Quick Service Restaurant Feasibility Study in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Metro Area

A franchise-driven limited-service market

Within metropolitan Atlanta the limited-service restaurant class sits second of 39, with 648 loans approved from FY2017 to FY2026 and $341.3 million in gross dollars. Across 779 metro and micro areas, this one is placed 5 for the class. Its location quotient of 1.44x means quick-service restaurants take a larger part of local lending than they do nationally. The franchise share is 63.1%, so most borrowers arrive with a brand behind them, which makes the franchise agreement a core input for any study.

Ticket size and program split

Median financing is $350,000, which is 1.13x the national class median; half of all loans fall between $228,200 and $600,000. Of the 648 loans, 614 are SBA 7(a) and 34 are SBA 504.

Who holds the loans, and where

In 7(a), SBA shows The Huntington National Bank as holder of 70 loans worth $19.8 million and Metro City Bank of 48 worth $16.7 million, then PCB Bank with 23, with SouthState and Stearns at 22 loans apiece. Under 504, Small Business Access Partners, Inc. holds 14 loans worth $13.9 million and Capital Partners Certified Development Company 12 worth $14.4 million. Those counts record what SBA's files attribute to each holder, which is a statement of holdings only. By county, Fulton has 160 loans and Gwinnett 136, ahead of DeKalb with 70 and Cobb with 69. Approvals dipped to 39 loans in FY2020 and 42 in FY2022, and reached 90 loans and $50.0 million in FY2025.

Floors, withheld values and the study

For FY2017 to FY2024 approvals, cancellation stands at 12.3% or more, a floor, since outcomes keep arriving. Loan Analytics withholds two values for this class because their cohorts are thin: a cancellation ceiling and the charge-off rate; neither is zero and neither can be estimated. Atlanta's boundary is the county-level delineation dated July 2023, and a loan from an unplaceable county sits outside it. A feasibility study for a quick-service restaurant in this area has to test traffic counts and drive-through or pad-site access, the franchisor's disclosed unit performance against local sales potential, construction and equipment cost against the loan range above, debt service coverage tested at $228,200, $350,000 and $600,000, and the appraisal of the property.