Coffee Shop Feasibility Study in the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metro Area

A bi-state market led by franchised units

The Charlotte area reaches across the border into South Carolina, and its coffee shop record shows it: Mecklenburg County, NC has 39 loans, York County, SC has 17, Iredell NC has 8, Cabarrus NC and Gaston NC have 7 each, and Union NC has 6. Franchise flags attach to 67.0% of the loans. SBA approved 91 of them in FY2017 to FY2026, $36.8 million gross, ranking the area 23 of 612 nationally and coffee shops 6 of 39 inside it. The location quotient of 1.52x is a strong over-representation.

The median loan is $327,600, which is 1.36x the national median, with quartile edges at $147,500 and $502,500. Charlotte coffee shows no program split and no annual series, because the 7(a) and 504 counts and several yearly values are withheld. The quartile range is fairly tight, which may reflect a branded, repeatable build-out.

Lenders

The Huntington National Bank has 22 loans and $9.1 million, far ahead of the others. Pinnacle Bank (TN) shows 6 loans and $2.4 million, and Truliant FCU shows 5 loans with $5.3 million, a notable dollar total for the count. These entries record loans held now or in the past. A reader should not infer anything about the standards a lender applies to a new Charlotte request.

Reading the cancellation figures

Cancelled approvals total at least 7.9% through FY2024, with a ceiling that comes out identical at 7.9%. That is a modest figure and suggests that most approved Charlotte coffee loans reach funding. The charge-off rate is withheld, so the record cannot say how those funded loans have performed.

Mecklenburg County, NC accounts for 39 of the 91 loans, and York County, SC for 17, which places a good share of the record in the southern suburbs that cross the state line. A study for a site in Iredell, Cabarrus, Gaston or Union County should be candid that these counties carry only a handful of loans each in this record, and should use traffic and population evidence of its own to justify the volume it projects.

A feasibility study should test the unit's traffic and drive-through potential, the franchisor's fees and remodel obligations, labor supply, competing units along the same road, and coverage near $327,600. Because the area crosses a state line, the study should also confirm the permitting and tax rules of the state where the unit will stand. Charlotte's 91 coffee loans trace to Mecklenburg, York, Iredell, Cabarrus, Gaston and Union, counties named in the July 2023 delineation; a cafe with an unlisted county joins no metro, so 91 is a lower bound.