Grocery Store Feasibility Study in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metro Area

Seattle grocery: a grocery market that outranks its own class position

Count areas and Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue is 9 of 412 for grocery store; count classes and grocery store is 13 of 39 in Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue. The 1.12x location quotient shows a share just above the countrywide one. Between FY2017 and FY2026 SBA recorded 70 loans for $67.9 million. Against the countrywide grocery store median, Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue posts $612,050, or 1.74x, and a $217,050 to $1.3 million band holds the usual grocery store loan.

The grocery store book around Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue runs 65 on SBA 7(a) paper and 5 on SBA 504 paper. Branded ownership shows at 0.00%, so independents are the whole story. King County has 33 loans, Snohomish County 20 and Pierce County 17. Readycap Lending, LLC holds 7 loans for $15.3 million, KeyBank National Association 6 for $2.0 million and UniBank 5 for $3.3 million. The dollars per loan differ widely among the three. Each Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue lender figure as SBA’s holder record, leaving Readycap Lending, LLC’s practices unassessed. This is a holding record.

Around Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue, grocery store lending has the rate of cancelled approvals together with the charge-off share is withheld with too little data behind it; missing never means zero. Printed years: 5 loans and $3.5 million in FY2019, 7 and $4.8 million in FY2020, 10 and $10.4 million in FY2023, 14 and $8.2 million in FY2024, 14 and $10.0 million in FY2025, and 7 and $14.0 million in FY2026. The Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue grocery store count is built by the county of each project under the July 2023 delineation. No county match, no inclusion.

Seattle grocery: what a grocery study here has to test

A grocery study in this metro has to test the trade area and household base served, the competing chains and specialty grocers nearby, margins on perishables and shrink, refrigeration and fixture cost, and lease or purchase economics. With loans well above the benchmark, the appraisal matters: real estate, equipment and inventory each need their own support. Debt service coverage should be tested against thin grocery margins and labor cost. This record works as context for a grocery store study in Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue; approval is not implied.