Hawaii Feasibility Study Consultants

Food service holds the count, not the dollars

Full-service restaurants lead Hawaii's class table with 116 loans and $38.8 million, the limited-service class comes second with 85 loans and $25.9 million, and coffee shops and snack bars rank third by count with 43. Ranked by dollars the order changes: medical offices move up to third with $19.9 million and automotive repair to fourth with $15.4 million, dental offices take fifth with $8.6 million on only 14 loans, and coffee shops drop to sixth at $7.4 million. The restaurant medians, $55,000 for full-service and $56,000 for limited-service, and the coffee median of $50,000 put most Hawaii food-service loans at a size where the lender is underwriting an operator more than a building. That is where the study spends its effort: the trade area, the operator's sales against named competitors, and the loan payments in a weak season.

Where the larger tickets sit

Two classes break from the small-loan pattern. Medical offices carry the highest median in the table, $308,000, on 29 loans, and automotive mechanical repair the next, $275,000, on 39. Both lean on 504 harder than any other Hawaii class with a program split: 15 of the 39 repair loans and 10 of the 29 medical loans went through 504, against 7 of 116 full-service and 7 of 85 limited-service restaurant loans, 1 of 26 fitness loans and 0 of 43 coffee loans. Dental offices, $8.6 million on 14 loans, and behavioral health and addiction treatment, $5.2 million on 5, also hold dollars well beyond their counts. In these classes the building or the equipment backs much of the loan, so the appraisal and the study must reach consistent conclusions: the revenue the study stabilizes has to carry the value put on a specialized space.

Cancelled before closing

Of Hawaii's tracked approvals dated FY2017 to FY2024, at least 10.4% were cancelled. Automotive repair prints the highest class floor, 20.0%, then limited-service restaurants at 13.8% and full-service restaurants at 12.1%, all above the state floor; coffee shops and snack bars print the lowest, 5.4%. For repair shops, larger loans with a heavy 504 share, the study tests what can come apart between approval and closing: the price paid for the site or the business, the equipment and build-out budget at island prices, and, for a site off the sewer, the wastewater approval described in the permitting answer on this page. For restaurants it tests whether the lease, the build-out schedule and the opening budget hold through the months before the first sale.

Charge-offs point away from the restaurant rows

Only the restaurant classes print a charge-off floor in Hawaii: 8.1% for limited-service and 5.9% for full-service. Neither reaches the 9.2% floor of the tracked classes together, so the heavier losses inside that state floor sit in classes too thin to rate on their own, among them coffee shops, automotive repair, medical offices and fitness centers, whose rows print not reported. The table cannot say which. For a coffee, repair, medical or fitness project in Hawaii the study has no state loss rate to cite and builds its own: a downside case on revenue, a rise in payroll and occupancy cost, and the coverage left after both. The five-year measure, at least 7.3% of tracked loans charged off within five years of approval, tells the lender the losses come early, inside the years a projection covers.

Hotels barely appear

The archived text puts hospitality first among Hawaii's sources of demand, yet the hotel and motel row holds 2 loans from FY2017 to FY2026, and gas stations, multifamily, warehouse and distribution, and nonresidential lessors hold 1 each. Grocery stores with 8 loans, veterinary clinics with 9, liquor stores with 12 and dental offices with 14 print no median or floor, because their cohorts are too small. A Hawaii hotel study cannot borrow a state loan record that does not exist; it builds its case from the island's own visitor market and from the national hotel record this site publishes, and the lender reads it knowing that Hawaii's SBA files hold almost no comparable hotel loans.

Small-ticket services

Below the food-service classes the table fills with small service businesses: fitness centers with 26 loans at a $50,000 median, 25 of them 7(a); caterers, including banquet halls, with 20 loans for $1.2 million; beauty salons with 19 for $1.8 million; and rehabilitation and therapy clinics with 17 for $4.1 million. Several of these rows print no median, floor or program split. For them a lender sees a Hawaii count and a dollar total and little else, so the study supplies the measures the row cannot: the competing studios, salons or clinics in the trade area, the rent the island charges for the space, and the members, clients or visits the subject needs to meet its payments.

Central Pacific Bank: the longest list, the smallest loans

Central Pacific Bank made 784 Hawaii SBA loans in FY2017 to FY2026, a count no other lender in the table approaches, but for $48.6 million, a book of small loans. In the class tables higher on the page it made 59 of the 109 full-service restaurant 7(a) loans, 44 of the 78 limited-service ones and 27 of the 43 coffee shop loans. No lender in the Hawaii table publishes a higher charge-off floor than its 10.6%. A restaurant or coffee study in Hawaii is more likely to land on this desk than on any other, in front of a lender that knows these borrowers and what they have cost it; the study's competitor count and downside case have to stand up to that experience.

The development companies carry the dollars

HEDCO Local Development Corporation ranks second by count, 205 loans, and first by dollars, $150.7 million, more than any bank in the table. The Mortgage Capital Development Corporation adds 30 loans for $35.4 million. In the archived text's account, 504 finances owner-occupied buildings and major equipment with a certified development company lending next to a conventional bank, and set beside Hawaii's 238 504 loans for $190.2 million in the decade, these books show where a Hawaii 504 file is read. HEDCO prints 0.00% for charge-offs, but with loans still open that is a minimum, not proof that none failed. The development company and the bank next to it each weigh the study against the same appraisal.

