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Fox Sports Grill looks to expand under new ownership

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. (Nov. 19, 2008) A day after the departure of its chief executive, the six-unit Fox Sports Grill chain on Tuesday revealed a shift in ownership and plans for growth.

Fox Sports Grill announced Tuesday that it is being acquired by one of its original investors, William Dallas, a principal in acquisition company DHP LLC. The chain's previous owner, Westlake Village-based B&B Restaurant Ventures, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July. A bankruptcy court approved the sale to Dallas in October.

The news comes on the heels of Monday's announcement that William Freeman, B&B president and chief executive, had been named CEO of McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants Inc.

Dallas said he invested close to $10 million in new capital to take a majority stake in Fox Sports Grill. The move shifts ownership away from Freeman, who will remain on the board of DHP LLC, and Fox Entertainment Co., which previously held a 20-percent stake.

With the transaction, however, Fox signed a 10-year extension of the licensing deal that gives the chain rights to use the Fox Sports name and logo.

DHP LLC will operate the six existing Fox Sports Grill locations in Atlanta; Houston; Plano, Texas; Scottsdale, Ariz.; Glendale, Ariz.; and Seattle. Earlier this year, the chain closed two locations in Nyack, N.Y., and Irvine, Calif.

The new owners last week broke ground on a new Fox Sports Grill scheduled to open in February on the San Diego waterfront in the San Diego Hilton Hotel next to the city’s busy convention center. The company also plans to open new units next year in Anaheim and Westlake Village, Calif.

Fox partnered with B&B Restaurant Ventures to create the upscale branded sports grill concept in 2001 with Freeman, who previously was an executive with Disney Regional Entertainment’s ESPN Zone chain. Dallas, who served as chairman of B&B, was co-founder of First Franklin Financial Corp., a business he sold to National City Bank in 1999.

According to court filings, B&B Restaurant Ventures reported revenues of $30.1 million and employed 530 in 2007. In the original bankruptcy petition in July, the company reported assets between $1 million and $10 million and debts between $10 million and $50 million. Dallas was listed as the primary debt holder.