Fox Dealerships of CNY owners Jane Fox, left, and Bill Fox, center, along with longtime employee Peter Tonzi are pictured at the Fox Toyota Subaru dealership in Auburn.
Bill and Jane Fox are selling their car dealerships in Auburn.
AUBURN — Bill and Jane Fox spent almost 10 years finding a buyer for their Auburn-area auto dealerships who will care about their community as much as they do.
They believe they've found that buyer in Jonathan Sobel.
Sobel, of Manhattan, has purchased Fox Honda, Fox Toyota Subaru and Fox Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram from their longtime sibling owners, they told The Citizen on Thursday.
The Foxes and Sobel did not disclose the sale price of the prolific Grant Avenue dealerships. Sobel told The Citizen that the sale closes Monday, at which time his ownership of them will take effect.
A former partner at Goldman Sachs, Sobel owns several dealerships in New York City, the Hamptons and Princeton, New Jersey. He said he plans to continue running the Auburn and Sennett dealerships the same way Bill and Jane Fox did, and will maintain their workforce of 275 employees. So far, the only changes he's planning are renovations to the Fox Honda building.
"It's a business that's been well-managed by the family for almost 50 years," he said. "They've done a good job in the community for a long time and we just want to build on that."
While Sobel expects to be in Auburn regularly, he has promoted longtime Fox employee Bob May to serve as platform manager of the three dealerships.
The fact Sobel didn't hire someone he knew from outside the area to handle day-to-day operations at the dealerships already speaks to his commitment to the Auburn community, the Foxes said.
"He has assured us that he is going to support our community and be involved with it," Jane Fox said.
The Foxes will continue operating the fourth dealership they own, Sharon Chevrolet in Liverpool, as they transition its ownership to another longtime employee of theirs, Mike Carrow.
That will also make it a little less sudden for the Foxes to leave behind what's been their life's work. Growing up on Nelson Street, they broke into the car business under their parents, who were wholesalers. One of their childhood neighbors, Peter Tonzi, would go into business with them as a minority owner of the dealerships' properties and their director of organizational operations.
On June 10, 1976, the Foxes opened Fox Chevrolet in Weedsport. It was the first of 14 dealerships they would own over the years, ranging as far as Victor, Watertown and Painted Post. But the most they operated at one time was seven. That's because some of those dealerships the Foxes partnered with a longtime employee to buy, then transitioned ownership to them just like they will with Carrow.
The Auburn siblings have supported people at other rungs of the ladder, too, from local BOCES auto students to the hundreds of employees at their dealerships. Some of that support has come through the state Automobile Dealers Association, where both the Foxes have served on the board of directors. Bill Fox also served on the board of the national association, and became its chair in 2015.
The auto industry is much more than salespeople and technicians, Jane Fox said, with staff in marketing, office management, maintenance and more.
"There's a lot of people who make this thing be able to open its doors every day," she said.
"We've got great people," he added. "You walk downstairs and say hello to any of them and ask how long they've been here, and you'll find they've all been here 10, 20, 30 years."
Last year, all those Fox employees sold about 4,100 cars for $150 million in revenue, Jane Fox said.
Though the margins are slim in the industry, the Foxes have consistently invested much of that money back into the community. Among the beneficiaries have been Auburn Junior High School, where the siblings donated $750,000 to improving the athletic fields. They've also supported Cayuga Community College, Auburn Community Hospital, the Auburn YMCA-WEIU, Majorpalooza, the Finger Lakes SPCA of CNY and Nick's Ride 4 Friends. They've even brought Sharon Chevrolet customers to the Cayuga County DMV so their hometown receives the cut of the registration fees.
"We really have tried to support this community," Jane Fox said. "We've tried to keep (our business) here, and employ people here, and provide for people here."
Continuing that legacy of community service was foremost on the Foxes' minds when they began looking for a buyer for their dealerships about a decade ago. With Bill Fox 79 years old and Jane Fox 75, they felt it was simply the right time to sell, they said. Sobel was suggested to them by a broker, and first came to Auburn to meet with the owners in 2019.
He proved the right person, they said. But that doesn't make it any less bittersweet for Bill and Jane Fox to leave behind their business of more than 40 years.
"We love this industry. We started with nothing. Our parents were blue collar people, and we've worked hard," she said. "It's our legacy."
"We had a great ride and we'll miss it," he added. "We'll miss it a lot."
Lake Life Editor David Wilcox can be reached at (315) 282-2245 or david.wilcox@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @drwilcox.
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'A great ride': Fox auto dealerships in Auburn area sold - The Citizen
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