Grocery Store Feasibility Study in the Columbus, OH Metro Area
What SBA's own loan files show about grocery store lending in the Columbus, OH Metro Area, and what a feasibility study for a project there has to test.
Grocery lending in Columbus is dominated by very small loans. The median is $50,000, only 0.14x the national class median, and the central range runs from $50,000 to $332,500. The file has 53 approvals from FY2017 to FY2026 for $17.9 million. Columbus is 15 of 412 for the class, grocery stores come twelfth out of 39 classes in Columbus, and the 1.12x location quotient sits just above parity, so the loans here skew small. Any study here must therefore start from the fact that a typical SBA-backed grocery loan in this metro is small.
Franklin County and the Huntington relationship
Franklin County, OH accounts for 44 loans. The Huntington National Bank shows 32 loans and $3.6 million, a very large share by count, and with a small average the pattern points to small-ticket owner-operator lending. Those counts come from SBA's roll of loans the bank holds or held; they are no window into its credit decisions. The franchise share is 0.00%. SBA hides the 7(a) and 504 counts.
What the visible years say
FY2017 posted 6 loans and $1.6 million, FY2018 8 loans and $416,200, FY2019 6 loans and $4.2 million, FY2021 5 loans and $1.1 million and FY2024 5 loans and $2.7 million. FY2020, FY2022, FY2023, FY2025 and FY2026 are hidden, along with the cancellation rate and the charge-off rate. None of those hidden entries is a zero, and a lender cannot infer a loss floor from them.
What a Columbus grocery study should test
The class is a hard one to underwrite, and a study has to be concrete. It should test the neighborhood's household count and the grocery options within a short drive, and whether the store is a general grocer, a specialty or ethnic market or a convenience hybrid. Perishable shrink, supplier terms and inventory financing deserve their own line, since margins are thin. Cost should be compared with the $50,000 median, and a project well above it should show why. The cash model should run a slow sales ramp and a shrink stress. An appraiser should separate inventory and equipment from real estate. Metro placement uses the July 2023 delineation.
SBA grocery store loans in the Columbus, OH Metro Area
| Loans approved, FY2017 to FY2026 | 53 |
|---|---|
| Gross dollars approved | $17.9 million |
| Median loan | $50,000 |
| Middle half of loans, from | $50,000 |
| Middle half of loans, to | $332,500 |
| SBA 7(a) loans | withheld |
| SBA 504 loans | withheld |
| Franchise share of loans | 0.00% |
| Rank among metro and micro areas for grocery store loans | 15 of 412 |
| Rank of grocery store among the classes in this area | 12 of 39 |
| Location quotient (share of loans against the national share) | 1.12x |
| Median loan against the national median for the class | 0.14x |
Cancellation and charge-off
| Cancelled after approval, FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor) | withheld |
|---|---|
| Charged off to date, FY2017 to FY2021 disbursed loans (a floor) | withheld |
Both rates are floors. SBA withholds the status of open loans, so a loan counts as charged off only once SBA reports it; a rate needs at least 30 loans in its cohort and is otherwise not reported.
SBA grocery store loans approved in the Columbus, OH Metro Area, by fiscal year
| Fiscal year | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| FY2017 | 6 | $1.6 million |
| FY2018 | 8 | $416,200 |
| FY2019 | 6 | $4.2 million |
| FY2020 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2021 | 5 | $1.1 million |
| FY2022 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2023 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2024 | 5 | $2.7 million |
| FY2025 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2026 | withheld | withheld |
Most active SBA lenders
| Lender | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| The Huntington National Bank | 32 | $3.6 million |
Lenders with 5 or more loans here; a lender with fewer is not listed, and loans SBA or a receiver holds are counted but never listed as a lender.
Where the loans are, by county
| County | Loans |
|---|---|
| Franklin County, OH | 44 |
Counties with 5 or more loans; smaller ones are not listed.
Metro is the CBSA (metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area) of the loan's project county, July 2023 delineation (OMB Bulletin 23-01). The county is matched by name (manifests/ld2/county-cbsa-map.csv); a loan whose county cannot be placed in a 2023 CBSA is left out of every metro.
A value marked withheld rests on fewer than 5 loans, or is withheld so that such a figure cannot be derived from other published figures.
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, 7(a) and 504 loan-level FOIA files (data.sba.gov), as of 2026-09-30; areas from the U.S. Census Bureau CBSA delineation, July 2023 (OMB Bulletin 23-01); Loan Analytics metro cell MA-18140-C40.
Related feasibility study pages
- Feasibility studies for grocery store projects
- Feasibility Study Data for the Columbus, OH Metro Area
- Grocery Store Feasibility Study in Ohio
- Ohio feasibility study company
- Feasibility Study Data by Metro Area
- SBA feasibility study company
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