Mercedes-Benz of Buckhead, the luxury automotive landmark at 2799 Piedmont Road that has served Atlanta’s elite for nearly a quarter-century, has been sold by its pioneering owners to publicly traded Group 1 Automotive in a transaction that closed August 4, 2025. While Group 1 has not disclosed the purchase price in SEC filings, the dealership generates $210 million in annual revenue and Fulton County property records show a $50 million real estate component to the deal.
The sale marks the end of Gregory and Juanita Baranco’s stewardship of what became one of the Southeast’s most successful Mercedes-Benz operations, a dealership they co-founded with former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young in 2001 and later moved from its original location to make way for the St. Regis Hotel development.
The dealership’s journey to its current 80,000-square-foot covered facility on Piedmont Road tells a uniquely Buckhead story. Originally awarded the Mercedes-Benz franchise for Buckhead in June 2003, the Barancos first established their showroom on a prime site that would later be coveted by luxury hotel developers.
Easlan Capital purchased the Miami Heights Market Center—the former Home Depot location—for $15 million specifically to relocate Mercedes-Benz of Buckhead and make room for what would become the St. Regis Atlanta. The developers behind that project included Atlanta real estate investors John Meshad and George Berkow, who transformed the original dealership site into the 151-room luxury hotel and 45 condominium units that opened in 2009 and remains the centerpiece of the Buckhead Village.
The dealership’s significance extends beyond its impressive sales figures. Its location places it just minutes from Mercedes-Benz USA’s North American headquarters at One Mercedes-Benz Drive in Sandy Springs, a gleaming facility known as “1MB” that opened in 2018 and currently houses approximately 800 employees. In May 2025 Governor Brian Kemp announced that Mercedes-Benz would expand its Sandy Springs presence, establishing it as the company’s full North American headquarters by consolidating corporate functions and adding up to 500 more jobs.
The Barancos’ automotive journey began far from Buckhead’s luxury corridors. On April 4, 1978—exactly ten years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination—they purchased their first dealership in East Point with $25,000 of their own capital, establishing one of the first black-owned car dealerships in metropolitan Atlanta.
“We managed to get our people paid but it was becoming clear that I was going to need to find different employment to help make things work,” Juanita Baranco later told The HistoryMakers about surviving the recession of the early 1980s, when she returned to legal practice as an Assistant Attorney General to keep the business afloat.
Their partnership with Andrew Young in 2001 to open Mercedes-Benz of Buckhead represented a watershed moment. Young, the civil rights icon who served as Atlanta’s mayor from 1982 to 1990 and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under President Carter, brought both prestige and symbolic significance to the venture.
By 2024, both Barancos were named Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Most Admired CEOs, recognized for innovation, financial performance, and community contributions. The dealership they built became known for what Gregory Baranco called “5-star customer service” and turning customers into ambassadors, according to The HistoryMakers biography.
While the Buckhead chapter closes, the Baranco automotive legacy continues. The family retained their Mercedes-Benz of Covington dealership in Louisiana and secured a new Audi dealership in Cumming, Georgia, which will be operated by their daughter, Grené Baranco.
Grené, who started as a receptionist at her family’s Pontiac dealership and created one of the industry’s first internet sales departments in 1997, plans to revolutionize the dealership experience at the new Audi Forsyth County location opening in Spring 2026.
The sale represents more than a business transaction—it marks the transition of a Buckhead institution that has been woven into the fabric of Atlanta’s luxury retail landscape for nearly 25 years. From its displacement by the St. Regis development to its rise as one of the Southeast’s premier Mercedes-Benz operations, the dealership’s story mirrors Buckhead’s own evolution as Atlanta’s luxury destination.
With Mercedes-Benz USA’s expanded headquarters just up the road in Sandy Springs and Group 1’s resources behind it, Mercedes-Benz of Buckhead appears positioned to continue serving Atlanta’s luxury car buyers for decades to come. Yet for many in the community, the dealership will always be associated with the Baranco family’s pioneering achievement—proving that with vision, perseverance, and strategic partnerships, barriers can become gateways to extraordinary success in the heart of Buckhead.