SBA 7(a) Restaurant Feasibility Study in Colorado

Full-service restaurants head Colorado's list of classes at 1 of 39, and Colorado is placed 13 on the 7(a) ladder for the class. FY2017 to FY2026 brought 688 approvals worth $398.1 million. What this program view adds is size: the $336,750 median reaches 1.37x the 7(a) national mark, with notes from $124,500 to $710,850 forming the middle half. Only 10.2% of loans are franchised, so Colorado borrowers are mostly independents.

Holders and counties

Among holders, The Huntington National Bank has 83 loans worth $22.4 million; KeyBank National Association 53 worth $25.7 million; U.S. Bank, National Association 40 worth $5.8 million; JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association 32 worth $10.3 million; and Newtek Bank, National Association 29 worth $19.2 million. Dollars per loan differ sharply among them. The figures are SBA records of loans held, with no view of lender practice. Denver County leads the counties on 122 loans, then El Paso on 94, Arapahoe 93, Boulder 54, Jefferson 53 and Douglas 50, while Summit County has 16 loans.

Approvals and losses by year

FY2020 had 40 loans at $23.2 million and FY2021 only 48. Volume then rose to 81 loans in FY2023, 84 loans and $54.6 million in FY2024, and 104 loans and $57.9 million in FY2025, the high point. Of the FY2017 to FY2024 approvals, 13.3% or more were cancelled, a share that becomes 14.7% on the broader count. Of 262 Colorado loans disbursed in FY2017 to FY2021, 5.0% at least are charged off and 2.7% were written off within five years. Floors like these can climb as open loans age.

Questions for a Colorado study

A study should show that a full-service concept can fill seats at the check average the loan requires. It should compare the neighborhood's competition and the mix of residents, commuters and visitors, test seasonality for the site, and map kitchen and liquor-license timelines. With a median well above the national mark, cost control matters, so the project should be divided into leasehold improvements, equipment and working capital. Debt service coverage belongs on a ramp period, not a stabilized year one, and any property should be appraised on its own, apart from the business. SBA alone defines program limits; none is restated on this page.