Restaurant Feasibility Study in the Columbia, SC Metro Area

What distinguishes Columbia is the cancellation floor: across the FY2017 to FY2024 vintages it is 25.0%, a figure well above what most restaurant markets show, and the stricter variant is hidden. A quotient of 1.07x sits close to parity, restaurants head the area's own list, and the area ranks 98 in a field of 821 for them.

Loan sizes and programs

The file lists 52 approvals for $32.6 million between FY2017 and FY2026. Restaurants here carry a $350,000 median, 1.27x the nation's for the class, with central loans between $195,000 and $765,000. 7(a) provides 47 loans and 504 only 5, and franchise units are 9.6% of loans. Richland County, SC accounts for 25 loans. The Huntington National Bank is the single lender named, with 5 loans and $745,000, a small presence in a book that is otherwise unconcentrated. Because so few rows are visible, the page cannot say whether cancellations clustered in particular years.

Years, and what stays hidden

FY2017 shows 7 loans and $3.1 million. After a gap, FY2023 shows 8 loans and $4.0 million, FY2024 9 loans and $4.7 million, FY2025 8 loans and $7.3 million and FY2026 8 loans and $6.7 million, a rising dollar trend over the later years shown. The FY2018 through FY2022 rows are hidden, as is the charge-off rate. Hidden is not zero, and those years may well include busy ones.

What a Columbia restaurant study should test

The floor deserves a direct answer. A study should ask why approvals fail to close or are later cancelled in this market, which can reflect site control, construction delay, permitting or a sponsor's financing falling through, and then show that the project has those risks covered. Site control and lease terms, a realistic construction schedule and a contingency belong in the cost test, with the build-out set beside the $350,000 median. Trade-area work should count competing seats near the university, the state government district and the suburban corridors. Stress the loan payment on a slow ramp, and let the appraisal should separate business and property value. A lender reading a 25.0% floor will want evidence of the operator's prior record. Metro membership follows the July 2023 map.