Graham Ourisman buys Toyota dealership in Virginia

Longtime dealer Rod McGeorge on Tuesday sold McGeorge Toyota in Henrico, Va., to an expanding Graham Ourisman Automotive.

Publicly traded Graham Holdings Co. has a partnership with Ourisman Automotive Group for dealerships. Graham Holdings is a diversified company that owns businesses such as educational provider Kaplan Inc. and formerly owned The Washington Post.

“Toyota, as a brand and as a partner, we believe are second-to-none,” Chris Ourisman, president of Ourisman Automotive, told Automotive News. “We have great experiences with them and anything that we can do to deepen our relationship with Toyota and Lexus is something that we very much aspire to do and look forward to.”

Ourisman said he also likes the Richmond market and noted a shared culture with the McGeorge organization was the driving factor in the acquisition.

The dealership will be renamed Ourisman Toyota of Richmond.

Graham Holdings has six dealerships in the Washington, D.C., area. They include Ourisman Lexus of Rockville and Ourisman Jeep Bethesda in Maryland; Ourisman Honda of Tysons Corner in Vienna, Va.; and Ourisman Ford of Manassas in Virginia. The partnership added the renamed Toyota Woodbridge and Ourisman Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram of Woodbridge dealerships in Virginia in July 2022 from Lustine Automotive Group.

Graham Holdings on Wednesday said Graham Ourisman Automotive has been awarded a Kia open point dealership in Bethesda. It is expected to open by the end of 2023.

Graham Holdings and Ourisman last year said they were looking for more dealerships to purchase after their December 2021 acquisition of the Manassas store. Ourisman told Automotive News in January 2022 that the partnership "was created with the concept of building something really big."

Ourisman on Wednesday said the parties want to continue to grow together.

McGeorge Toyota, in business for more than 50 years, was described as a high-performing Toyota store in Virginia by Haig Partners, a buy-sell firm in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that represented the seller in the transaction.

The dealership was part of the McGeorge Family of Dealerships, founded in 1960.

"While parting ways with McGeorge Toyota is bittersweet for me, I can rest easy knowing that it is now in the best hands with Chris Ourisman and the team at Graham Ourisman Automotive," McGeorge said in a statement.

Graham Holdings, the Arlington, Va., conglomerate, said it had second-quarter automotive operating income of nearly $9.5 million, up 27 percent from nearly $7.4 million earned in the same period a year earlier.

Ourisman Automotive, of Marlow Heights, Md., ranks No. 16 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups, retailing 31,682 new vehicles last year.

Kevin Nill, managing director of Haig Partners, was the broker.