Coffee Shop Feasibility Study in Nebraska

Omaha-centred coffee lending near the national norm

Nebraska coffee shop and snack bar lending sits close to the national class on loan size and slightly above it on concentration. The state's coffee approvals number 55 across FY2017 to FY2026, worth $18.4 million, and the median of $250,000 is 1.04x what the class posts nationally. The location quotient is 1.18x, the class holds 7 of 39 among Nebraska's classes and the state stands 37 of 53 on volume. No metric clears both the state record and the national coffee record, so the page describes structure rather than an outlier.

Programs, lenders and counties

The 7(a) programme made 53 of the loans and 504 made 2. Franchise brands account for 50.9% of loans. The middle half runs from $85,000 to $447,800, spanning kiosks and drive-through builds. Union Bank and Trust Company has 12 loans worth $5.0 million and First National Bank of Omaha has 9 worth $1.6 million, the only two lenders in the table, so two banks write most of the visible activity. Douglas County has 18 loans, Lancaster 8 and Sarpy 7, which puts Omaha and Lincoln and their suburbs at the centre. Hall County follows with 4.

A clean cohort, with limits

The charge-off figures are publishable because the cohort has 31 loans, just over the threshold. Across the FY2017 to FY2021 disbursements, losses to date and losses inside five years both stand at 0.00%. A lender should take that as a floor on a small group, not a clean bill: open loans can still fail, and a single loss would alter the rate noticeably. Cancellations from FY2017 to FY2024 approvals run at a floor of 6.1%, and 8.2% with undisbursed loans included. Approvals fell from 9 loans in FY2018 to 2 in FY2026.

What a Nebraska coffee study must test

The study should establish daily transactions: commuter routes, campus and office density, and the share of sales from a drive-through window. Set the build-out and equipment cost beside a median near $250,000, and show the margin on beverages as well as food once labour is included. Run the coverage test again with a slow opening year and a winter dip. If a franchise is involved, include royalties, marketing fees and required remodels in the cash flow. An appraiser will weigh the lease and early sales history, so the projection has to be conservative enough to defend. A concentration of lending in Douglas County also suggests checking whether nearby sites are saturated.