Restaurant Feasibility Study in the Portland-South Portland, ME Metro Area

Restaurants and the Maine coast

Restaurants lead the Portland-South Portland record: 180 loans in FY2017 to FY2026, $65.0 million gross, class rank 1 of 39 locally and area rank 37 of 821 nationally. The location quotient is 1.75x, strong over-representation that tells us the class matters more here than in the average market. Cumberland County has 90 loans, York County 85 and Sagadahoc County 5.

Loans are modest: the median of $200,000 is 0.73x the national class median, lower quartile $79,000, upper quartile $484,000. The program split is unusually balanced, with 130 loans under 7(a) and 50 under 504, which suggests real-estate-backed projects play a larger part than in most restaurant cells. The franchise share is withheld, so we state none.

Savings banks and regional names

Banks: Bangor Savings Bank (40 loans, $6.2 million); TD Bank, National Association (20 loans, $6.8 million); Kennebunk Savings Bank (13 loans, $4.1 million); KeyBank National Association (6 loans, $1.4 million); Bath Savings Institution (5 loans, $1.7 million). Regional savings institutions appear alongside national names, and Bangor Savings Bank carries twice the loans of TD Bank, National Association yet fewer dollars than it does, a sign of smaller average loans. No development company is listed here. These are SBA records of holdings, not a statement of any lender's present standards.

Outcome floors

Maine restaurants show a cancellation floor of 9.2% after approval. SBA holds back the matching ceiling and any charge-off rate for Portland, so neither value is printed, none is zero, and nothing is estimated in its place. The lack of a loss figure means a lender cannot lean on this record for downside evidence; the study has to build the downside case from the project's own sales, seasonality and cost structure.

A study for a Maine restaurant has to test seasonality, since the calendar of sales may swing the year, staffing in a tight labor market, the lease terms or the cost of owning the building, and coverage at a loan near $200,000. With 130 loans under 7(a) and 50 under 504, it should also explain whether the project buys its building, and how the Cumberland County and York County trade areas differ. Cumberland, York and Sagadahoc restaurant loans enter the 180 only when the July 2023 delineation recognises the project county; a Maine loan whose county fails the match is dropped from all metros, so treat the total as a minimum.