Quick Service Restaurant Feasibility Study in Georgia

Fast food is a core Georgia SBA class

Limited-service restaurants are 2 of 39 asset classes in Georgia SBA lending, and at a location quotient of 1.49x they hold a clearly larger share of Georgia loans than of loans nationwide. Among states, Georgia sits 6 of 54 for quick service loans, with 935 approvals worth $538.7 million between FY2017 and FY2026. The busiest Georgia year was FY2025, with 127 approvals carrying $74.2 million.

On median, cancellation and charge-off, Georgia quick service stays inside our distinctness margin, measured against Georgia's all-asset lending and against fast food lending nationally. The Georgia median, $383,000, is 1.23x the national class median. What is notable is how tightly the loans cluster: the middle half ran from $234,500 to $667,500, consistent with a market built on franchise units of similar format. Franchise concepts take 62.9% of Georgia loans in the class.

Programs and lenders

SBA 7(a) carried 859 Georgia approvals and SBA 504 carried 76. The Huntington National Bank holds 100 of them today, for $35.7 million, and Metro City Bank 62, followed by SouthState Bank, National Association with 29, United Community Bank with 28 and Live Oak Banking Company with 26 worth $25.6 million, a book of noticeably larger loans. Capital Partners Certified Development Company leads Georgia's 504 lending in the class with 24 loans worth $26.1 million, and Small Business Access Partners, Inc. holds 20.

Georgia's floors describe a class that loses some deals before closing and some after. Of Georgia quick service approvals in FY2017 to FY2024, 12.8% or more were cancelled, with 13.8% as the ceiling. In the Georgia funding cohort of FY2017 to FY2021, 402 loans, charge-offs have reached 5.2% to date, and 3.0% within five years of approval.

What a Georgia quick service study has to test

Demand for a quick service unit is a site question: traffic counts, access, visibility and the nearby units of the same and competing brands, in counties led by Fulton with 160 approvals, Gwinnett with 136, DeKalb with 70 and Cobb with 69. Cost must cover the brand's prototype build and any ground lease or land purchase. Debt service coverage should be tested after royalties and advertising contributions, at sales the brand's own nearby Georgia units support, and the appraisal should be read against a second-generation restaurant sale in case the concept fails at that site.