Jim Graham, owner of Santa Margarita Ford, acquired Santa Margarita Toyota from John Dinsmore.
Santa Margarita Toyota, which had $41 million in sales last year, became the city’s fourth auto dealership in 2004. Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based Penske Corp. Inc. owned it until June 2013, when Dinsmore bought out his then-partner, Roger Penske. The dealership employs about 100.
Graham Properties LP acquired the 49,078-square-foot building at 22722 Avenida Empresa for $13.5 million according to CoStar Group Inc. estimates.
Graham’s Santa Margarita Ford, which posted $83 million revenue last year, was the first auto dealership in the city in the late 1990s. He said he’s been in talks with Dinsmore for the past two years and that owning a Toyota shop was an “opportunity he couldn’t pass up.”
“Some 2,100 Toyotas were sold in South Orange County last year, and only about 800 or 900 came from Santa Margarita Toyota,” Graham said. “Our goal is to raise that number.”
