Quick Service Restaurant Feasibility Study in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metro Area

Quick service restaurant lending in Boston

Boston holds 452 approved quick-service restaurant loans in the FY2017 to FY2026 file, worth $132.4 million gross. Among metro and micro areas nationwide, Boston ranks 6 of 779 for this class, and inside the area the class ranks 2 of 39. A ratio of 0.90x on the location quotient puts limited-service restaurants at a smaller weight in Boston than the national mix. The central half of loans stretches from $62,975 to $371,250. At $150,000, the Boston median sits below the national class median, a ratio of 0.48x.

The Boston lender and program record

Within 504 lending, the largest holder is Granite State Economic Development Corporation, with 24 loans; Bay Colony Development Corporation comes next at 10. The 7(a) holders for limited-service restaurants are led as follows: the largest holder is Eastern Bank, with 71 loans and $10.5 million; TD Bank, National Association comes next at 27, and Santander Bank, National Association is third at 23. The franchise share of Boston loans is 18.6%. Borrowers of quick-service restaurants in Boston used 7(a) 406 times and 504 46 times, which shows which program carried most of the loans. In SBA's records every loan carries a current holder, so the Boston lenders above are who hold them today; this says nothing of any bank's lending practice.

Place and timing for fast food and counter-service restaurants

Project counties rank Middlesex County, MA first (117), Essex County, MA next (84) and Suffolk County, MA third (76). By year, FY2025 is the high mark for quick-service restaurants in Boston (66 loans, $26.3 million) and FY2020 the low (33 loans, $8.8 million).

Rates that can only rise for quick-service restaurants

Of 187 quick-service restaurant loans in Boston in the disbursed cohort of FY2017 to FY2021, 8.6% were charged off by the data cut, again a floor; Loan Analytics withholds the five-year rate. Looking at cancellations, Boston fast food and counter-service restaurants record 12.2%, a floor, for approvals of FY2017 to FY2024; 13.9% is the ceiling once undisbursed approvals are included. Every quick-service restaurant loan here is assigned by its project county, and the county is paired by name with the July 2023 areas; Boston therefore leaves out approvals with a county that does not match.

What a fast food and counter-service restaurants study must settle in Boston

Demand is where a study begins if quick-service restaurants are being weighed for Boston: drive-through and walk-in counts, plus delivery platforms and commissions. A file of 452 approvals is context, not evidence for a particular address. Then, Boston fast food and counter-service restaurants require a coverage ratio that remains adequate through a late opening, for the record, since the cancellation and charge-off floors show that not every approved loan performs. SBA and the bank, not the analysis, decide; the study's job in Boston is to test whether limited-service restaurants there can carry the debt. On cost, drive-through lane work and remodel and refresh duties belong in the budget for limited-service restaurants, which is then read beside the $62,975 to $371,250 range lenders in Boston have funded. Last, the appraisal of a Boston site for limited-service restaurants should address leasehold value on a short term, along with sales per site against system.