Grocery Store Feasibility Study in Indiana

A small, low-ticket class

Indiana grocery lending is modest by almost every yardstick the SBA files offer. From FY2017 to FY2026 the agency approved 33 loans to grocery stores in the state, totalling $15.1 million, which ranks Indiana 26 of 55 among states for the class. Measured against Indiana's own mix of lending, groceries come 20 of 39. The location quotient of 0.39x is the clearest signal: stores take well under half the share of Indiana approvals that they take nationally. The useful reading is of a small market where a single large project would visibly move the totals.

The size of a typical Indiana grocery loan

The median loan was $207,000, only 0.59x of what a grocery borrower nationally gets at the median, and half of the approvals sit between $100,000 and $545,000. SBA 7(a) carried 29 of the loans and SBA 504 only 4. Franchise brands account for 6.1% of loans. Activity peaked at 9 loans in FY2021, was absent in FY2019, and rebounded in FY2026 to 5 loans and $5.1 million, and that year is complete.

Lenders and geography

On the 7(a) lender list, The Huntington National Bank is first with 7 loans worth $666,900, a dollar total that matches the small ticket. The page prints these as records SBA keeps on whoever holds each loan today; they say who holds the paper, nothing about its standards. Marion County dominates with 10 loans, ahead of Daviess and Lake with 3 each, and Delaware and Elkhart with 2. Indiana grocery shows neither a cancellation percentage nor a charge-off percentage on this page, because Loan Analytics withholds any rate with fewer than 30 loans behind it; neither should be taken as zero, so silence is no evidence of a clean record either way.

Testing a grocery project in Indiana

A study should start with the trade area: households, drive times, the nearest full-line chain and any discount competitor. Sales per square foot and gross margin must be tested against rent or debt service, and the debt service coverage ratio should hold with a conservative first year and a downside case for shrink and spoilage. Equipment and refrigeration deserve their own line at a loan near $207,000. An appraiser will in the end price the going concern, so the study must lay out how its sales were built up.