All employees invited to move from Houston; transition effective April 2017
Romano’s Macaroni Grill announced today that its Home Office/Restaurant Support Center will be relocating from Houston to Denver. The move will be completed in April 2017.
In March 2015, the nation’s leading Italian restaurant chain was purchased by private investors, Redrock Partners, LLC. Redrock is owned by Colorado businessman Dick Monfort and Dean Riesen, who is based in Arizona. Sam DePizzol of CBRE is representing Romano’s in the selection of a new office location in Denver.
“It’s not uncommon for newly acquired companies to be relocated to where the new owners live and do business,” observed John Gilbert, President & CEO of Macaroni Grill. “In fact, it was the case on both previous occasions when Mac Grill was acquired.”
Gilbert continued: “It’s done for a number of reasons, but primarily to give the new owners greater access to the business and to give that business the benefit of a wide range of relationships and resources in the owner’s home market. This is certainly true in our case with our move to Denver.”
Colorado is one of Mac Grill’s strongest markets, with seven restaurants. Denver has also become a major home base for domestic and international restaurant brands.
“We really like the idea of being able to leverage the network of restaurant and support functions as a way to extend our resources,” Gilbert said.
“Colorado is a thriving business community, one that my family has been fortunate to be a part of for generations, and we are excited to bring the Romano’s Macaroni Grill family into our great state,” Monfort said. “We welcome the Home Office employees to Denver and we look forward to working together on the next phase of the long-term growth of the Mac Grill brand.”
Gilbert has met with all Houston-based employees to share the news. Each of the company’s current support center employees has been invited to make the move, and relocation assistance will be made available to make the transition as smooth as possible. For those who choose not to move, the company will provide assistance in finding a new job and will provide a full year to do so.
“Change is always difficult,” concluded Gilbert. “We want to make this change as exciting and energizing as possible for our 50-plus support center employees. With our recent achievement of being named the No. 1 Italian Restaurant Chain in America, it’s certainly an exciting time to work at Mac Grill. We believe our relocated support center will enable us to be even more effective in supporting our nearly 8,000 restaurant-based employees across the globe.”
Last month, the Colorado Economic Development Commission (EDC) approved a Job Growth Incentive Tax Credit package of $1,322,419 for the creation of 53 jobs over the next eight years. Dick Monfort, a member of the EDC, was not involved in Macaroni Grill’s incentive application process and did not participate in the EDC meeting where the incentives for Macaroni Grill were approved. The EDC was aware of his interest in the company when they approved the incentives. The project code name was Project Fare.
Macaroni Grill has grown to over 135 company-owned locations in 33 states, plus 25 franchise locations in the U.S. and 11 other countries (Mexico, Puerto Rico, Germany, Taiwan, Japan and the Middle East (Egypt, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman). The company generates more than $300 million in U.S. sales and another $70 million through its franchise operations.
Romano’s Macaroni Grill is an Italian restaurant brand founded in 1988 by Philip Romano, one of the industry’s leading innovators. Inspired by the Italian country cuisine served in Romano’s grandmother’s kitchen, Macaroni Grill blends Italian traditions with progressive culinary inspiration from all regions of Italy and the U.S in a polished casual atmosphere.
