Buying an F&B establishment is one of the most complex commercial transactions — involving licenses, leases, equipment, staff, and reputation all at once. Here’s how MPG manages it:

• Market & Site Analysis: We identify opportunities matching your concept, budget, and preferred trade area across Metro Detroit and Southeast Michigan.
• Confidential Outreach: Many of the best deals never hit the open market. Our proprietary network surfaces off-market sellers.
• Letter of Intent (LOI): We draft and negotiate your offer before you commit to full due diligence — protecting your time and leverage.
• Due Diligence Support: We coordinate review of financials, POS data, lease assignments, health department records, and equipment condition.
• Lease Assignment & Negotiation: We work with landlords to secure favorable lease terms or assignments — a critical step often overlooked by first-time buyers.
• Closing Coordination: We manage timelines with attorneys, title, and MLCC to get you to closing efficiently.

Selling a restaurant or bar while keeping operations running requires a broker who understands confidentiality. Employees, vendors, and customers cannot know until you’re ready. MPG operates with strict discretion:

• Valuation First: We establish a defensible asking price based on revenue multiples, EBITDA, asset value, and Metro Detroit market comparables.
• Blind Teaser Marketing: Buyers are qualified before they receive any identifying information about your business.
• NDA-Gated Process: Every prospect signs a Non-Disclosure Agreement before accessing financials or operational details.
• Qualified Buyer Pool: We screen for financial capability, industry experience, and local licensing eligibility before introductions.
• Asset vs. Entity Sale: We advise on the structure that maximizes your net proceeds — asset sale, membership interest transfer, or hybrid approach.

The Michigan MLCC (Michigan Liquor Control Commission) process is one of the most significant variables in any F&B transaction. Understanding it upfront prevents deals from falling apart at the finish line.

• License Types: Class C (on-premises consumption), Resort License, Club License, and Special Licenses each have different transfer requirements and eligibility rules.
• Transfer Timeline: Standard license transfers take 90–120 days from application submission. We build this into every deal timeline from day one.
• Escrow Arrangements: Michigan law allows conditional closing with MLCC approval pending — we structure deals to accommodate this properly.
• Local Approvals: Municipalities (city, township, village) must approve the license transfer. We coordinate local government filings concurrently with MLCC applications.
• New License Applications: For blank-canvas buildouts, we manage new license applications from eligibility assessment through final approval.

MPG is uniquely positioned to take a new F&B operator from concept to opening day. This is more than just finding a space — it’s full project stewardship:

• Site Selection: Demographics, traffic counts, parking, competition mapping, and lease structure analysis for your specific concept.
• Contractor Coordination: MPG works with licensed contractors for build-out, ADA compliance, kitchen hood and ventilation, and code-required improvements.
• Health Department & Licensing: Food service licensing, CO2 systems, grease trap requirements — we coordinate all pre-opening regulatory filings.
• Equipment Procurement Guidance: We connect operators with commercial kitchen suppliers and advise on new vs. used equipment trade-offs.
• Lease Structuring for Buildouts: We negotiate tenant improvement (TI) allowances, rent abatement during construction, and kick-out clauses to protect your investment.

Restaurant and bar valuations follow different rules than other businesses. MPG applies industry-specific methodology:

• Revenue Multiples: Full-service restaurants typically trade at 0.3x–0.5x annual revenue. Bars with strong liquor sales often command higher multiples.
• SDE Multiples: Seller’s Discretionary Earnings (SDE) — the true owner benefit — is typically multiplied by 1.5x–3x depending on transferability, lease terms, and concept strength.
• Lease Value: A below-market lease in a high-traffic location is a significant asset. We quantify this in every valuation.
• Brand & Reputation: Established concepts with strong reviews and loyal customer bases command premium pricing over raw financials.
• Equipment & FF&E: Fully equipped kitchens with owned (not leased) equipment add to asset value independently of income.

