Grocery Store Feasibility Study in the Pittsburgh, PA Metro Area

Pittsburgh grocery lending: small loans, steady weight

Grocery stores in the Pittsburgh, PA record come 12th among the area's 39 classes, and the area stands 22 of 412 areas. The Pittsburgh tally for FY2017 to FY2026 is 32 loans and $27.3 million in gross approvals. Share of loans against national share gives 1.07x; the median loan, $233,300, is 0.66x the national median. Across Pittsburgh's middle half, grocery loans stretch from $100,000 up to $874,500, a wide band with a small centre, and the franchise share prints as 0.00%, which leaves independents holding every loan on file.

The Huntington National Bank and Northwest Bank (PA) each appear as holder of 7 loans, the first with $5.3 million and the second with $1.8 million. The gap in dollars for the same count shows that the two banks hold quite different loans, though the page does not say why and does not describe either bank's practices; the listing only reflects who SBA shows as holder today. Allegheny County has 15 of the 32 loans and Beaver County 5. Program mix for Pittsburgh is not shown on this page.

The calendar and its holes

Three years print: FY2020 with 5 loans worth $1.7 million, FY2024 with 8 loans worth $4.0 million, and FY2025 with 0 loans and $0. The zero in FY2025 is a printed zero, not a gap. Thin Pittsburgh years are left blank here, never zeroed. This page leaves out Pittsburgh's cancellation and charge-off rates.

One more reading is worth a borrower's time. The two banks that appear hold 7 loans each, which leaves most of the file with holders too small to list, so Pittsburgh grocery loans are spread across many institutions and not concentrated in one. A borrower approaching a lender for the first time can therefore treat the list as a sample and not as a short list of the only banks that engage with the class.

Reading the Pittsburgh numbers as a grocer would

For a lender, a location quotient just above the national share paired with a median well under the national figure points to a class that is established in Pittsburgh but built from small stores. A borrower proposing a supermarket-scale project would sit well outside the central range printed here, and the plan should say plainly which end of the $100,000 to $874,500 band it belongs to. Testing it means weekly sales against fixtures and refrigeration, the households within reach of the site, nearby competing stores, parking and delivery access, and inventory carrying cost inside debt service. An appraiser will want real estate separated from the going concern.