership Group).

The seller was Mr. Ron Davis, Sr. who will remain the Ford dealer in town.

It was a very difficult transaction to pull off: (a) the Subaru franchise was dualed with Ford at the time, (b) Subaru did not want to be relocated outside of Santa Monica, and (c) the value of real estate on Santa Monica Blvd have skyrocketed recently. Frankly, in our view, properties on the boulevard are no longer in line with best and highest use for car dealerships.

Nonetheless, Mike Sullivan owns other properties in town, owns multiple dealerships in the greater Los Angeles area, benefits from a great reputation and undoubtedly will be successful with his latest acquisition.

Moshe Stopnitzky, President
Performance Brokerage Services, Inc.
A New Car Dealership Brokers Firm
www.performancebrokerageservices.com

Moshe,

Congratulations on another successful transaction for Performance Brokerage Services.

It was interesting to read that increases in real estate prices have made it difficult to split off a dualed dealership in the Santa Monica area. I know in the past OEMs liked to have "site control" over their dealers so they would be ensured of market representation but I'm not sure how common this is today.

It was also interesting to read that Mr. Davis elected to sell his Subaru store but keep his Ford store. I wonder if there was pressure from Ford to drop the dual franchise or if Mr. Davis made this decision based on his own analysis?

I'm not asking you to disclose the intentions of Mr. Davis; I'm just expressing my curiosity.