Coffee Shop Feasibility Study in the Salt Lake City-Murray, UT Metro Area

Franchise-heavy coffee lending in Utah's capital area

Coffee shops and snack bars in the Salt Lake City-Murray area drew 68 loans worth $19.8 million over FY2017 to FY2026. The class is 7 of 39 locally, and the area is 30 of 612 when coffee shop loans are tallied for every metro and micro area. A location quotient of 1.13x shows a mild lean toward the class. The telling figure is franchise share: 38.2% of the loans went to franchised units, which marks a market where brand systems finance a large part of the coffee supply. The median loan of $213,600 is 0.89x the national median for the class.

Amounts, lenders and counties

Middle-half amounts run from $64,250 to $430,250. Program counts for 7(a) and 504 are suppressed in this cell, so neither is stated. On the 7(a) holder list the first name is Zions Bancorporation, National Association with 19 loans worth $3.6 million, followed by America First Federal Credit Union with 8 worth $3.1 million, Mountain America FCU with 6 worth $1.2 million and Central Bank (UT) with 5 worth $1.7 million. Each line records where SBA says the loans now sit. Salt Lake County accounts for 63 loans and Tooele County for 5.

Counts are published only where they are large enough: 6 loans in FY2018 ($1.4 million), 5 in FY2019 ($338,600), 6 in FY2020 ($1.3 million), 10 in FY2023 ($2.9 million), 7 in FY2024 ($1.8 million), 9 in FY2025 ($2.2 million) and a peak of 14 in FY2026 ($5.7 million). FY2017, FY2021 and FY2022 are withheld, which is a statement about disclosure, not about lending. Cancellation and charge-off rates are withheld too, so this page offers no floor for either. Which area a loan counts toward depends on where its project sits, county by county.

What a coffee shop study must prove

For a coffee shop in this area, the study has to settle whether the concept is a franchise or an independent, since the record leans toward franchises and each carries different evidence. A franchise can bring system sales for comparable units; an independent must justify volume from traffic counts, morning commuter flow and nearby competitors. Either way the study should test the drive-through or walk-up format, the equipment and build-out cost against a median near $213,600, and debt service coverage after labor and lease. Lenders will set the forecast beside an appraisal of the business, so the numbers should be conservative and traceable. The history shown is not a promise of approval.