SBA 504 Restaurant Feasibility Study in Nevada

Nevada restaurants sit second in their own state

Full-service restaurants come second of 39 among Nevada's classes under SBA 504, a commanding local position, while the state is 29 among states for the class by count. SBA recorded 33 approvals worth $33.1 million. The median of $822,000 is 1.36x the nationwide figure, so Nevada borrowers take larger loans than most; ordinary deals lie between $486,000 and $1.3 million. Franchising is 15.2%. No ratio here is an outlier against both parents.

Two metros and a handful of lenders

Nevada State Development Corporation holds 19 loans and $17.7 million, The Mortgage Capital Development Corporation 9 loans and $12.1 million, with a California-named development corporation at 5 loans and $3.4 million, per SBA's current-holder file. Clark County has 18 loans and Washoe 12, with Carson City 2 and Douglas 1, so the class is concentrated in Las Vegas and Reno. Approvals ran from 4 loans and $1.5 million in FY2017 to 5 loans and $5.9 million in FY2024 and 4 loans and $6.5 million in FY2026.

This page omits the cancellation and charge-off measures, since the underlying loans are too sparse. Reading those blanks as zero would be a mistake.

What a Nevada restaurant study must test

Nevada's restaurant demand comes from residents and from visitors, and the mix differs between a strip-adjacent site, a casino-corridor location and a neighbourhood. A study should split revenue between local and tourist demand and test how sensitive it is to visitation swings. Since 504 finances fixed assets, begin with the property: price or build cost, kitchen and dining fit-out, parking and the lease on any land. Labour is both a large cost and a scarce one, and the model should show wage and turnover assumptions. Rent or ownership cost, food cost and payroll should be set against sales per seat from comparable restaurants, with a case in which opening months run below plan. Coverage must carry the senior bank note and the development company's second piece alike. Valuing a Nevada site means weighing a restaurant building against the business inside it, and the study should state what value remains if the operator leaves.

Nevada's cell holds 33 approvals, enough that a lender will have seen similar files. The study should stand out through detail: local resident counts, visitor counts if the site relies on them, a labour plan, and a clear statement of the ownership structure of land and building.