Tampa automotive group buys local Chevrolet and Chrysler Jeep stores

The Morgan Automotive Group, one of the largest chains of automobile dealers in the country, has bought two more stores, including its first Chevrolet dealership in Tampa.

The stores are Jim Browne Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Tampa Bay and Jim Browne Chevrolet Tampa. They are Tampa-based Morgan’s 54th and 55th stores and the 22nd and 23rd in the Tampa Bay.

The stores will be renamed Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram of Tampa Bay and Morgan Chevrolet.

Brett Morgan, the auto groups’s CEO, confirmed the sale in an email, saying that the “biggest points that I’d make is that these stores are in our backyard.”

The two stores, he says, have a big impact in the area's truck market and that the company is happy with what General Motors is doing in the electric vehicle space. Plus, he sees the two dealerships as well-run stores that offer a good opportunity for the company in the pre-owned market.

Morgan would not disclose the sales price but says the deal was brokered by Bank of America Securities.

With these acquisitions, Morgan now owns nine Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealerships. The Chevrolet store is the company’s first General Motors dealership in Tampa Bay. Both stores are on Florida Avenue.

The industry publication Automotive News in April ranked Morgan as No. 8 on its annual list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S. with 60,951 new vehicles sold in 2021, an 18% increase. The publication says Morgan jumped from the No. 11 spot last year on the strength of its acquisitions. It added eight dealerships — Reeves Auto Import Motorcars’ seven dealerships and Fuccillo Nissan in Clearwater.

Among its other Gulf Coast stores, Morgan owns seven dealerships in the Fort Myers and Naples area including Naples Mazda and Honda of Fort Myers, according to its website. In Sarasota, it owns BMW of Sarasota and Sarasota Lamborghini.

As for Jim Browne Automotive, the company still owns two dealerships in Dade City, according to its website.