Quick Service Restaurant Feasibility Study in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metro Area

Quick service along Tampa Bay

Franchises carry most of this cell. Of the 264 quick-service restaurant loans SBA approved around Tampa and St. Petersburg in FY2017 through FY2026, a franchise share of 65.2% carries the flag, and the gross total is $140.0 million. Locally the class is 2 of 39; nationally the area is 16 of 779. A location quotient of 1.12x says the class is a little heavier here than in the national book. Hillsborough County accounts for 117 loans and Pinellas County for 95.

A median of $350,000 sits at 1.13x the class median nationwide. The lower quartile sits at $250,000 and the upper quartile at $537,175, and a study should explain where a project falls relative to that band.

Program mix and holders

Loans split 234 under 7(a) and 30 under 504. Banks: The Huntington National Bank (34 loans, $8.8 million); Valley National Bank (21 loans, $13.2 million); Bank Five Nine (13 loans, $12.6 million); DFCU Financial (10 loans, $9.5 million); TD Bank, National Association ($1.0 million across 10 loans). Development companies on 504: Florida Business Development Corporation (14 loans, $15.0 million); Independent Development Services Corporation (6 loans, $8.9 million).

Treat the names as history. They show which institutions hold or held SBA-backed loans in the Tampa Bay area; they do not state any institution's current standards, and nothing in this record says a lender will say yes.

What happens after approval

Tampa cancellations total at least 15.7%; the version adding undisbursed loans is held back. Charge-offs have a floor of 7.5% on a cohort of 93 disbursed loans; the five-year figure is held back too, and no zero is implied. Franchised concepts bring brand-set costs, so the study has to test the franchise agreement's fees and royalties inside the debt service coverage ratio, the site's traffic count and drive-through potential, and the competing units within the trade area.

Placement matters for these totals. A study for a Hillsborough or Pinellas site should add its own traffic data, since SBA files hold none, and should model the franchisor's required remodel cycle inside the coverage ratio. Hillsborough and Pinellas counties carry the 264 quick-service loans, both present in the delineation OMB published in July 2023; a loan whose county failed to match is absent from all metros, so 264 is a floor.