Restaurant Feasibility Study in the Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI Metro Area

Milwaukee: larger loans than the class norm

Milwaukee puts sit-down restaurants first among its 39 classes, with 196 loans and gross dollars of $116.9 million between FY2017 and FY2026. Against 821 areas it is 35th for the class, while 1.02x as a location quotient tracks the national share closely. The distinctive number is size: a median of $462,500, or 1.68x the nationwide class midpoint, inside quartiles of $172,750 and $776,250. Restaurants here borrow substantially more than the class does in the typical market, even though they are no more common than elsewhere.

A strong 504 channel

The program split is 153 loans under SBA 7(a) and 43 under SBA 504. In the 504 table WBD, Inc. stands alone with 38 loans worth $24.2 million, a concentration that a borrower planning a property purchase should note. For 7(a), SBA lists Byline Bank with 16 loans worth $19.8 million, U.S. Bank, National Association with 13 worth $3.8 million, Old National Bank with 12 worth $10.5 million, then the Wisconsin Women's Business Initiative Corporation, 10 loans at $1.4 million, and Waukesha State Bank, 9 loans at $3.4 million. Names appear as SBA records the current or past holder of each loan, with no statement about practice.

Independents, counties and the years

Franchised stores account for only 8.7% of loans. Milwaukee County has 107 loans, Waukesha 61, Ozaukee 16 and Washington 12. Approvals dipped to 10 loans and $5.7 million in FY2021 and reached 28 loans and $24.7 million in FY2025, the largest dollar year in the series.

Milwaukee floors

On FY2017 to FY2024 approvals, cancellations stand at 10.9% or more, a floor. Two figures, a ceiling on cancellations and a rate of charge-offs, stay out of the Milwaukee table for lack of loans, and out is not zero. A loan lands in this area when its project county name matches the 2023 map. Because loan size is the cell's distinctive trait, a study for a restaurant in Milwaukee should test whether the concept justifies a loan nearer the upper quartile, including seat count, build-out or purchase cost, seasonality, debt service coverage and the appraisal. It should not assume a typical small restaurant request.