Liquor Store Feasibility Study in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metro Area

The Boston record for liquor stores

The Boston total comes to 152 approved loans for package liquor stores, carrying $60.3 million gross, in the FY2017 to FY2026 window. The central half of Boston loans spans $50,000 to $479,750. In rank terms, Boston is 9 of 426 among metro and micro areas, and package liquor stores hold 8 of 39 across the area's own lending classes. A location quotient of 0.97x, says package liquor stores take about the same share of local SBA lending against the nationwide mix. At $174,000, the Boston midpoint sits below the national class median, by the file, a ratio of 0.39x.

Programs, franchises and lenders in Boston

Franchise affiliation cannot be reported for package liquor stores in Boston, because too few approvals stand behind it. Program by program, 136 of the 152 loans are 7(a) and 16 are 504, which shows the SBA route package liquor store borrowers in Boston have used. Under 7(a) lending, 39 loans sit with Eastern Bank, 15 with Rockland Trust Company and 13 with TD Bank, National Association. The 504 holders for liquor stores are led as follows: 7 loans sit with New England Certified Development Corporation. Lender figures for liquor stores in Boston reflect SBA's current-holder records: for now, credit goes to the present holder, as filed, which states nothing about underwriting.

Place and timing for package liquor stores

Project counties rank Middlesex County, MA first (50), Essex County, MA next (32) and Plymouth County, MA third (28). The yearly record peaks in FY2017 at 27 loans and $7.6 million, and bottoms out in FY2019 at 5 approvals and $1.7 million. FY2025 and FY2026 appear without counts or dollars because Loan Analytics withholds years that rest on very few loans, which does not mean none were made.

Reading the Boston floors with care

Boston is best judged as a county-built figure: for the record, SBA's project county, for a reader, paired by name to 2023 areas, decides which loans enter for bottle shops and liquor stores. Boston has too thin a funded cohort of bottle shops and liquor stores from those years for a charge-off rate; the rate is not printed, which is not a zero. Cancellation after approval reached 15.8% for Boston liquor stores loans of FY2017 to FY2024; on this record, that is a floor, with the ceiling withheld because the count is thin.

The questions a Boston study of bottle shops and liquor stores must answer

Demand is the first test for liquor stores in Boston: neighborhood traffic and shelf mix, then grocers selling beer and wine. Lenders have approved 152 loans in the class, yet that history reports an applicant little about one address until area figures are built. The appraisal deserves separate work: license value against stock, and inventory counts at closing. The build-out budget should itemize cooler and shelving and shrinkage and security, and then be compared with what Boston institutions financed: $174,000 at the midpoint. No approval is promised by any of this; it only gives lenders and borrowers a common baseline in Boston. Coverage of debt service is the critical test for package liquor stores in Boston: it must hold when sales ramp gradually, because the cancellation floor above shows Boston loans that did not go as planned.