Car-Mart founding family sells 19 dealership properties for $17 million
by January 27, 2021 1:55 pm 4,002 views
The family who founded Rogers-based America’s Car-Mart Inc. has sold 19 dealership properties in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, but the deal won’t impact existing operations for the buy here, pay here used car dealer.
Commercial real estate firm CBRE announced Wednesday (Jan. 27) the sale of a 19-property retail portfolio totaling more than 90,000 square feet of space. The car dealerships were sold to Miami-based Orion Buying Corp. The seller is the Fleeman family, the founders of Car-Mart, according to a news release.
A CBRE spokeswoman said the acquisition price was approximately $17 million.
Jeff Williams, president and CEO of Car-Mart, said the deal won’t affect the company, but it will have a new landlord. All properties included in the deal have existing Car-Mart dealerships in operation.
The properties provided the buyer with a “unique ownership opportunity, as all 19 locations are free-standing with new eight-year lease terms with no standing debt,” the release shows. CBRE identified the buyer, structured the buyer’s debt, assisted in lease negotiation with the tenant and coordinated all new third-party studies and reports.
“We are proud to have been able to leverage the integrated CBRE platform to help the Fleeman family successfully transition out of their legacy real estate holdings and position themselves for exciting and diverse opportunities for reinvestment,” said Will Lightfoot, senior vice president with CBRE Capital Markets.
“The original Car-Mart was founded by the Fleeman’s here in Northwest Arkansas which, as a region, has a longstanding reputation for regional, national and global entrepreneurship,” said David Erstine, first vice president with CBRE in Fayetteville. “Since 2016, I’ve had the opportunity to work with the Fleeman family on numerous family transactions. I’m thrilled we were able to utilize CBRE’s network to find an investor for the properties and get the sale across the finish line.”
The 19 properties included in the sale are:
- 5900 South University – Little Rock
- 2007 S. 8th St. – Rogers
- 4006 Towson Ave. – Fort Smith
- 20 E. Taft – Sapulpa
- 424 Hwy 62 & 65 North – Harrison
- 2300 E. Main – Russellville
- 3733 W. Sunset – Springdale
- 3015 Summerhill – Texarkana, Texas
- 1220 E. Oak St. – Conway
- 1301 Military Road – Benton
- 2724 W. Martin Luther King Blvd. – Fayetteville
- 1866 East Robinson – Springdale
- 1600 East Broadway – West Memphis
- 3291 S.E. Washington Blvd. – Bartlesville, Okla.
- 1315 Red Wolf Blvd. – Jonesboro
- 1608 Albert Pike – Hot Springs
- 1610 W. Hillsboro – El Dorado
- 1501 W. Shawnee – Muskogee, Okla.
- 2620 W. Hudson Road – Rogers
Lightfoot and Jason Little with CBRE in Oklahoma City and Erstine represented the seller in the deal. CBRE is marketing three additional properties in Tulsa, Okla., Camden and Pine Bluff.
In December, Car-Mart opened its 151st dealership in Edmond, Okla. It was the company’s third dealership to open in fiscal year 2021. Car-Mart has dealerships in 12 states throughout the south-central U.S. It also plans to open a dealership in Norman, Okla.
Shares of Car-Mart (NASDAQ: CRMT) were trading Wednesday at $116.42, down $5.72 or 4.6%. In the past 52 weeks, the stock has ranged between $129.70 and $35.18.