Smith Auto Group Acquires Dealerships

Smith Auto Group has served Fort Smith and the River Valley area for more than 70 years.

Now SAG has a presence in Northwest Arkansas. SAG took ownership of the former Hendren Auto Group complex in Pineville, Mo., on May 15. The facility is just across the Arkansas-Missouri border, but will be named Smith Auto Group of Bella Vista, according to COO John Robben.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“It was a wonderful transaction because it was from one family to another family,” Robben said. “It wasn’t a corporate-type deal. It was for all the right reasons.”

For SAG, it allowed for additional brands and an expanded footprint. The Fort Smith and Bella Vista dealerships are about 90 miles apart.

“It’s not like we’re going from Arkansas to Ohio,” Robben said.

SAG opened a new Nissan facility in Fort Smith on April 5, and plans to start construction on a new Cadillac-Chevrolet location by fall. Both previously had been in the same location.

The 22,000-SF Nissan facility cost about $4 million and sits on four acres. The Chevrolet-Cadillac facility will be about 42,000 SF on 11 acres, and is projected to cost $8 million-plus.

In Pineville, SAG currently sells Ford, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram, and will add Chevrolet in the next two to four weeks, Robben said.

Robben also said all 25 employees at the former HAG have been retained, and plans are to double the size of the staff as volume increases. Robben will work full time in Pineville for about a month, then split time between there and Fort Smith.