Auto dealer Luis Somoano expanded his South Florida portfolio by paying $21.5 million for a Ford retail site in Hialeah previously owned for 40 years by the late car selling mogul Gus Machado and his family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An entity managed by Doral-based Somaono, who owns two other dealerships in Miami-Dade County, paid $2.2 million above the previous sale price less than two years ago. Somaono\u2019s entity also assumed a $15.4 million loan with City National Bank of Florida, records and real estate database Vizzda show.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The seller, an entity managed by Victor Benitez, vice president of Gus Machado Ford, paid $19.3 million<\/a> for the 5.7-acre site in September 2024, records show. The property includes three buildings completed in 1969, including a two-story showroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gus Machado died in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s the second dealership Somaono has purchased that was previously tied to Machado. In 2023, he purchased the land underneath his Ford of Kendall auto retail site for $20 million<\/a> from entities managed by Machado\u2019s widow, Lilliam Machado. Somoano acquired the business operations for Ford of Kendall in 2019 from Machado.\u00a0<\/p>\n Somaono also owns a Lincoln Mercury dealership in Doral. His Hialeah purchase marks the first major car dealership trade since billionaire auto magnate Terry Taylor sold two Nissan sites in Palm Beach County a year ago. Alpharetta, Georgia-based Krause Automotive Group bought the dealerships in March of last year for a combined $30.5 million<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n A month later, in another Palm Beach County auto-related deal, Copart dropped $65 million<\/a> for a 40.3-acre industrial yard. Copart, a publicly traded firm based in Dallas that specializes in reselling repossessed and salvaged cars and trucks, bought the site to store and sell used vehicles.\u00a0<\/p>\n