Frank Kent Motor Co. has added Hyundai to its family of brands.
Will Churchill and Corrie Watson, owners of Frank Kent Motor, partnered with Brad and Lance Fenton, owners of FentonMotors.com, in the venture, being called Frank Kent Hyundai.The business will take over the former Manuel Hyundai facilities on 19 acres on Interstate 30 between Las Vegas Trail and Loop 820 in Fort Worth. About $1 million will be spent to renovate the property, including a complete remodeling of the showroom and service center.The dealership will have 20 employees."Our approach to business is very similar to Frank Kent's, along with our like-minded values," Lance Fenton said. "We couldn't have found a better partner to embark on this venture with."The late Frank Kent founded Frank Kent Motor Co. in 1935, and it is now run by his great-grandchildren. It sells Hondas and Cadillacs.Fenton Motors has six dealerships each in Texas and Oklahoma and sells 15 auto brands.New antiques mallChris and Betsy Sheidler, who have owned and operated the Montgomery Street Antique Mall since 1994, have opened a second location in Arlington. And like its sister store, it's named for the street it's on: Cooper Street Antique Mall.The Sheidlers have leased a 53,000-square-foot building at 4905 S. Cooper St. and lease booth space to antique dealers."We had been looking for another location for a long time," Chris Sheidler said. "So far the success of this second location has exceeded my expectations."The mall opened in early January and its grand opening was last weekend. Already, 90 percent of the store's 170 booths are leased, he said.Of those, 45 dealers also have booths at the Montgomery Street location, but only two moved out of Montgomery Street to Cooper Street, Sheidler said.The remaining space was leased through word-of-mouth and advertising in trade publications, he said.The Sheidlers said they plan to add a tea room to the Cooper Street store.Both malls are open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.The 61,000-square-foot Montgomery Street store, a former Ben Hogan Co. building, is completely leased.Christopher Gibbons, Ken Reimer and Katie Vance of Venture Commercial represented the Sheidlers in the lease negotiations. John Zikos and Chris Booras, also of Venture, represented the landlord, Sams Dice Arlington L.P.Benefits mergerStrategic Employee Benefit Services of Fort Worth, the employee benefits arm of Northwestern Mutual in Fort Worth since 1984, merged on Friday with the CSG Cos., a comprehensive employee benefit planning, consulting and insurance brokerage firm.The merger creates a company that will serve more than 350 businesses and provide benefits for more than 20,000 employees, the companies said.The CSG Cos. is a benefits broker-consulting firm, specializing in self-funding for large- and midmarket employers, as well as fully insured plans through the merger with Strategic Employee Benefit Services.Under the CSG name, Strategic will continue to offer human resources outsourcing, benefits technology solutions, customized benefit communications and website services."Through our combined strengths and expertise, along with the size of our underwriting relationships with the leading insurance and benefit administration companies, we further separate ourselves from our competition in terms of capabilities and deliverables for our clients," CSG President Logan Dickinson said in a statement.CSG is one of 10 Texas partner firms in United Benefits Advisors, a member-owned alliance of more than 140 independent benefit advisory firms.Sandra Baker, 817-390-7727sabaker@star-telegram.comJim Fuquay, 817-390-7552jfuquay@star-telegram.comBarry Shlachter, 817-390-7718barry@star-telegram.comHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
