SBA 7(a) Restaurant Feasibility Study in Kansas

Kansas dining rooms: second in the state, far down the national list

Sit-down restaurants hold second place among Kansas asset classes at 2 of 39, yet Kansas stands only 40th among states for 7(a) loan volume in the class. That gap defines the cell. SBA approved 142 loans here between FY2017 and FY2026, amounting to $62.9 million, and the loans track the national pattern closely: the median is $245,000, a ratio of 1.00x against the nationwide 7(a) midpoint for full-service dining. Nothing about loan size distinguishes Kansas, then, but the composition does. Franchised units are 14.8% of the loans, and the central half of approvals reaches from $117,500 to $455,025.

Where the money went and who holds it

Two counties around the big metros carry the volume: Johnson with 39 loans and Sedgwick with 29, followed by Shawnee with 15 and Wyandotte with 8. Emprise Bank leads the holder list with 16 loans for $4.1 million. OakStar Bank holds only 7 loans yet they total $6.3 million, which signals a handful of large notes, and Small Business Bank also holds 7 for $1.6 million. Bank of Hays (6 loans, $2.1 million) and UMB Bank, National Association (5 loans, $4.4 million) round out the table. These holdings are as SBA lists them now; they say where paper sits and nothing about any bank's standards.

Attrition and loss

Kansas restaurants lose at least 8.5% of approvals to cancellation, and as much as 9.4% if loans still waiting to disburse are added. The funded Kansas cohort for FY2017 through FY2021 counts 52 loans, of which 3.8% are charged off so far; the five-year reading is identical. The long-run comparison is crude because open loans have not finished their life. Year-to-year approvals swing widely, from 6 in FY2018 to 23 in FY2023, and the more recent years stay elevated at 20 in FY2025 and 16 in FY2026.

Points a Kansas restaurant study has to settle

Because Kansas borrowers match the national loan size, an application cannot lean on size to look unusual; it must stand on local fundamentals. The study should map the trade area in the two metro counties separately from the smaller markets such as Ellis or Barton, where population is thin and a destination concept must pull from a wide radius. It should price the kitchen and dining room against a sales forecast built from seats, turns and check size, then show the debt payment covered after occupancy cost and labor. A sponsor asking for the upper end of the central range should document how the building will be valued by the appraiser, whether as an owner-occupied restaurant or through a lease. The operator's own track record belongs in the study as a plain, documented fact.