Coffee Shop Feasibility Study in the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN Metro Area

Nashville coffee: all 7(a), no 504

Fifth place locally, 5 of 39, goes to coffee shops and snack bars in the Nashville area, where a 1.39x location quotient reveals a bigger slice of local lending than the national mix predicts. The metro stands 38 of 612 for the class. The record logs 51 loans and $26.6 million for approvals in FY2017 through FY2026. All of them were approved under 7(a), and the 504 count is zero, so no coffee borrower here financed a building through the 504 program.

A midpoint loan of $350,000 sits at 1.46x the national midpoint, with half the loans running from $150,000 to $562,500. Franchise flags cover 54.9%, a slim majority, so a branded concept is slightly more common than an independent cafe. The Huntington National Bank is the one holder with enough loans for a listing, 5 loans worth $1.5 million, drawn from SBA's holder field with no verdict on the bank. Since every loan sits in the 7(a) program, the equity a borrower puts in and the collateral behind the loan deserve scrutiny in a study.

Counties and years

Davidson County, TN carries 21 loans, Sumner County, TN 9, Williamson County, TN 8 and Rutherford County, TN 6, so the ring around the core is substantial. Yearly records that print: FY2021 at 6 loans and $6.4 million, FY2022 at 6 and $5.2 million, FY2024 at 8 and $6.3 million, FY2025 at 13 and $3.9 million, FY2026 at 10 and $2.8 million. The count climbs from 6 loans in FY2021 to 13 in FY2025 and then eases to 10 in FY2026. FY2017 through FY2020 and FY2023 are hidden.

Nashville coffee has no published cancellation rate and no published charge-off rate, as thirty loans is the smallest cohort that gets a rate on this site, so the page offers no loss figure and the gaps are not zeros. Metro membership depends on each project county's place in the 2023 delineation.

Nashville coffee: what a study proves

Foot and vehicle traffic in the specific submarket matter most, along with the density of rival cafes and the rent for the space. The $350,000 midpoint is the build-out budget to test, and ticket count and margin must carry debt service coverage with franchise fees included when a brand applies. A going cafe and its lease are valued together by the appraiser.