Liquor Store Feasibility Study in the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD Metro Area

The sharpest local concentration in the class

Baltimore-area liquor stores account for 143 loans and $98.3 million between FY2017 and FY2026, tenth of 426 areas for the class and third among its 39 local classes. The location quotient of 2.62x is the cell's defining trait: liquor stores weigh far more heavily in local lending here than in the country at large. A $510,000 median is 1.13x the class midpoint across the nation, with quartile edges at $277,500 and $891,000.

Entirely 7(a)

All 143 loans are SBA 7(a); none is a 504 loan. That fits a class whose financing is business purchase, inventory and licence transfer more than property. No loan is flagged franchised, recorded as 0.00%. Hanmi Bank is listed with 30 loans worth $28.3 million, Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company with 26 worth $4.1 million, PCB Bank with 21 worth $13.5 million, PromiseOne Bank with 10 worth $7.7 million and Open Bank with 8 worth $5.8 million. These are SBA's holder records only, offering no reading of lender policy.

Cancellations and geography

Cancellation here is pinned down: 14.8% is the floor for FY2017 to FY2024 approved loans, and a ceiling that counts undisbursed loans as cancelled gives 14.8% again. No charge-off rate appears, on thin numbers, and absent is not zero. The City of Baltimore holds 64 loans, Baltimore County 38, Anne Arundel 15 and Howard 14, which makes the city, with its older retail stock, the heart of the cell. Some yearly counts are withheld; the printed ones run from 10 loans and $6.3 million in FY2026 to 19 loans and $19.6 million in FY2021.

Boundary and what a study tests

Only project counties whose names are found on the 2023 metro map feed this area. With the class so concentrated, a lender may meet many comparable files, yet a borrower should not assume a crowded market is an easy one; more files means more benchmarks, not an easier file. The study has to test the sales base of the licence territory, local licensing rules and any limit on transfer, margins by product mix, purchase price against cash flow, repayment capacity, and a valuation that keeps inventory and goodwill apart from the building.