Houston megadealer buys family-owned Fort Myers Lexus, Acura stores

An automobile group with 263 stores in the United Kingdom and the U.S. has bought two Fort Myers dealerships from the Scanlon Automotive Group.

Group 1 Automotive announced the purchase in a statement. It does not disclose a sale price but said the two dealerships, along with a third in Texas, are expected to produce $330 million in annual revenue.

While Group 1 did not name Scanlon specifically, an online list of the dealerships it owns includes Lexus of Fort Myers and Acura of Fort Myers. Both belonged to Scanlon operating as Scanlon Lexus and Scanlon Acura.

A call to Scanlon’s administrative office Tuesday was forwarded to the Lexus dealership. A receptionist said no one was available to comment, but employees reached by phone at both stores confirmed the dealerships were under new ownership.

Scanlon has been a well-known name in the Fort Myers community for decades. According to a biography of the family-run company on its website, it started with John Scanlon’s 1980 purchase of a Lincoln Mercury dealership on Fowler Street.

John and his son Jay were running the company at the time of its sale.

Lee County property records show the Scanlon family bought the Tamiami Trail property the two dealerships sit on next to one another in 2011 for $8.4 million. (County records on Tuesday didn’t show any recent transactions.)

Taking over the family’s Acura and Lexus stores is a Houston-based company that owns 263 dealerships, 335 franchises and 39 collision centers in the U.S. and the U.K. It offers 35 brands of vehicles.

It is No. 4 on Automotive News’ 2025 list of the top 150 U.S. auto groups, with 259 dealerships and 465,964 units sold last year. Its revenue was $19.93 billion, according the publication.

Group 1’s Florida holdings include seven dealerships and one collision center. That list includes the two Scanlon stores and Estero Bay Chevrolet.