Quick Service Restaurant Feasibility Study in the Ocala, FL Metro Area

Ocala's quick-service loans are unusually large

Ocala, FL stands apart on loan size: its $800,000 median for limited-service restaurants is 2.57x the national median for the class. No other metric on the page is given that label, so the remaining ratios are plain description. The central half of loans runs from $523,000 to $1.5 million. The files hold 27 loans for $28.2 million from FY2017 to FY2026, all in Marion County, the only county named. Quick-service restaurants rank first of 39 locally; across areas Ocala is 125 of 779; and a location quotient of 1.63x is above the national share.

Brands, programs and one holder

Franchise affiliation is 74.1% of loans. Ocala restaurants hold 22 loans in the 7(a) program and 5 in the 504 program, so they here lean on the working-capital program even at these loan sizes. SBA shows The Huntington National Bank as holder of 5 loans worth $1.5 million; the entry describes holdings, not lending practice. FY2020 and FY2022 are zero years, printing 0 loans and $0, and FY2023 prints 5 loans and $2.7 million. Remaining years sit below the display line and are not zeros.

Rates withheld

Ocala's FY2017 to FY2021 group is below the 30-loan requirement of Loan Analytics' own rule, so cancellation and charge-off do not print. Read the gap as silence, not as praise or criticism of Marion County's restaurants.

What an Ocala quick-service study has to test

The size of these loans means the study has to explain what the money buys. An $800,000 median points to something larger than a leased conversion, so the study should state whether the project owns the real estate and show the property's cost separately from the operating business. It must then test transactions per day against traffic at the exact site, drive-through capacity, the check average, labor and occupancy, and show debt service coverage after franchise royalties and advertising charges, which matter when 74.1% of loans are branded. Because the loan is large, a slow first year should be shown explicitly. The county of the project places each loan in the metro, and the page implies no approval.