The island banks

Each Hawaii institution the archived text names appears in the table: First Hawaiian Bank with 135 loans for $13.7 million, Bank of Hawaii with 54 for $7.5 million and a 0.00% floor, and American Savings Bank, National Association with 30 loans for $1.1 million, the smallest dollar book listed. With Central Pacific Bank they form the local core of Hawaii SBA lending, and every one of them lends in small amounts per loan. First Hawaiian Bank's charge-off rate is withheld and American Savings Bank's as well; neither is a zero. A study bound for one of these banks is read by people who know the island submarkets, so its trade-area boundaries and competitor list have to be local and current.

Larger tickets from lenders beyond the local core

Apart from the development companies, the remaining lenders in the table are not among the Hawaii institutions the archived text lists, and the largest bank tickets come from them. Live Oak Banking Company made 35 Hawaii loans for $36.9 million, behind only HEDCO Local Development Corporation and Central Pacific Bank in dollars; Newtek Bank, National Association made 54 for $27.3 million, the same count as Bank of Hawaii with far more dollars; Celtic Bank Corporation made 41 for $21.7 million. Northeast Bank (ME) with 73 loans for $11.5 million, BayFirst National Bank with 61 for $11.0 million and Readycap Lending, LLC with 45 for $8.1 million sit nearer the island banks' scale. When one of these desks underwrites a large Hawaii project, the study has to carry the island context itself: the trade area on a named island, building costs set by shipping, and the competing operators by name.

Rates the table cannot give

Only Central Pacific Bank (10.6%), HEDCO Local Development Corporation (0.00%) and Bank of Hawaii (0.00%) print a charge-off floor. First Hawaiian Bank, Northeast Bank (ME), Readycap Lending, LLC, Celtic Bank Corporation and American Savings Bank, National Association are withheld, and BayFirst National Bank, Newtek Bank, National Association, Live Oak Banking Company and The Mortgage Capital Development Corporation print no rate, each with under 30 loans in its cohort. For most desks in the table the lender's own Hawaii loss record is not public, and the study cannot borrow it. What the study can give each lender is the downside its class and island support: the restaurant floors, Honolulu's 7.8%, and the coverage left in a weak year.

Full-service restaurants lost staff, not doors

Hawaii counted 1,273 full-service restaurants in 2018 and 1,238 in 2023, a small decline, but their March employment fell from 38,963 to 30,276. The class still paid $1.03 billion in annual payroll in 2023, the largest of any industry in the table. The loss of staff far outran the loss of restaurants, so a full-service project's risk in Hawaii sits in the labor line as much as in demand: the study tests the staffing plan, the wage it assumes against the island's market, and how sales hold if hours or seats have to be cut for want of staff. Full-service restaurants are also Hawaii's largest SBA class at 116 loans, so this is the payroll picture most Hawaii restaurant credit files are written into.

Limited-service and coffee kept adding outlets

Limited-service restaurants grew from 1,380 to 1,414 establishments and outnumber full-service ones, with employment almost flat, 20,918 in 2018 and 20,822 in 2023, and $536.1 million of payroll. Coffee shops and snack bars were the only food-service class to grow in both measures: 475 establishments became 546 and 5,575 employees became 6,203, on a payroll of $130.1 million. Growth in the number of competitors is the first thing a Hawaii coffee or quick-service study measures. The 43 coffee loans in the class table carry the lowest cancellation floor in the state, 5.4%, but a market adding outlets at this pace asks the study to count recent openings in the trade area and to test the subject's share after the next ones arrive.

Automotive repair: fewer shops

General automotive repair, the main code behind the class, fell from 245 establishments to 227 and from 1,085 employees to 989, with $51.1 million of payroll in 2023. The smaller repair codes in the table are tiny and move both ways, from 8 shops to 12 in one and from 12 to 8 in another. Hawaii's repair loans are large for the state, at a $275,000 median, with 15 of 39 under 504 and the highest cancellation floor in the class table, 20.0%. A shrinking count of shops can mean room for a new operator or a trade that cannot hire technicians; the study has to find out which by checking the trade area's shops, their bays and the labor the subject needs.

Physicians: fewer offices, more staff

Physicians' offices fell from 1,062 establishments in 2018 to 887 in 2023 while their employment rose from 6,500 to 7,757, and their payroll, $992.2 million, came close to that of full-service restaurants with far fewer employees. Hawaii's medical practices are consolidating into fewer, larger offices. The 29 medical office loans in the class table carry the state's highest median, $308,000, and 10 of them are 504. For a practice being opened or bought, the study tests its referral base and payer mix against a field of larger groups, and for a 504 building it tests whether the space would suit another practice if the subject left.

Fitness: more clubs, fewer workers

Fitness centers rose from 83 establishments to 99 while employment slipped from 1,947 to 1,873, on $36.2 million of payroll. Hawaii's 26 fitness loans sit at a $50,000 median, 25 of them 7(a), and the worked example this page links for Hawaii is a gym financed with 7(a). More clubs sharing a shrinking workforce points to smaller formats; the study counts the clubs within the subject's drive time, their price points and memberships, and the members the subject needs to cover its payments.

People, income and output

Census estimates put Hawaii's population at 1,415,872 in 2019 and 1,446,146 in 2024, higher in the later year even though the archived text describes residents leaving for the mainland; a study takes its count from the subject's island and trade area, not from either statewide story. Median household income rose from $83,102 to $100,745 over the same years. In the Bureau of Economic Analysis tables, Hawaii's output was $93.24 billion in 2019 and $123.16 billion in 2025, and personal income $78.60 billion and $110.28 billion, so personal income gained more ground than output. County Business Patterns leave out most government and self-employed activity, which in Hawaii means much of the military and federal base the archived text counts among the economy's pillars; a study near a base adds that demand from its own sources.