Morgan Automotive buys Al Hendrickson Toyota

Morgan Automotive Group has added one of the country's top dealerships for new-vehicle salesto its expanding stable in what a buy-sell broker said also came with a record-setting price tag for one dealership.

Morgan Automotive of Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday purchased Al Hendrickson Toyota in Coconut Creek, Fla., from Al Hendrickson Jr., Morgan Automotive Chairman Larry Morgan confirmed.

"Our goal is to keep the new-car business going the way it has been for quite some time and improve a few other areas of the store as time goes by," Morgan told Automotive News.

Morgan said the staff is top-notch, with no changes planned aside from adding someone from Morgan for the used-car business. The store employs more than 200 people.

"We're keeping everybody in their place doing what they've been doing," Morgan said.

Kevin Nill, managing director of Fort Lauderdale buy-sell firm Haig Partners, represented Hendrickson Jr. in the transaction.

The Hendrickson family opened their only dealership in 1989, according to Nill. Al Hendrickson Jr. bought the store from his father years ago.

"Al was considering whether he wanted to grow the organization or if now is the right time for him to go ahead and sell and set his family up for future opportunities," Nill told Automotive News. "And ultimately, he made that decision to go in that direction."

Nill said the sale presented an opportunity that doesn't happen often.

"You have one of the most desirable franchises, one of the highest-volume dealerships in the country in one of the most attractive markets," Nill said. "It certainly created a lot of intense demand for it, so it was a fun transaction to work on."

The dealership sold 9,221 new vehicles and more than 2,500 used vehicles in 2022, according to Haig Partners. The new-vehicle sales total made it the second-highest volume Toyota dealer in the country based on new-vehicle sales in 2022 and the highest volume dealer for the franchise in the Southeast region for the same time period, according to a Toyota Motor North America spokesperson.

Although Nill and Morgan declined to disclose the sales price, Nill said "we're very, very confident that it well exceeds the past record for a single-store sale."

Haig Partners previously told Automotive News that it believed Group 1 Automotive Inc.'s March 2022 purchase of Charles Maund Toyota in Austin, Texas, fetched the highest amount paid for dealership blue sky — the intangible value of a dealership, including goodwill — that it knows of at $206.5 million. Haig cited a Group 1 regulatory filing for the figure.

Morgan said the Hendrickson family were "first-class people" during the deal and that their teams shared similar philosophies in centering the people — customers and employees — in their dealerships.

"The Hendrickson deal was a smooth transaction and that's the way we like them," Morgan said.

Plans for building a new facility are in the works, but the dealership name will remain, Morgan said. Coconut Creek is north of Fort Lauderdale.

Tuesday's transaction marks the fifth dealership added this year to Morgan Automotive's portfolio, following the purchase of its first Miami store in March and three stores in Leesburg and Fruitland Park, also in Florida, in April.

One of the country's largest dealership groups, Morgan Automotive added 10 stores in 2022, including two Kia dealerships purchased from LMP Automotive Holdings Inc. in December.

Morgan Automotive owns more than 60 dealerships in Florida and ranks No. 8 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups in the U.S., retailing 59,378 new vehicles in 2022.