Growing Foundation Automotive buys dealerships in Texas

Growing Canadian dealership group Foundation Automotive Corp. made its first acquisition of 2022 and expanded its presence in Texas with the purchase of five franchised dealership rooftops on Wednesday.

Foundation bought BMW of Wichita Falls, Patterson Buick-GMC-Cadillac, Patterson Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram-Fiat, Patterson Hyundai and Patterson Kia, all in Wichita Falls, from Patterson Auto Group. The deal also included a used-vehicle dealership and two RV dealerships in Wichita Falls.

The group bought the dealerships from Patterson Auto CEO Paul Tigrett, Foundation CEO Kevin Kutschinski told Automotive News in an email. The BMW brand and RV dealerships are new to Foundation's portfolio.

Wichita Falls is northwest of Dallas, near the Oklahoma border.

Kutschinski said Foundation renamed four of the dealerships: Foundation Cadillac-Buick-GMC Wichita Falls, Foundation Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram-Fiat Wichita Falls, Foundation Hyundai Wichita Falls and Foundation Kia Wichita Falls. The BMW dealership's name remains the same.

Jon Oeltjen, general sales manager, and Brad Rodgers, general manager, are staying on with Foundation as managing partners.

Oeltjen is managing partner for the Cadillac-Buick-GMC, Hyundai and the used-vehicle dealership and is general manager of the BMW store. Rodgers is managing partner of the Stellantis and Kia dealerships.

They each have ownership stakes but Foundation didn't disclose percentages.

Patterson's Honda and Mercedes-Benz dealerships in Wichita Falls were not included in the transaction, Kutschinski said. Nor was Patterson of Bowie, a Ford-Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealership in Bowie, Texas.

The Texas purchase marks Foundation's first acquisition since it bought a Hyundai store in Boulder, Colo., in July. In October, Foundation sold a Honda dealership in Ohio.

Kutschinski this month told Automotive News that Foundation also expects to buy a dealership in the Houston area in early March, plus four dealerships in Tennessee later that month.

Foundation, of Calgary, Alberta, has a U.S. office in Houston. With the Wichita Falls acquisition, Foundation has 22 franchised dealerships spread across Colorado, North Dakota and Texas, as well as three in Canada.

The dealership sales follow the arrests of two Patterson Auto employees, including its former president.

In January, a former general manager of Patterson's Honda dealership — which Foundation did not buy — was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting four dealership employees. Steve Duran, who had worked at Patterson Honda until Nov. 30, was arrested after the Wichita Falls Police Department investigated complaints from four women who had worked at the dealership.

In February 2021, Patterson Auto President Anthony Patterson resigned and was replaced by Tigrett, the company said in a Feb. 5, 2021, Facebook post

. Tigrett had been with the group since it was founded in 1979, the company said.

Times Record News reported that Patterson was arrested on Feb. 3, 2021. He originally was charged with "trafficking of a person in connection with a Dec. 26, 2017, incident, and indecency with a child by exposure in connection with a Dec. 23, 2017, incident," the newspaper said citing court records.

In May 2021, Times Record News, citing court and jail records, reported Patterson was arrested again after "he was indicted on six charges related to allegations of human trafficking and child sex crimes."

Patterson bonded out of jail, according to a May 21, 2021, story posted on news outlet texashomepage.com.