Kendall Auto Group, which purchased one Bend vehicle dealership this year, announced Tuesday it had acquired two more: the Mercedes-Benz and Toyota/Scion dealerships on SE Third Street formerly owned by Todd Sprague.

Dave Blewett, president of Kendall Auto Group, said he closed the deal to purchase the two adjacent dealerships near Powers Road. He did not divulge the purchase price.

The acquisition expands Eugene-based Kendall’s foothold in Bend, where in February it purchased Carrera Motors, a Porsche, Audi, BMW and Volkswagen dealership also on SE Third Street, near Reed Market Road. Kendall, which has more than two dozen dealerships in Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska, operated a used-car lot in town until 2007. It still owns that property on U.S. Highway 20. The firm is privately held.

“We’ve been talking on and off for some time” about purchasing the Sprague-owned dealerships, Blewett said. “The timing was right, and we were already well-situated in Bend. … It just made sense to go ahead and pull the trigger.”

Sprague could not be reached for comment Tuesday. He built the Toyota dealership’s building on Third Street in 2010 and moved the business there, next to the Mercedes-Benz dealership, from its former location at NE U.S. Highway 20 and Purcell Boulevard.

Blewett said the new ownership would retain the dealerships’ managers and employees. “Pretty much everybody that’s there will be there.” He said the manufacturers promised new merchandise to help the new ownership get a strong start in sales.

Kendall applied in June for three-year business certificates from the Oregon DMV to operate as Kendall Toyota of Bend and Kendall Mercedes of Bend.

The company incorporated separate dealerships at each address May 1, according to the Oregon Secretary of State online records.

The sale Tuesday eliminates a locally owned, family dealership in Bend. Robberson Ford Lincoln Mercury Mazda, Smolich Motors, and Subaru of Bend (which is operated by Thomas Sales and Service) remain among the leading locally owned dealerships. Robberson is the oldest in Bend. Thomas Sales and Service, which started in Madras in 1937, is the oldest in Central Oregon.

Robberson company president Jeff Robberson said Tuesday that he welcomed two more Kendall dealerships. “Kendall is a great organization,” he said. “I do think they’re a great purchaser for Toyota and Mercedes. They will be a good employer.”

Kendall is taking over two well-run dealerships, he said. He expected competition from Kendall but said Robberson had strengths of its own on which to rely.

“Certainly there is a trend in the industry to consolidate in certain markets,” Robberson said. “As independent businessmen we all play to our advantages. There’s an advantage to being in an auto group and there’s an advantage to being in business since 1958. … I don’t rest on my laurels for a second on the fact that we’ve been here a long time.”

Both Robberson and Blewett said they’ve seen dramatic improvement in sales since the recession of 2007-09.

“The market is much, much better,” Blewett said. “We’re getting back to, not prerecession levels, but significant improvement in demand.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7815, jditzler@bendbulletin.com

Editor’s note: The information about the oldest locally owned car dealerships has been clarified from the original version.