• 20+ Years Metro Detroit Experience: We know the trade areas, the landlords, the local regulators, and the active buyer pool.
• Full Transaction Management: From first conversation to closing day — one team handles everything.
• No-Pressure Consultations: Every engagement starts with an honest conversation about your goals, timeline, and realistic outcomes.
• Licensed & Professional: Michigan-licensed real estate and business brokerage services, fully insured.
• Connected Network: Attorneys, lenders, MLCC specialists, contractors, and commercial landlords — all accessible through MPG.

Business valuation is both science and market knowledge. MPG uses multiple methodologies to establish a defensible, market-accurate asking price:

• SDE (Seller’s Discretionary Earnings): The total financial benefit to a working owner — net income plus owner salary, perks, and non-recurring expenses. Most small businesses sell at 2x–4x SDE.
• EBITDA Multiples: For businesses with $1M+ in revenue, buyers focus on EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). Industrial and service businesses typically see 4x–7x EBITDA.
• Asset Value: For asset-heavy businesses (manufacturing, real estate-heavy operations), tangible asset value sets the floor on price.
• Revenue Multiples: Common in SaaS, subscription, and recurring-revenue businesses — typically 0.5x–3x annual revenue depending on growth rate and churn.
• Goodwill & Intangibles: Customer lists, brand reputation, proprietary processes, and key contracts all add premium value above hard assets.

• Engagement & NDA: We begin with a signed engagement agreement and full NDA — your information stays protected from the start.
• Confidential Information Memorandum (CIM): A professional document summarizing your business without identifying details — provided only to qualified, NDA-signed prospects.
• Targeted Buyer Outreach: We match your business to strategic buyers, financial buyers, and search fund operators actively looking in your category and geography.
• Letter of Intent (LOI): We negotiate the LOI — price, structure, contingencies, and timeline — before you incur due diligence costs.
• Due Diligence Management: We coordinate the information exchange, respond to buyer requests, and keep the process moving without disrupting your operations.
• Closing: We coordinate with attorneys, lenders, and title to ensure a clean, on-time closing.

How a deal is structured affects your tax liability, liability exposure, and net proceeds. MPG advises on the optimal structure in coordination with your attorney and CPA:

• Asset Sale: The buyer purchases specific assets (equipment, inventory, goodwill, customer list) rather than the legal entity. Preferred by most buyers — limits inherited liability. Common for LLCs and sole proprietorships.
• Stock / Membership Interest Sale: The buyer acquires the entire entity. Often preferred by sellers for tax treatment. Required when contracts, licenses, or permits are non-transferable.
• Seller Financing: Seller holds a note for a portion of the purchase price, paid over time. Signals confidence in the business, expands the buyer pool, and can increase total sale price.
• SBA 7(a) Loans: Most qualified buyers finance Main Street acquisitions with SBA loans. We work with SBA-preferred lenders and ensure your business is prepared for SBA underwriting requirements.
• Earnouts: A portion of the price is contingent on future performance. Bridges valuation gaps between buyer and seller — we negotiate protections to ensure earnout milestones are fair and achievable.

Due diligence is where deals die — or get repriced downward. MPG helps sellers prepare proactively so there are no surprises:

• Financial Records: 3 years of tax returns, P&L statements, balance sheets, and bank statements. Inconsistencies between reported income and bank deposits raise red flags.
• Customer & Revenue Concentration: Does one customer represent more than 20% of revenue? Buyers will discount heavily for concentration risk.
• Leases & Contracts: Are key contracts assignable? Does the lease have options or is it expiring soon? We identify issues before buyers do.
• Employee Agreements: Non-competes, key man dependencies, compensation structures — buyers want stability and continuity.
• Licenses & Permits: All operating licenses must be current and transferable. We audit this before marketing begins.
• Legal & Litigation History: Any pending litigation, liens, or judgments must be disclosed and resolved.

