It may have taken several years and a complicated land assembly effort, but a Denver-area car dealership group is finally pulling into its new home.
Faced with a need to rework its real estate footprint, McDonald Automotive kicked off a site-selection search so it could provide separate locations for its Hyundai and Genesis car brands that had previously been operating under one roof. Thanks to a longstanding relationship the automotive group had with its brokers, it was able to acquire a site in Englewood, Colorado, that was a critical puzzle piece to its relocation plans, a deal that earned it a 2024 CoStar Impact Award for sale/acquisition of the year, as judged by real estate professionals familiar with the market.
Roughly two decades after piecing together five different properties for its original dealership location in Littleton, McDonald Automotive set off to find a site that would allow it to operate the two brands independently. It finally landed on a spot off Lucent Boulevard and C470 in Englewood where the dealership signed a 100-year ground lease that would eventually house its newest Hyundai location.
However, it needed a temporary home from which to operate until the Lucent Boulevard construction was complete. So it parked at 5295 S. Broadway about 7 miles north of its new Englewood location, a former car dealership site that, once it was available for sale, McDonald swooped in to acquire.
The $6 million deal, which closed in mid-2023, was just one of a number of moving parts that ultimately allowed McDonald to keep its Hyundai and Genesis franchises, an ability it was at risk of losing if it didn't adhere to a strict timeframe requiring the company to operate the brands under their own roofs.
About the Project: McDonald Automotive initially signed a deal to lease the 3 1/2-acre property at 5295 S. Broadway. However, when former owner Maximum Automotive said it wanted to sell it, McDonald agreed. The site now serves as its temporary Hyundai dealership while construction on its future Lucent Boulevard location is underway. Meanwhile, its former combined dealership site in Littleton has been reimagined as the sole home for luxury car brand Genesis.
What the Judges Said: "McDonald Hyundai was a complicated transaction with multiple invested parties," CoStar Impact Award judge Sara Croot, a JPMorgan Chase client manager and executive director, said of the deal. "The brokerage team delivered the optimal solution for their client in a tight timeframe while maneuvering the complexities of various assemblages, annexations and municipalities."
They Made It Happen: Sandy Feld and Cory Dulberg, brokers with NAI Shames Makovsky, have long represented McDonald Automotive in the dealership's real estate moves.
CoStar Market Manager Kathryn Binns contributed to this report.