Co-owners Mike Drawe and Ivette Dominguez Drawe, with Curtis Harris of GM Financial, at Alpine Chevrolet. (Courtesy of Alpine Automotive Group)This story was originally published on WardsAuto. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily WardsAuto newsletter.Alpine Automotive Group of Denver in February acquired Len Lyall Chevrolet in nearby Aurora. The store is Alpine’s first Chevrolet franchise, and it brings the group’s total number of rooftops to seven. Alpine Chevrolet, as the dealership is now known, has a lot of unrealized potential, Ivette Dominguez Drawe, the group’s co-owner, told WardsAuto in a Zoom call.The former owners, the Lyall family, had owned it for some 50 years and “they weren’t really running it for growth,” Drawe said. The dealership’s inventory was “way below the inventory level needed to support sales and overall operations,” she said in a subsequent email.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe Alpine group’s “number one priority” is to increase new-vehicle inventory, Drawe said. “If you aren’t used to doing a good amount of volume, you get into a rut,” she said.Running it for growth, grabbing F-150 customersThe Colorado market in general is in a little bit of a rut based on the first-quarter sales figures. According to the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association Q1 2026 Colorado Auto Outlook, new light-vehicle registrations fell 18.4% compared to the same quarter in 2025 to 43,514 units. Of that, light-truck registrations fell 15.6% to 39,698 units. Chevrolet registrations in the first quarter fell 23% to 2,598.Still, the numbers show light trucks are clearly Coloradans’ vehicle of choice, and Chevrolet has a strong truck lineup. So Drawe figures under new management the Chevrolet dealership will thrive. “You know, Colorado is built for trucks, and even though the trucks are kind of in a little bit of a dip right now, we feel very strongly on the brand,” she said.In the overall buy-sell market, Denver is “one of the most sought-after retail markets,” Alex Watterson, managing director of The Presidio Group, told WardsAuto in a phone call. “I like the opportunity there.” The Presidio Group is an investment bank with a large dealership mergers and acquisitions business. It has offices in Denver as well as Atlanta.AdvertisementAdvertisementWhile Colorado has “historically” been a Ford F-150 truck and Subaru car market, the time is right for being a Chevrolet dealer, Watterson said. Ford inventory is down 43% at the moment due to several fires at its aluminum supplier’s plant, he said. “If Ford dealers can’t get the right product, it is a massive opportunity for Chevy dealers.”And of course, selling more new Chevrolets means more units in operation and thus more service business, Watterson said.Already, the service side is “the number one positive” of the dealership, Drawe said. The fixed operations numbers are “great” and the dealership is very close to the airport, so it gets a lot of Uber and limo driver business, Drawe said.Staff staying onThe dealership is well known — and well regarded — in the Aurora community. “I swear, it’s like once a week somebody will say ‘I bought my sixteenth car there,’” Drawe said.AdvertisementAdvertisementMuch of the sales staff had been at the dealership for a long time, so Drawe and her husband Mike Drawe, who is co-owner, were surprised that the staff “met a lot of our expectations” including being bilingual, Drawe said,.They will keep “a good amount” of the staff, she said. “With leadership support, ongoing training, we felt we had some good individuals,” Drawe said. They are hiring new staff as well, and have already nearly doubled the sales staff size, from eight to 15.They hired a new general manager. While Alpine likes to promote from within, “we didn’t have a perfect fit,” Drawe said.Alpine did not use a broker on this transaction. It closed quickly, in just 10 weeks, Drawe said. “Normally it takes 16 weeks.”AdvertisementAdvertisementThey plan to continue to add dealerships. All of Alpine’s franchises, which besides Chevrolet include Nissan, GMC, Buick and Toyota, are volume brands.The Drawes also are interested in owning a highline franchise. “I came from highline,” said Ivette Drawe, who started her automotive career at a BMW dealership. But, she added, “Sometimes those opportunities are more expensive and more challenging.”As for geographic expansion, Alpine would like to own dealerships in Arizona and Texas, Drawe said. Currently, all its dealerships are in Colorado except Cardinal Buick GMC, in Belleville, Illinois, and Post Oak Toyota in Midwest City, Oklahoma.In the immediate future, however, the focus is on integrating the new Chevy store into the group. The facility needs to be upgraded to the latest Chevrolet image program released last year. Alpine plans to do so, though not immediately.AdvertisementAdvertisement“In the next 90 days, our commitment is to do a little bit of a cosmetic refresh,” Drawe said, “and then we plan on having a grand opening in August.”Recommended ReadingA single-point dealership sells to a larger auto group to remain competitive',