The biggest risk in selling a business is a confidentiality breach. When employees, customers, or competitors learn a business is for sale before the deal is done, the consequences are real:

• Key employees may leave, damaging operations and reducing sale price
• Customers may reduce orders or seek alternative vendors
• Competitors may use the information to poach clients
• Suppliers may tighten credit terms

MPG’s confidentiality protocol:

• Blind Listings: Initial marketing never identifies your business by name, location, or owner
• NDA Before Disclosure: Every prospect signs a binding NDA before receiving identifying information
• Buyer Qualification First: Financial capacity and industry fit are screened before any introduction
• Controlled Information Release: Information is shared in stages — more detail as the buyer advances through the process

MPG represents buyers as well as sellers. If you’re looking to acquire a business in Metro Detroit or Southeast Michigan, here’s how we help:

• Deal Sourcing: We surface both listed and unlisted opportunities matching your industry, size, and financial criteria
• Financial Analysis: We review financials with a buyer’s eye — identifying add-backs, normalizing earnings, and flagging risks before you make an offer
• LOI Drafting: We draft your offer to be competitive and protective — price, contingencies, exclusivity, and transition terms
• SBA Lender Introductions: We connect pre-qualified buyers with SBA-preferred lenders to accelerate financing approval
• Post-Closing Transition: We assist with seller transition arrangements, training periods, and employee communication planning

• Preparing to Sell: Know your realistic price range before you go to market, and what you can fix first to raise it.
• Buying a Business: Find out whether the asking price is supported by the earnings, the lease, and comparable sales — before you make an offer.
• Closed or Struggling Restaurants: Compare selling as an operating business, selling the assets in place, or liquidating — with realistic timing and net proceeds.
• Landlords With a Failed Tenant: What the equipment, buildout, and second-generation space are worth to the next operator.
• Partner Buyouts & Succession: A market-grounded starting point for buyout and transition conversations.

No single method fits every business. MPG uses the approaches that match the business and the situation:

• Earnings-Based: Seller’s discretionary earnings (SDE) or EBITDA, normalized with documented add-backs, applied against multiples supported by comparable sales. Best for operating, profitable businesses.
• Comparable Sales: Closed transactions for similar concepts and price ranges. Asking prices are not treated as sales, and differences in terms and seller financing are accounted for.
• Asset-Based: Equipment, liquor license, and leasehold position — the primary approach for closed, distressed, or minimally profitable businesses.

• Financial History: Tax returns, P&Ls, and POS reports — normalized for owner compensation, personal expenses, and one-time costs. Every add-back is documented.
• Revenue Quality: Sales trend, seasonality, and how much of the business depends on the owner personally.
• Lease: Remaining term, options, assignment conditions, and occupancy cost versus sales.
• Liquor License: License type, transfer considerations, and market evidence. Legal transferability is confirmed with liquor-license counsel.
• Equipment & FF&E: What is owned, financed, leased, or belongs to the landlord — and its condition.
• Real Estate: If the building is owned, how it affects the deal: combined or separate sale, or a sale-leaseback. A licensed appraiser is engaged when a formal property value is required.
• Goodwill: Brand, reviews, trained staff, and customer base.

• Probable Sale Range: What the business is likely to sell for under current market conditions, and why.
• Earnings Recast: Normalized SDE or EBITDA with each adjustment explained.
• Comparable Sales: The transactions relied on and how they compare.
• Lease, License & Asset Review: What transfers, what doesn’t, and what could hold up a sale.
• Likely Buyer & Next Steps: Who buys this business, and what to fix before going to market.

An MPG evaluation is a brokerage market opinion of probable selling price. It is not an appraisal, a certified business valuation, or legal or tax advice.

• Market-Level Differences: The same concept can trade very differently in Oakland, Macomb, and Wayne County — buyer pool depth and local economics matter.
• Local Buyer Pool: We know who is actively acquiring bars and restaurants in Southeast Michigan, and a business priced for the actual buyers sells faster.
• From the Kitchen Up: Equipment, staffing, lease, and license issues are judged by someone who has operated, not just listed.

Many owners can raise their sale price meaningfully with 12–24 months of preparation:

• Clean Up the Books: Stop running personal expenses through the business. Buyers and lenders discount what they can’t verify.
• Reduce Owner Dependency: Document processes and build a management layer.
• Secure the Lease: If your lease is short, extend it before selling. Buyers won’t pay full price for uncertain occupancy.
• Address Deferred Maintenance: Equipment in poor condition reduces both price and buyer confidence.
• Keep the License Clean: Compliance history affects transfer and buyer confidence.

