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Frank Kent Motor Co., one of Texas’ longest-standing family-owned automotive dealerships with nearly a century of history, is being sold, marking the end of an era for a family that has been synonymous with Fort Worth’s car culture for generations.
The company founded by Frank Kent in 1935 has reached an agreement to sell its dealerships — Frank Kent Cadillac Fort Worth and Frank Kent Cadillac Arlington — to Autobahn Fort Worth, Frank Kent co-owner Will Churchill confirmed Friday afternoon.
The deal is contingent on manufacturer approval, but pending that, the transaction is expected to close in October, Churchill said.
Autobahn will keep the brand name, something critical to Churchill and his sister Corrie, who have co-owned the dealership since the death of their mother, Wendy Kent Churchill, in 2005. Staff is not expected to change, Churchill said.
“Their culture aligns with ours. They’re in a growth stage. They’re Fort Worth,” Churchill said. “It gives all of our young people an opportunity to grow. It gives us an opportunity to ensure the Frank Kent brand will be around for a 100th anniversary.”
Autobahn Fort Worth, a 45-year-old luxury car dealership owned by Fort Worth investor Robert Bass, is preparing to relocate. The dealership currently operates from 3000 White Settlement Road, where it sells and services premium brands like BMW, Porsche, Land Rover, Volvo, Volkswagen, and Mini.
Facing space constraints and looming redevelopment plans in the area, the company has secured a new home on a nearly 75-acre site off Oakmont Boulevard in southwest Fort Worth, near Chisholm Trail Parkway. The new dealership campus, on land owned by Clearfork developer Cassco, is scheduled to break ground this summer and open by December 2026.
The Frank Kent dealerships will remain at their current sites, Churchill said.
“Really, it’s almost just pulling Corrie and me out and inserting Autobahn," Churchill said.
The Frank Kent legacy is deeply rooted in Fort Worth. You can’t talk about Fort Worth’s automotive history without mentioning the name.
Frank D. Kent came to Fort Worth in 1927 as a used-car salesman. He left two years later but returned in 1930 as a junior partner in the Webb-Kent Buick franchises after purchasing Earl North’s interest in Webb North Buick. He became vice president of the new dealership. Just five years later, in 1935, he launched his own venture — the Frank Kent Motor Company — representing Ford and Lincoln Mercury.
In 1939, Kent relocated his growing dealership from West 7th Street to a prominent new facility at Main and Lancaster, a bustling intersection in the heart of downtown Fort Worth. Then in 1953, he made a bold pivot: Kent secured the prestigious Cadillac franchise and relinquished the Ford line, aligning his brand with the pinnacle of American automotive luxury in a move that would define the dealership’s identity for generations.
As chairman, Kent, along with then-President John Ludington, relocated the dealership to the Benbrook Traffic Circle after the Texas Department of Transportation planned to take three acres off the Frank Kent lot to widen the Interstate 30 overpass, which then ran through downtown over Lancaster.
That showroom, all but deserted except for almost 60 Cadillacs, blew up in a natural gas explosion in March 1986.
At the time of his death in 1987, his granddaughter, Wendy Kent Churchill, estimated that he had sold 31,000 Cadillacs in the 34 years since 1953, including sales to Liberace and Gov. John Connally.
Luddington ascended to chairman after Kent’s death. When Luddington retired in 1995, Wendy Churchill became CEO, a post she held until her passing in 2005.
In 1993, Frank Kent acquired the GMC, Pontiac, and Honda dealership located at 3535 Loop 820 S. The Hummer franchise was added in 2000, followed by Buick in 2005 and Dodge in 2007. The dealership has since relinquished those properties. Frank Kent Cadillac also later relocated to the West Loop.
Frank D. Kent, a World War I infantryman who received a Purple Heart, was posthumously inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1989. At the time of his death, he was one of just eight members of the Cadillac Hall of Fame out of 1,600 dealers nationwide.
Kent also began a tradition with the city in which he leased Fort Worth a new Cadillac every year for $1.
Kent didn’t want Fort Worth to be "second-class in anything” after Mayor Tom McCann drove to an official meeting in his personal car and the Dallas mayor showed up in a limousine, Mayor Bob Bolen said at the time of Kent’s death.
“He wanted us to represent the city well.”