Auto magnate buys second Groove dealership in Englewood

The dealership sits next to a Groove Toyota location that was also recently acquired by the buyer. (Courtesy Pinnacle Mergers & Acquisitions)

Larry Van Tuyl has pulled into a second Denver-area car dealership.

The businessman, who once ran the largest privately owned dealership company in the U.S., has purchased Groove Subaru at 5300 S. Broadway in Englewood, according to a news release.

That’s on top of buying the neighboring Groove Toyota dealership.

The Toyota transaction was announced by Pinnacle Mergers & Acquisitions, a brokerage involved in the deal, on Dec. 31. The brokerage announced the Subaru transaction in mid-January.

Both dealerships will retain the Groove name. 

Records show Van Tuyl paid $70 million for both dealership’s real estate, which spans more than 15 acres just south of Belleview Avenue. The smaller Groove Subaru property accounted for $13.6 million of that figure.

Both dealerships were sold by Denver-based Summit Automotive Partners, which is now down to just two Groove dealerships — Ford and Honda spots in Centennial. Summit sold a Groove Honda dealership in Colorado Springs last October, per the release.

Summit’s other holdings include dealerships in New England and Wyoming. 

Van Tuyl sold his former dealership company to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway in 2015, when it was raking in $9 billion a year in revenue. He stepped down as chairman five years later and started buying dealerships on his own.