Restaurant Feasibility Study in the Lexington-Fayette, KY Metro Area

Lexington-Fayette: dining rooms first of 39

Full-service restaurants take 1 of 39 in the Lexington-Fayette, KY class list that SBA's file shows, though the area itself sits at 152 of 821. Adding FY2017 to FY2026 together gives Lexington-Fayette 29 loans and $13.7 million. The class carries a location quotient of 0.74x here, and Lexington-Fayette's median of $350,000 equals 1.27x the national median. Loans in the middle half range between $50,000 and $603,600, a very wide band, and franchise units are 24.1% of the loans, so most of the record is independent.

The Huntington National Bank appears as holder of 5 loans carrying $743,000. Fayette County holds 23 of the 29 loans, so a site in a neighbouring county has less direct precedent here. How Lexington-Fayette loans divide by program is not shown.

Years

FY2017 shows 5 loans worth $3.2 million, FY2020 shows 0 loans and $0, and FY2022 shows 5 loans worth $2.4 million. Fiscal years absent for Lexington-Fayette had too few loans. With fewer than 30 loans in Lexington-Fayette's cohort, no rate is published.

The zero in FY2020 deserves a note: it is a printed value, so Lexington-Fayette recorded no full-service restaurant loans that year in this file, while FY2017 and FY2022 each recorded 5. A reader should not build a story around those few points. What the page does support is that loans cluster in Fayette County, that the median runs 1.27x the national figure, and that the class is first among Lexington-Fayette's classes, which is enough for a lender to place a request, and it leaves the rest to the borrower's own evidence on rent, parking and staffing.

Fitting a Lexington restaurant inside a very wide band

The unusually wide middle half, spanning $50,000 to $603,600, means these loans cover everything from a small counter operation to a substantial dining room, so the median alone is a thin guide and a lender cannot size a request from it. The plan should state where it falls within that band and why, test sales per seat and the average check against payroll, food cost and occupancy, and show the months to steady sales. Since most comparable loans went to independents, a concept built on a brand should explain what the brand adds.