Quick Service Restaurant Feasibility Study in the Duluth, MN-WI Metro Area

A small-ticket quick-service pattern

At $150,000, Duluth's median limited-service restaurant loan is 0.48x the national median for the class, but we do not flag it as distinctive, because no metric in this cell passed that test. The middle half runs only $75,000 to $300,000. Over FY2017 to FY2026 the metro shows 33 loans and $8.6 million, with the class second among 39 in the metro. Duluth sits at 105 of 779 areas ranked by these loans, and its location quotient of 1.39x says quick-service restaurants weigh more in its SBA lending than in the national book.

Brands, holders and counties

Franchise affiliation is 42.4% of loans. Northeast Entrepreneur Fund, Inc. appears among the current 7(a) holders as SBA reports them, with 14 loans worth $1.2 million; this is a holding record and carries no view of the fund's lending. St. Louis County, MN contributes 28 of the loans and Douglas County, WI 5, which is why the metro name carries two states. The program split stays off this page; a count that small would be too thin to print.

What the years show

FY2018 has 8 loans at $1.8 million, FY2021 has 8 at $1.3 million, and FY2026, a full fiscal year, has none, printing 0 loans and $0. Remaining years among the 33 hold too few loans to print; none is a zero. Neither outcome rate prints for Duluth, whose FY2017 to FY2021 cohort misses the 30-loan bar.

Testing a Duluth quick-service project

With a middle half topping out at $300,000, most projects here are equipment, signage and leasehold work, sometimes with a franchise fee. A study should test traffic counts at the proposed site, the check average and daily transactions needed to carry debt service, and how a franchise's royalty and marketing charges change the break-even point. It should also show what happens if the first year opens below plan. A site on either side of the state line is handled alike, because the July 2023 delineation ties each loan to the metro through its project county. Nothing here suggests an application would be approved, and the page makes no prediction about any particular request.