Longtime restaurateur Matt Prentice has sold his Bingham Farms-based Matt Prentice Restaurant Group to attorney Stanley Dickson Jr. 

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Dickson is also a CPA and the president of Detroit-based Dickson & Associates, P.C. a certified public accounting firm.

“I will be hands-on from a financial standpoint while Matt runs the operations of each restaurant,” Dickson said.

Prentice will serve as CEO for the new company with Dickson acting as president.

The newly formed entity, namedTrowbridge Restaurant Group, will be based in Bingham Farms at the same location as the former company. Prentice said all the restaurants will remain open and all award programs will remain valid.

While Prentice declined to discuss terms of the Oct. 25 sale, he said the company's depreciated assets were valued at about $3 million. Prentice said he orchestrated the sale to keep the business alive even though it meant losing control of the company he founded 29 years ago.

“I reached out to someone who could make sure the business remained viable,” Prentice said. “Stanley brings depth in that he is a lawyer and a CPA… The sale gave the company I created a chance to fight another day.”

In all, Prentice said he cut about $1.8 million from his restaurant group's operating budget but that was not enough to combat declining sales and the loss of corporate-sponsored events.

“I had to make difficult cuts and I made them too late,” he said. “Ultimately, I am responsible for 550 employees making sure those employees keep their jobs.”

The Trowbridge Restaurant Group currently is in the process of purchasing General Motors Co.'s interest in Coach Insignia in the Renaissance Center, which will give it control of that restaurant as well.

In addition, Trowbridge recently opened a new restaurant called the Deli Unique of Noviand hired 35 new employees.

“I don't expect to make my life's fortune off (Prentice Restaurant Group),” Dickson said. "But I'm helping a friend, saving 500 jobs in Michigan and who knows, we may just hit a home run with this one."

Crain's Detroit Business