Graham, Ourisman partner for auto retail

Graham Holdings, the public conglomerate that used to own the Washington Post and in early 2019 entered automotive retail by buying two Sonic Automotive Inc. stores, plans to add to its dealership count after partnering with Chris Ourisman, president of Ourisman Automotive Group.

The companies, through Graham Ourisman Automotive, were awarded an open point for a standalone Jeep dealership in Bethesda, Md., and are looking to buy more stores, Ourisman said. He and his leadership team that includes his sister Juliet Ourisman operate and manage the Jeep store for Graham as well as the former Sonic outlets, which are now named Ourisman Lexus of Rockville in Maryland and Ourisman Honda of Tysons Corner in Virginia.

Graham Holdings, of Arlington, Va., owns a 90 percent interest in the three dealerships while Ourisman has a 10 percent stake.

"We are definitely going to continue to expand and grow, whether that be through open points or through dealership acquisitions in the more traditional sense," Ourisman told Automotive News.

Dealerships are seen as attractive, income-producing entities for outside investors, buy-sell experts say, and the auto retail industry has seen more of them enter the space in recent years. In many cases, investors partner with existing dealer-operators to run the businesses.

Ourisman said conversations with the Graham company began in 2018 and Ourisman described their partnership as "long term."

Graham paid $2.3 million in 2019 for Ourisman's dealership management services and advanced $3.5 million to an entity controlled by Ourisman, according to a regulatory filing. The filing said Ourisman has an option to acquire an additional 10 percent stake.

Chris Ourisman oversees 17 franchises under 14 rooftops, including the three Graham stores, that are part of the larger Ourisman Automotive family of dealerships. Ourisman Automotive of Marlow Heights, Md., ranks No. 23 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 31,798 new vehicles in 2019.

Graham's holdings range from TV stations, tech firm Code3 and education company Kaplan Inc. to manufacturing and health care businesses.

Pinkie Mayfield, chief communications officer for Graham Holdings, declined to comment on the daily operations and acquisition activity related to its dealership portfolio.

The Jeep store helped Graham's automotive unit's revenue rise in the third quarter, as did sales at its other two dealerships, Graham said this month in its third-quarter earnings report. The dealership unit's operating earnings also rose in the period, the company said, though specific figures weren't provided.

Ourisman Jeep Bethesda's showroom operates in a 14,000-square-foot space on the ground floor of a mixed-use building in a "high-rent district of downtown Bethesda," Ourisman said. A service facility is in an industrial space about a mile away. Ourisman declined to say how much capital the companies invested for the dealership, which began generating sales in January.

Ourisman said he and Graham actively are seeking and reviewing prospective dealership acquisitions.

"D.C., Maryland, Virginia certainly feels a lot easier for everybody," he said. "But as a partnership, we're talking about opportunities in specific locales that make sense for us."

Ourisman said he and Graham haven't discussed a maximum number of acquisitions. And growth could come with other auto-retail products and services, Ourisman said.

"We're very interested in the development of different systems that can be implemented within a marketplace to take advantage of other automotive-related opportunities," he said. "And so using our platform as sort of a test bed for it, with the ability to ultimately roll out some of this technology — software, hardware, whatever it may be — in other locales as well."