Restaurant Feasibility Study in Idaho

Idaho's top class, yet underweight

Full-service restaurants are the most common SBA borrower in Idaho, first of Idaho's classes at 1 of 39, with 205 approvals worth $99.4 million in FY2017 through FY2026. The Idaho location quotient complicates the picture: at 0.64x, Idaho's dining rooms draw a thinner share of SBA money than the class does nationwide, and Idaho ranks 37 of 54 for the class nationally. A typical Idaho restaurant loan is $306,000, 1.11x the national full-service median, with the quartiles at $75,000 and $605,000. No Idaho gauge clears our screen: on size, cancellation and losses, Idaho restaurants stay within the margin of Idaho lending overall or of the class nationally.

SBA 504 carried 36 Idaho restaurant approvals, a sizable building-ownership share, and 7(a) the other 169. Capital Matrix, Inc. holds 19 of the 504 loans worth $14.3 million, and Region IV Development Corporation and Panhandle Area Council, Inc. hold 6 apiece. Among 7(a) holders, Zions Bancorporation, National Association has 21 loans worth $5.0 million, while Glacier Bank's 18 come to $9.8 million and Idaho Central CU's 12 to $9.6 million, both books financing larger restaurants; U.S. Bank, National Association has 12 that total only $1.8 million, and 10 sit with Wells Fargo Bank National Association. Franchises are 7.8% of the count, so this is overwhelmingly an independent restaurant book.

Closings hold; some loans fail

Idaho restaurant deals rarely fall apart before funding: 6.9% of Idaho approvals from FY2017 through FY2024 ended cancelled, and adding the undisbursed ones leaves that ceiling at 6.9%. Losses are the larger concern. Of the 87 Idaho dining loans that disbursed in the FY2017 to FY2021 window, 4.6% have been charged off to date and 3.4% before the fifth year; both are floors. Volume has risen, from 12 approvals in FY2020 to 26 in FY2024 with 23 apiece in FY2025 and FY2026.

What an Idaho restaurant study must test

Ada County holds 67 approvals, Kootenai 29 and Canyon 19, and smaller markets such as Bonner at 13 and Blaine at 9 also appear. A feasibility study for an Idaho restaurant has to test covers per day by daypart and season against the restaurants already serving the trade area, with any visitor-driven swing measured from actual data rather than assumed. Kitchen equipment, hood and fire suppression and the build-out should be priced at current bids, plus opening inventory and payroll. For debt service coverage, use food and labor costs at local rates and a first year that does not reach the stabilized check average. For a 504 loan, the appraisal must value the building as a restaurant for the next operator and as general retail. Idaho's full-service restaurant code is clean: no limitation, no shared code.