Restaurant Feasibility Study in the Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA Metro Area

Spokane: first among classes, near the national mix

Full-service restaurants head the Spokane-Spokane Valley list of asset classes, 1 of 39, with 65 loans and $30.6 million in gross dollars through the whole FY2017 to FY2026 window. Yet a location quotient of 0.98x indicates the class weighs about what it does nationally, and the metro as a whole stands 84 of 821 for restaurant loans. Nothing here suggests a restaurant boom. The sharper difference is ticket size, where the median of $350,000 stands at 1.27x the national median for the class, so Spokane borrowers who take SBA money for a sit-down restaurant borrow somewhat more than their national peers do.

Lenders, programs and franchises

Spokane's middle half runs from $135,000 up to $602,000. Counting by program gives 60 loans for 7(a) and 5 for 504, and franchise units are 9.2% of loans, so independents carry the class. Washington Trust Bank leads the 7(a) holder table with 10 loans worth $7.6 million, a large average that points to sizeable projects; Banner Bank follows with 6 worth $465,000 and RiverBank (WA) with 5 worth $1.7 million. These are holder records kept by SBA, not endorsements. The wide gap between the dollars attached to the first two names is a reminder that a count of loans says little about the size of the loans.

FY2025 was the busiest year shown, at 13 loans worth $5.0 million. Other counts that can be printed: 6 loans in FY2018 ($785,000), 8 in FY2019 ($3.7 million), 6 in FY2022 ($3.7 million), 8 in FY2023 ($2.2 million), 6 in FY2024 ($4.0 million) and 8 in FY2026 ($4.3 million). FY2017, FY2020 and FY2021 do not appear because too few loans lie behind them; that is disclosure discipline, not evidence of an empty year. The two outcome percentages are left off for the same reason, so none should be guessed. Spokane's membership in this metro rests on each loan's county, set against the 2023 area list.

Tests for a Spokane restaurant plan

A study for a restaurant here should build its case from local comparables, because the typical Spokane ticket sits above the national middle and needs support. It should test the trade area's customer base and seasonality, the lease or purchase terms against realistic sales, the cost of kitchen and dining room, and whether debt service is covered when opening months run soft. With few franchise units in the record, an independent concept must show its own operating discipline, ideally with the operator's history. The appraisal will treat the restaurant as a business as well as a building, so the forecast needs documents behind it. Nothing printed promises a particular answer.