Auto Repair Shop Feasibility Study in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metro Area

A mid-sized repair market on King County's back

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue sits just above the national share in car and truck repair, with a location quotient of 1.07x and a median loan of $244,500 that is 1.04x the national median, so the market resembles the country in both size and weight. The area is 13 of 660 for the class, and the class stands 5 of 39 locally. SBA approved 178 loans from FY2017 to FY2026, worth $91.9 million. The middle half starts at only $50,000 and runs up to $703,425, so very small shops are part of the record.

Counties and mix

King County holds 85 of the loans, Pierce County 60 and Snohomish County 33. SBA 7(a) accounts for 163 loans and SBA 504 for 15. The franchise share is 3.4%, which makes this an overwhelmingly independent trade. Approvals were lowest at 12 in FY2018 and FY2023 and highest at 27 in FY2026, a year with $16.3 million; FY2022 brought $16.1 million on 19 loans.

Lender table

Columbia Bank (OR) holds 34 loans but only $6.8 million, while U.S. Bank, National Association holds 30 worth $13.4 million. KeyBank National Association holds 16, Wells Fargo Bank National Association 10 and Northeast Bank (ME) 8. Holders are shown as SBA records them today, and the figures describe holdings only. No 504 company reaches the list.

What is withheld

Two rates are suppressed by SBA's source for lack of loans, which leaves a cancellation floor of 10.9% for FY2017 to FY2024 approvals as the only loss figure on the page. Read the missing ones as unknown, never as zero. Because truck repair shops are filed with car repair, heavy-vehicle garages sit inside these totals.

Testing a Puget Sound repair shop

The study should decide early whether the plan is a general repair shop, a specialty or a truck facility, then size bays to the traffic of the specific corridor rather than the whole metro. Zoning for service uses and stormwater or environmental conditions of the site deserve detailed treatment in this region. Equipment and any building purchase should be tested against a $244,500 median, and coverage tested against a sluggish first year, perhaps with the lead technician gone. Because there are very small loans in the record, a lender may compare the plan with the smallest tickets, so the study should say plainly why it needs more. Only counties placed in July 2023 areas count.