Quick Service Restaurant Feasibility Study in the Port St. Lucie, FL Metro Area

Counter-service restaurants near Port St. Lucie

Third among the classes in the Port St. Lucie, FL area, 3 of 39, limited-service restaurants account for 33 approved loans and gross dollars of $19.1 million, taking FY2017 to FY2026 together. Nationwide the area sits 105 of 779 for this sort of restaurant. The location quotient reads 0.92x, just under parity, so these restaurants carry about their national weight in the local book. The area's median loan is $374,000, which is 1.20x the class's national median.

Loan range, brands and counties

From $255,000 to $620,000 runs the middle half of the loans, a tighter range than most restaurant pages show: projects here fall into a similar scale with few very small or very large outliers. Franchise brands attach to 60.6% of the loans. Martin County, FL records 19 loans and St. Lucie County, FL records 14. Program counts are withheld, and no lender is named.

Three years print. FY2017 shows 5 loans and $4.9 million. FY2020 shows 0 loans and $0, so none were approved that year. FY2023 shows 9 loans and $5.4 million. Years in between and after stay out of view, and out of view is not zero. Port St. Lucie's counter-service cohort falls under the 30-loan minimum that Loan Analytics sets, so the page prints no floor for cancelled approvals and none for charge-offs.

Testing a limited-service site here

A study should prove the site, not the concept: traffic count at the hours that matter, access, visibility, and the competing sites in the same trade area. It has to test build or lease-improvement cost against a typical loan of $374,000, put franchise fees and required equipment into the cash flow, and show that the debt payment holds when sales fall below plan. Since a majority of the loans here are branded, the study should say how the chosen brand has performed for its operators in similar markets. An appraiser should be asked to value the real estate apart from the business, so that the study can show what the loan would be secured by if sales disappoint. Membership of the area follows project county as of July 2023, and a county that cannot be placed that way takes its loans out of the page.