Gus Machado Ford in Hialeah is no longer owned by the late car dealer’s family, which sold the auto retailer site for $19.3 million.
A trust managed by Machado’s surviving relatives sold the 5.7-acre property to an entity managed by Victor Benitez, records and real estate database Vizzda show. City National Bank of Florida provided the buyer with a $15.4 million mortgage.
Benitez is vice president, general manager and majority shareholder of Gus Machado Ford, published reports state.
Machado purchased the dealership for $8.4 million in 1984, records show. The same year, he launched his eponymous car selling business, which became one of the top performing Ford dealerships in the country, published reports state. Machado died in 2022.
Last year, entities managed by his widow, Lilliam Machado, sold the land underneath a Ford dealership in Kendall that was previously owned by her husband. Doral-based car dealer Luis Somoano paid $20 million for the 7.3-acre property at 15555 South Dixie Highway.
In 2009, Somoano bought Ford of Kendall, a 68,225-square-foot dealership without the land, from Machado.
In other South Florida recent car dealership deals, Tampa-based Morgan Auto Group bought Hollywood Kia, a 2.7-acre auto retail site in Hollywood, for $22.5 million in June.
In May, Richmond, Virginia-based CarMax acquired a 24-acre-industrial site in Jupiter for $16 million, the company plans to convert the vacant land into a car auction lot.
A Raleigh, North Carolina-based car dealer made its first foray into the South Florida market in March. Johnson Automotive Dealership Group paid $25 million for a Staples store in Miami’s Edgewater that the company plans to convert into a Kia showroom and dealership.
And in January, Hollywood-based Craig Zinn Automotive Group picked up a development site in Kendall for $23.5 million. The 8.3-acre property is approved for a two-story auto retail building spanning nearly 76,000 square feet and 580 parking spaces.
