Restaurant Feasibility Study in the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ Metro Area

Restaurants first, at 68th nationally

Restaurants head the list of classes in the Allentown-Bethlehem area, 1 of 39, while the area itself sits 68 of 821 nationally for sit-down restaurants. The record counts 77 loans from FY2017 to FY2026, $42.9 million gross. The location quotient is 1.19x, above the national share. Northampton County, PA has 34 loans and Lehigh County, PA has 28.

Loans are mid-sized: a $400,000 median is 1.45x the national figure, and the quartile edges fall at $50,000 and $850,000. The wide spread, from $50,000 up, shows both tiny concepts and large rooms. Programs: 70 loans carry the 7(a) label and 7 the 504 label. The franchise share is 7.8%, so independents predominate.

Holders

TD Bank, National Association has 11 loans and $4.3 million. Beacon Bank and Trust has 7 loans and $9.4 million, a big dollar total for its count. KeyBank National Association has 6 loans and $1.6 million; Newtek Bank, National Association has 5 and $1.1 million; PNC Bank, National Association has 5 and $284,900. No development company reaches the threshold. These rows are SBA records of holdings, and they do not describe a lender's criteria.

Cancellation and the missing loss rate

Cancelled approvals total at least 15.3% through FY2024, and the same 15.3% when undisbursed loans are counted. Charge-offs have no printed rate for this cell, along with several yearly values, and the absence is not a zero. With cancellation at that level, a lender may reasonably ask for a signed lease first.

Northampton County, PA contributes 34 loans and Lehigh County, PA 28, and the metro name also reaches into New Jersey, though no New Jersey county appears among the listed ones. A restaurant on the Bethlehem side faces a different customer base from one on the Allentown side, and a study should say which applies, along with parking, competing rooms and the building's age and condition, since an older building can carry surprises in build-out cost.

A restaurant study should test the corridor and its traffic, rent against projected sales, labor, seasonality, and coverage on a request near $400,000. Only Northampton and Lehigh restaurants are in the 77, because those counties are named in the July 2023 delineation; a restaurant in a county that fails the lookup is not counted, so 77 is a minimum.