Liquor Store Feasibility Study in Florida

Florida liquor stores: a small class with ordinary loans

Liquor retail is a thin slice of Florida's SBA lending. The location quotient is 0.27x, so the class takes far less of the Florida book than it does nationally, and liquor stores rank 18 of 39 among Florida asset classes. Florida still ranks 14 of 53 among states for the class, with 134 approvals worth $85.1 million from FY2017 to FY2026. The Florida median of $471,800 is 1.05x the national liquor store median, and the interquartile range runs from $200,000 to $899,750. Neither that median nor the two Florida floors separate from both the Florida all-asset book and liquor stores nationally under our test, so the Florida cell is read here through its holders and its outcomes.

Florida liquor stores are almost entirely independent; franchise units account for only 3.0% of loans. SBA 7(a) carries 120 approvals and SBA 504 14.

The Florida lender list

TD Bank, National Association holds 13 Florida liquor loans, but worth only $1.6 million, which points to small working capital and inventory lines. Pinnacle Bank's 6 loans total $8.3 million, much larger deals that likely include store purchases or real estate. The Huntington National Bank holds 8, and Northeast Bank and Newtek Bank, National Association 6 each. Florida approvals reached 21 worth $17.4 million in FY2025, the busiest year of the period.

Florida cancellations sit at a 10.2% floor for the FY2017 to FY2024 approval years, against a 12.2% ceiling. Losses after funding are low. Of the 59 Florida liquor loans disbursed in FY2017 to FY2021, 1.7% are now charged off, and Florida's five-year charge-off rate is 0.00%, so what losses exist came later in the loan term. These are floors on loans still outstanding.

What a Florida liquor store study must test

Florida's liquor lending is spread across several counties: Hillsborough holds 14 approvals, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach 11 each, Broward 10, and Lee, Orange and Seminole 7 each. A Florida feasibility study must weigh local spending, the competing package stores and the chain and grocery outlets that also sell spirits, and the store's margin mix of spirits, wine and beer. For a purchase, it must verify sales history and inventory value. Cost work should cover build-out, shelving, coolers and opening inventory. The coverage ratio must hold on documented margins at the loan requested, which at the upper quartile approaches $899,750. Where the Florida deal includes the building, the appraisal should value the retail property separately from the license and the business.