Liquor Store Feasibility Study in the Pittsburgh, PA Metro Area

Pittsburgh bottle shops in the SBA record

For Pittsburgh, PA, SBA's file lists 36 liquor store loans worth $20.4 million between FY2017 and FY2026. The class stands 11th of 39 in the area, and Pittsburgh sits 25th of 426 for it. Pittsburgh liquor stores are less frequent than the national pattern, shown by a location quotient of 0.75x, and the median loan of $404,550 is 0.90x the national median. Middle-half loans run from $187,500 to $743,375, and the franchise share reads 0.00%. A lender looking at Pittsburgh therefore sees a class that is ordinary in size, below the national share in frequency and wholly independent of franchise systems, so a plan has to win on its own site and its own numbers.

For Pittsburgh liquor loans approved FY2017 to FY2024, at least 16.1% were cancelled after approval, so the real share may be higher. Pittsburgh's liquor cohort is under 30 loans, so Loan Analytics publishes no charge-off rate, and the cancellation ceiling, the 7(a) and 504 counts and any lender listing are also left out, no lender holding 5 or more of these loans. Allegheny County has 19 of the 36 and Butler County 8.

Four printable years

Pittsburgh can show only FY2017 with 6 loans and $1.4 million, FY2019 with 5 and $2.7 million, FY2021 with 6 and $3.6 million, and FY2022 with 8 and $6.6 million, the last being the busiest. Dollars rise faster than counts across those four, but four points do not make a trend. The remaining years, FY2026 included, are too thin to show, which is not the same as zero. A loan lands in the Pittsburgh area by way of its project county under the July 2023 map.

Testing a Pittsburgh package store

A study here should compare sales per square foot with the lease or purchase cost, the margin on the product mix, the capital tied up in stock, and the licence path, because a licence can govern where a store may open. It should show that the trade area supports a request near the $404,550 median and that payments are covered in a slow first year. Lenders and appraisers will want real estate separated from business value, so the study keeps the two apart.