Building a real estate or business portfolio requires the right deals at the right price. MPG gives you access to opportunities most investors never see:

• Off-Market Deal Flow: Our broker network and seller relationships surface properties and businesses before they hit public listing platforms. Off-market deals typically transact at 5–15% lower prices than listed inventory.
• Acquisition Criteria Development: We help you define your ideal investment profile — property type, size, geography, tenant profile, and return thresholds — so every deal we bring is qualified before it reaches you.
• Portfolio Diversification Strategy: Whether you’re adding your first commercial asset or expanding an existing portfolio, MPG maps out a diversification approach that balances risk across property types, geographies, and lease structures.
• Competitive Bidding Guidance: When a deal goes to market, positioning matters. MPG advises on offer structure, escalation clauses, and terms that give your bid a strategic edge beyond just purchase price.

Southeast Michigan’s commercial real estate market has distinct micro-market dynamics. MPG provides the local intelligence institutional investors rely on:

• Cap Rate Benchmarking: We analyze current capitalization rates by property type, submarket, and tenant quality to ensure you’re paying a market-appropriate price for the income stream you’re acquiring.
• Rent Comparables & Absorption Data: Current lease rates, vacancy trends, and absorption data tell you whether your projected rent roll is achievable and sustainable over your hold period.
• Market Cycle Positioning: Our advisors monitor Metro Detroit’s commercial cycle — development pipeline, employment trends, and capital flows — to advise on when to buy, hold, or liquidate positions.
• Submarket Selection: Not all Detroit submarkets are created equal. MPG targets corridors with the strongest fundamentals: population growth, infrastructure investment, and tenant demand.

Every investment deserves rigorous analysis before capital is committed. MPG supports your underwriting process with broker-level deal intelligence:

• NOI & Cash-on-Cash Analysis: We build projected income statements incorporating current market rents, realistic vacancy assumptions, and operating expenses specific to the property type and submarket.
• Debt Service & Leverage Modeling: MPG works alongside your lender to model debt service coverage ratios (DSCR) and determine optimal leverage points that maximize returns without overleveraging.
• Risk Identification: Deferred maintenance, anchor tenant concentration, lease rollover risk, environmental flags — we surface the issues that erode value and give you leverage in negotiation.
• Exit Strategy Planning: We underwrite every deal with the exit in mind: what buyer profile will purchase this asset in 5–10 years, at what cap rate, and what improvements today drive the highest exit valuation tomorrow.

A properly executed 1031 exchange can preserve capital for decades. MPG coordinates your exchange strategy from identification to closing:

• Exchange Identification: We identify qualified replacement properties that meet your investment criteria within the strict IRS timeline — 45 days to identify, 180 days to close.
• Like-Kind Property Matching: We match your relinquished property profile to like-kind replacement assets — from NNN retail to multifamily to industrial — that preserve or upgrade your income and appreciation potential.
• Qualified Intermediary Coordination: MPG coordinates with your QI, CPA, and legal counsel to ensure exchange mechanics are properly executed and your deferral is preserved.
• Reverse & Improvement Exchanges: For sophisticated investors, we can structure reverse 1031s and improvement exchanges that provide maximum flexibility in timing and capital deployment.

Holding an asset is only the beginning. MPG advises on maximizing income and value from properties you already own:

• Below-Market Lease Repositioning: We identify leases expiring at below-market rates and develop mark-to-market strategies that capture embedded rental upside without disrupting occupancy.
• Value-Add Identification: Physical improvements, rezoning opportunities, and unused density rights often represent significant unrealized value. MPG identifies and quantifies these opportunities.
• Tenant Mix Optimization: For retail and mixed-use properties, the right tenant combination drives co-tenancy benefits and stabilizes income streams. MPG advises on tenant curation and lease structure.
• Disposition Timing: When it’s time to sell, MPG advises on the optimal window based on market conditions, buyer pool depth, and your personal tax and reinvestment objectives.