SBA 7(a) Coffee Shop Feasibility Study in Pennsylvania

A baseline for Pennsylvania coffee

This page reads Pennsylvania coffee shops and snack bars as a baseline. The files for FY2017 to FY2026 hold 272 SBA 7(a) loans, $73.5 million gross. At $171,000 the median loan is 0.76x the national benchmark for coffee shops, and half of the loans fall from $50,000 to $353,750. The state is 7 in the national order, the class is 7 of 39 inside Pennsylvania, and franchise brands hold 36.8% of loans.

Lenders and places

Most active is Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company, 38 loans and $4.8 million, then The Huntington National Bank at 32 and $4.7 million, TD Bank, National Association at 28 and $2.5 million, KeyBank National Association at 20 and $6.7 million, with Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB last at 15 loans and $7.4 million. Here the lender names reflect SBA's holder field only. Allegheny County has 63 loans and Philadelphia 38, with Montgomery at 24, Bucks at 15, Chester and York at 12, Delaware at 11, Northampton at 10, Berks at 8 and Westmoreland at 7. Pittsburgh's county leads the state in count, ahead of Philadelphia itself. Volume stayed in the teens and twenties until FY2024, then rose to 47 and to 53 in FY2025, before 32 in FY2026.

Where loans fell away

Cancellation is at least 8.0% for the FY2017 to FY2024 group and at most 8.6%. Of 90 loans funded in FY2017 to FY2021, 6.7% have been charged off to date, against 2.2% inside five years. The gap between the two indicates that some of the losses arrived after the first five years, and open loans may still fail, so each figure is a floor.

What a Pennsylvania coffee shop study has to test

A coffee shop in Pennsylvania is a location business, so the study begins with foot and vehicle traffic: commuters, hospital and university workers, shoppers, and the other cafes within a few blocks. In Pittsburgh and Philadelphia neighborhoods, walk-up volume matters most; in suburbs, drive-through access and parking do. Seasonality is real, so show monthly sales. Brand choice shapes costs, because franchise units pay royalties and advertising fees from sales, and independent shops carry their own marketing burden. List build-out, equipment and opening inventory against a median of $171,000, and compare the lease term with the payback period. The debt must be serviceable in a weak first year, and the appraiser will mostly value the business.