El Paso's Lowenfield brothers add 4 Alamogordo car dealerships to expand Casa Auto Group
El Paso’s Lowenfield brothers have added four more new car dealerships to their already large Casa Auto Group, and they hope adding more auto brands will enhance Casa's online business.
They officially marked the acquisition of the Desert Sun Motors' group of dealerships in Alamogordo, New Mexico, during a grand opening ceremony Wednesday. Alamogordo is about 90 miles north of El Paso, in Otero County, which has a population of just over 68,000 people.
The deal was completed Aug. 29, but it took time to get licensing, new signage and other things done to have the official celebration, said Ronnie Lowenfield, Casa Auto Group CEO. He owns and operates the group with his brothers, Luke and Justin Lowenfield.
No financial details were released.
“We wanted to diversify our brands and geographic representation,” Ronnie Lowenfield said in a phone interview after the grand opening event. “We think scale will be important for success in the automotive retail space.”
Casa operates four new car dealerships in El Paso.
The Alamogordo dealerships were owned by longtime new car dealer Bobby Martinez.
“He was in business 40 years and was ready to retire,” Lowenfield said. “He had dealerships in other parts of New Mexico, and sold those before Alamogordo.”
The dealerships acquired are: Toyota and Chevrolet Buick GMC, located at separate locations, and the co-located Honda and Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealerships. The co-located dealerships are being reconstructed with new showrooms and a shared service department.
In El Paso, Casa operates Ford Lincoln, Nissan, Kia and Buick GMC dealerships.
Almost all the Alamogordo dealerships' employees were retained, Lowenfield said. About 115 people work there, adding to the 485 employees at Casa's four El Paso dealerships.
Alamogordo's only other new car dealership is Vision Ford Lincoln.
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The Lowenfields are hoping that having a wide variety of auto brands will enhance the Casa group's online business, which is small but growing, Lowenfield said.
By having more brands, customers have more choices to compare, he said.
"I do think this push to online digital retailing has more customers open to purchase out of town," Lowenfield said.
The Casa Group in September began offering free deliveries on new vehicles purchased within a 100-mile radius of their dealerships. That's a trend in the industry and something Casa needed to do to be competitive, Lowenfield said.
This is Casa Auto Group's third acquisition since the Lowenfield brothers took over operation of the Casa dealerships from their father, Clay Lowenfield, just over 10 years ago.
At the time, the group consisted of Casa Ford Lincoln, the adjoining Casa Nissan, and La Casita Used Cars in Central El Paso. The brothers took sole ownership of the dealerships several years ago.
The brothers added an East El Paso Kia dealership in 2016 and an East-Central El Paso Buick GMC dealership in early 2021.
The plan is to continue to expand with other acquisitions, Lowenfield said.
“We like the desert Southwest and are actively looking to continue to grow,” he said. “COVID made things more difficult in a lot of regards; a lot of volatility. But we’ve been on this (expansion) path for a while.”
Vic Kolenc may be reached at 546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Casa Auto Group grows with purchase of four Alamogordo car dealerships
