By Cliff Peale
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The owners of Glenway Dodge have found a buyer and will not close the Bridgetown dealership as planned this month.

Patrick Cronin, owner of Cronin Jeep and Lincoln-Mercury in Middletown and Cronin Ford in Harrison, signed a deal this past weekend to buy Glenway Dodge, said Jeff Wullenweber, whose family has owned it since 1978.

Including the property at 6475 Glenway Ave. and the franchise, the price totals about $1.8 million, Wullenweber said.

Cronin wouldn't confirm the price. But he was running the dealership Monday morning and will rename it "Cronin's Glenway Dodge."

He said he hopes to increase sales enough to join his other two dealerships in profitability.

"We'll work on getting the volumes up there," Cronin said. "Business is as tough as it's ever been. You have to make sure you treat people right, and they'll come back.

"They've got a lot of good customers out there that we want to make sure we get to know."

Early in May, Wullenweber seemed resigned to selling the dealership. Hurt by flight from the neighborhood to the suburbs and by Chrysler Corp.'s 1998 merger with German automaker Daimler-Benz, business started to decline heavily in 2002.

The dealership lost about $100,000 during the first quarter of this year alone.

The deal will keep about 25 Glenway Dodge employees in place. Cronin said final approval from Chrysler for the franchise shift still is pending.

He said there are between 75 and 100 new cars and trucks on the lot now, and he hopes to get to about 60 used cars.

Combined, his two other dealerships sell about 150 new or used vehicles a month.

Glenway Dodge is unaffiliated with the nearby Wullenweber Jeep-Chrysler, which is run by Jeff Wullenweber's cousins.

"We're excited about the sale," Wullenweber said. "Our resolution was always to try to keep the place open."

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E-mail cpeale@enquirer.com