{"id":126360,"date":"2026-03-17T19:28:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T22:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automotive.einnews.com\/article\/900083363"},"modified":"2026-03-17T19:28:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T22:28:57","slug":"third-generation-dealers-branch-out-with-rbm-automotive-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/17\/third-generation-dealers-branch-out-with-rbm-automotive-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Third-generation dealers branch out with RBM Automotive Group"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"text-to-speech\"> <button class=\"text-to-speech__button button\"> <img data-opt-id=758893364  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" fifu-lazy=\"1\" fifu-data-sizes=\"auto\" fifu-data-srcset=\"https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wardsauto.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?313321260226&ssl=1&w=75&resize=75&ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wardsauto.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?313321260226&ssl=1&w=100&resize=100&ssl=1 100w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wardsauto.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?313321260226&ssl=1&w=150&resize=150&ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wardsauto.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?313321260226&ssl=1&w=240&resize=240&ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wardsauto.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?313321260226&ssl=1&w=320&resize=320&ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wardsauto.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?313321260226&ssl=1&w=500&resize=500&ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wardsauto.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?313321260226&ssl=1&w=640&resize=640&ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wardsauto.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?313321260226&ssl=1&w=800&resize=800&ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wardsauto.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?313321260226&ssl=1&w=1024&resize=1024&ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wardsauto.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?313321260226&ssl=1&w=1280&resize=1280&ssl=1 1280w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wardsauto.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?313321260226&ssl=1&w=1600&resize=1600&ssl=1 1600w\" class=\"text-to-speech__button__icon\" fifu-data-src=\"https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wardsauto.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?313321260226&ssl=1\" alt> Listen to the article <span class=\"text-to-speech__button__audio-length\">4 min<\/span> <\/button> <\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls\"> <audio controls class=\"js-text-to-speech\" preload=\"none\">  <\/audio> <\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls__text\"> This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wardsauto.com\/contact\/\">feedback<\/a>. <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sister and brother Casey Frames and David Ellis in February acquired their first franchises. The franchises, in Greenville, South Carolina, are the foundation of their newly formed dealership group.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe is the start of creating what we wanted to create, RBM Automotive Group,\u201d Ellis told WardsAuto on a Zoom call.<\/p>\n<p>In a deal that closed Feb. 23, Frames and Ellis acquired Porsche of Greenville, Land Rover Greenville and Crown Nissan of Greenville from Asbury Automotive Group \u2014 becoming dealer principal of the three stores.<\/p>\n<p>The acquisition will involve a significant real estate investment for RBM. One of the manufacturers\u2019 stipulations for the acquisition of the Porsche and Land Rover franchises was that RBM build standalone facilities for each brand, which are currently on one piece of property, Ellis said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was part of the deal,\u201d he said, \u201cis to buy two parcels of land, and to build the new generation Porsche building as well as Land Rover, which we have already started working on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They are in the permitting process right now, Ellis said, with construction to begin \u201chopefully this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Nissan dealership will also need to be made compliant with the current image program, Ellis said, but that work doesn\u2019t have to begin immediately.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNissan is expecting a new building in 2028,\u201d he said, \u201cbut we currently have a building with Nissan that I think we could remodel instead of having to build a whole new facility.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"standard-heading\">An untapped market<\/h3>\n<p>They will keep all the staff in the dealerships, Frames confirmed to WardsAuto on the same Zoom call. \u201cI think that, eventually, sooner than later, they will have to add more employees all around due to the growth opportunity here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Greenville is a rapidly growing area in a rapidly growing state. South Carolina led the nation in economic growth for the first few quarters of 2025, the most recent numbers available. BMW, Michelin and GE Aerospace are all major employers in the Greenville area.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think there is plenty of opportunity and lots of growth opportunity for both luxury and domestic (brands),\u201d Frames said, \u201cespecially here in Greenville.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven Porsche has agreed with us that there\u2019s plenty of opportunity for growth,\u201d she added. \u201cIt\u2019s an untapped market, as they stated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That means plenty of potential to grow the dealerships\u2019 fixed operations business, Ellis said. They brought on a new service manager for the Nissan store, which has 14 service bays \u201cwith the potential to add bays,\u201d he said.&nbsp;<br \/>Meanwhile, when the new Porsche and Land Rover facilities are completed each will feature 22 service bays, doubling the current capacity, Ellis said.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"standard-heading\">Meeting all the criteria<\/h3>\n<p>Though the South Carolina stores are the first Frames and Ellis have themselves acquired, they already owned two Mercedes-Benz franchises, two Infiniti franchises and a Subaru franchise, all in the Metro Atlanta area. As third-generation auto dealers, they had taken over all except the newly acquired Greenville stores from their father.<\/p>\n<p>They considered other expansion options before acquiring the South Carolina stores from Asbury, but the other opportunities \u201cjust weren\u2019t the right vibe,\u201d Ellis said.<\/p>\n<p>The Asbury acquisition came about after George Karolis, a friend and president of The Presidio Group, an investment bank engaged in dealership transactions, presented the opportunity to them, Ellis said. The Presidio Group represented Asbury Automotive in the transaction.<\/p>\n<p>Because he and his sister are young and new dealer principals, \u201cwe didn\u2019t think it would come to fruition,\u201d Ellis said, however, \u201cwe were very aggressive with our offer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was a competitive process, Karolis told WardsAuto on a Zoom call. But Frames and Ellis \u201cdid all the right things,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were responsive and aggressive and very fair to work with and, you know, folks don\u2019t make a buyers list without having been vetted and have the financial wherewithal, and they met all those criteria.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"standard-heading\">Luxury brands wanted<\/h3>\n<p>A website for RBM Automotive Group is under construction and will market used vehicles from all the RBM stores.<\/p>\n<p>As for their next acquisitions, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t mind a few more of what we already have,\u201d Frames said. They\u2019re also interested in other highline brands such as BMW and Audi, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Geographically, \u201cI\u2019m open to anywhere,\u201d Frames said, before adding a caveat: \u201cMaybe not California.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\"> <\/a><\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\/acceptable.html\"> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230; Nissan of Greenville from Asbury <span class=\"match\">Automotive<\/span> Group \u00e2\u0080\u0094 becoming dealer principal of &#8230; said. The Presidio Group represented Asbury <span class=\"match\">Automotive<\/span> in the transaction. Because he and &#8230; brands wanted A website for RBM <span class=\"match\">Automotive<\/span> Group is under construction and &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}