INDIANAPOLIS -

Auction Broadcasting Co. announced the purchase of its eighth auction facility on Friday. Broadening its presence in the Southeast that already includes auctions in Louisiana, Alabama and Kentucky, ABC Auto Auctions bought Tidewater Auto Auction in Virginia Beach, Va.

In a message to Auto Remarketing, ABC president Jason Hockett indicated the name of this new addition will be changed to ABC Virginia. 

“Tidewater Auto Auction has been on our radar for a long time,” Hockett said. “My brother, Mike Hockett Jr., started Tidewater Auto Auction in October 1996.  In 2011, Mike built a brand new 72 acre location in Virginia Beach with eight auction lanes. 

“The auction is located in a great location to strategically facilitate vehicles for dealers as well as finance and leasing companies,” Jason Hockett continued.

ABC Virginia will host a dealer-only auction each Wednesday beginning at 10 a.m. as well as a public sale each Saturday starting at 10 a.m.

The company highlighted ABC Virginia will be managed by industry veteran Jason Brinkley.

“Jason Brinkley ran Tidewater Auto Auction from 1997 to 2001,” Jason Hockett said. “Brinkley also helped ABC with its greenfield start up locations in St. Louis and Lancaster, Pa.

“He and his family are excited with the opportunity of going home to Virginia,” Jason Hockett went on to say.

Mike Hockett Jr. expressed his reaction to the facility now becoming a part of the ABC Auction family.

“I brought the auction as far as I felt I could as an independent,” he said. “I knew that if the auction was to do better, it would need a name connected with a larger client base. ABC was a natural choice with an excellent management team. 

"My father and brothers have built a formidable national auction group that I feel will push ABC Virginia to the potential it was built for,” Mike Hockett Jr. continued. “Having Jason Brinkley as a known entity to the dealer base is a fantastic choice. The dealers love him and the employees respect him. I could not be happier.”

Along with the facilities in St. Louis and Lancaster, Pa., Auction Broadcasting Co. also has operations in Baton Rouge, La., Birmingham, Ala., Bowling Green, Ky., Cincinnati and Detroit/Toledo Ohio.