With recent purchases of Kia of East Hartford and Papa’s Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in New Britain, Memphis-based Dobbs Equity Partners is rebuilding a dealership inventory that was once the backbone of its business.Dobbs paid $6.5 million for the 3-acre dealership property at 99 Ash St. in East Hartford in a sale recorded Aug. 3. […]
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With recent purchases of Kia of East Hartford and Papa’s Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in New Britain, Memphis-based Dobbs Equity Partners is rebuilding a dealership inventory that was once the backbone of its business.
Dobbs paid $6.5 million for the 3-acre dealership property at 99 Ash St. in East Hartford in a sale recorded Aug. 3. The investor paid an undisclosed additional amount for the business.
The property includes a 36,287-square-foot concrete building. It was originally completed in 1980 but renovated several years ago for the Kia dealership.
“When we saw Kia of East Hartford, we jumped on it because we would like to expand our holdings up there,” said Rick Greene, chief operating officer for Dobbs. “We are really optimistic about the market. We love Hartford, Connecticut, and we want to grow the business.”
The limited liability company that bought 99 Ash St. was established in May, with Greene as its principal.
In December, another Dobbs-affiliated LLC paid $8 million for the 6.8-acre Papa’s property at 585 East Main St. in New Britain. That property hosts a 71,999-square-foot building erected in 1959.
Greene said the East Hartford dealership is the latest in a series of dealership purchases as Dobbs harkens back to its roots. The company traces back to 1921, when James K. Dobbs borrowed $25,000 to open his first Ford dealership, along with partner Horace Hull, according to Dobbs’ website.
The partners diversified during the Great Depression, when Dobbs and Hull invested in a chain of Jack Sprat hamburger stands. The partners disagreed with Jack Sprat Corp.’s decision to place managers on salary rather than incentive pay, and so they struck out on their own with a competing restaurant chain.
Dobbs built the new chain of Hull-Dobbs House restaurants to 50 locations before selling to Jack Sprat.
Over the decades, Dobbs branched out into airline catering, truck leasing, beer distribution and health insurance. At one point, Dobbs operated 55 auto dealerships from Hawaii to Puerto Rico, according to a post on Kia of East Hartford’s website.
In 1997, the company decided to focus on its health insurance business, announcing plans to sell off 20 or so dealerships to the parent company of AutoNation for $200 million in stock.
Today, Dobbs owns an Anheuser-Busch distributor with six locations covering the majority of New Mexico; a chain of veterinary hospitals in greater Washington D.C. and Philadelphia; automotive-parts supplier The Universal Group Inc.; orthopedic medical device and instrument manufacturer Finishing Innovations Inc.; and auto insurer Diamond Specialty.
Dobb’s portfolio now includes a dozen auto dealerships in Arkansas, Kansas, Texas, Indiana, Alabama and Connecticut.
In East Hartford, the most recent acquisition, Dobbs brought in a new general manager but otherwise kept existing staff, Greene said.
“We are typically a high-volume dealer,” Greene said. “We want to sell as many as we can. Our goal is to be the number one Kia dealer in the Northeast.”
