Brewery, Winery and Distillery Feasibility Study in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metro Area

Craft beverages across the Columbia River

This metro reaches from Oregon into Washington, and its beverage record does too. Nationally the area stands 6 of 443 for brewery, winery and distillery lending, and the class sits sixth, 6 of 39, among those financed within it. A location quotient of 1.93x means makers hold a much larger share of local lending than they do nationally. Beer, wine and spirits producers share one class here, which means each figure below blends the three.

SBA approved 71 loans and $39.5 million from FY2017 to FY2026, with 65 through 7(a) and 6 through 504. The median loan is $229,500, or 0.79x of the national value for the class, but the spread is wide: the central half of loans begins at $50,000 and stretches to $895,250. Franchise share is 0.00%; every maker here is independent. The code establishes only that the borrower brews, ferments or distills; whether a taproom, tasting room or event hall exists goes unrecorded, so a study has to describe such revenue itself.

Lenders and counties

Columbia Bank (OR) holds 20 of the loans, $5.3 million in all. Wells Fargo Bank National Association carries 6 loans, $986,400 in all, while Live Oak Banking Company has 5 loans worth $6.3 million, a far bigger average ticket. The holder column reflects whoever SBA lists today, and it supports no judgment about any bank. Multnomah County, OR shows 32 loans, Clackamas County, OR 13, Yamhill County, OR 12 and Clark County, WA 7, so Multnomah County holds the largest share of the 71 loans.

Loans cancelled after approval make up at least 10.8% of the FY2017 to FY2024 approvals; when undisbursed loans are counted as cancelled, the ceiling is likewise 10.8%. Too few craft loans stand behind a charge-off rate for Loan Analytics to print it, and the empty slot is not a zero. Yearly approvals: FY2017 11 loans and $6.2 million, FY2018 7 and $2.4 million, FY2019 9 and $8.3 million, FY2020 6 and $3.5 million, FY2021 6 and $4.7 million, FY2022 9 and $6.9 million, FY2023 8 and $2.7 million, FY2024 9 and $3.7 million. The two newest years are withheld. A loan counts toward Portland only when the county of its project falls inside the 2023 delineation of the metro.

What a Portland area craft study has to test

A brewery, winery or distillery study should test production capacity against sales channels: on-premises taproom or tasting room, wholesale and distribution. It must cost tanks or barrels, licensing and the building, and show how earnings meet debt service coverage at a request anywhere in that $50,000 to $895,250 band. The appraisal values the operating business and the production real estate together. The lender decides any approval, and the loans counted here are a record of past lending, never a promise of a future yes. A request near the $229,500 median and one near the top of the band should each be run through the same coverage test.