Brewery, Winery and Distillery Feasibility Study in the Providence-Warwick, RI-MA Metro Area

Providence-Warwick: beverage makers at the national norm

Makers of beer, wine and spirits are 15 of 39 on the Providence-Warwick class list in SBA's file, and the area is 31 of 443 among areas for the class. SBA's file for Providence-Warwick adds up to 29 loans and $13.3 million across FY2017 to FY2026. In Providence-Warwick the class is over-weighted at 1.14x on location quotient, with a $285,000 median that is 0.98x the national figure. The pair of ratios sitting so near the national mark is the story: Providence-Warwick finances breweries, wineries and distilleries at about the national size and in about the national frequency, so a lender has little local distortion to adjust for.

Programs divide 19 to 10, 7(a) to 504, a fairly even use of both for a craft-production class. From $125,000 to $550,000 is where the middle half of Providence-Warwick loans fall. The franchise share prints as 0.00%, so no loan went to a franchised unit. Santander Bank, National Association appears in SBA's list as holder of 5 loans carrying $1.4 million. Washington County in Rhode Island holds 11 of the loans and Providence County 7, so Washington County has more loans here than Providence County.

Printed years and the zero

Three years each show 5 loans: FY2018 with $2.5 million, FY2019 with $1.9 million and FY2022 with $1.9 million. FY2025 closes the series at 0 loans and $0, a completed year with nothing recorded. Thin Providence-Warwick years are left blank here, never zeroed. Neither cancellation nor charge-off appears for Providence-Warwick. The code records that a borrower makes beer, wine or spirits; it cannot show a tasting room or an event use, and wineries share the class with the other two.

Providence-Warwick hands a borrower a clean benchmark. A request near $285,000 is the local median, a request near $550,000 is the top of the middle half, and anything much beyond that has little direct precedent here. The mixed use of both SBA programs, 19 and 10 loans, invites a plan to say whether the project owns its building or rents it, since the answer changes the structure and the appraisal.

What a Providence-Warwick production study must show

Capacity comes first: barrels, tanks or stills against realistic output, and the equipment and building cost behind them. Then the sales channels, since a plan that depends on direct sales needs different space from one that sells wholesale. Licensing steps take time before the first sale, so the model needs a funded gap. At a median of $285,000 a lender will ask how the request compares and whether the building is owned or leased, and an appraiser will want a position on special-purpose space. Our study assembles those pieces for the lender.