SBA 7(a) Restaurant Feasibility Study in Oklahoma

A close match to the national picture

Oklahoma full-service restaurants sit very near the national 7(a) norm. At $240,000 the median loan is 0.98x the figure for restaurants of this kind nationally under 7(a), with the central half of tickets from $110,000 to $517,500. The program approved 227 loans from FY2017 to FY2026, worth $89.1 million, which puts the state 30 among states while the class leads the state at 1 of 39. Franchise brands took 16.7%. What follows is a plain record of the cell.

BancFirst and the field

BancFirst has 53 loans worth $29.0 million, far above Security Bank with 15 loans and $9.4 million, Arvest Bank with 13, First State Bank with 10 and First Oklahoma Bank with 8 worth $3.9 million. The entries are SBA's field for the current holder of each loan; they say nothing about how any bank approaches restaurants. Tulsa County has 69 loans and Oklahoma County 60, well ahead of Cleveland with 14, Canadian with 12 and Wagoner with 7, which leaves those two counties holding the bulk of the book.

Outcomes and floors

Cancellations reached 7.8% of approvals through FY2024 at minimum, and the same share when undisbursed loans are counted. In the funded cohort of 111 loans, the floor on charged-off loans to date is 4.5%, yet just 0.90% inside five years of approval, meaning the bulk of the charge-offs to date arrived later than the opening half decade. Both are floors. Volume was 31 loans in FY2017, 17 in FY2021, 32 loans worth $19.4 million in FY2022, and 17 in FY2026, a complete fiscal year.

Testing an Oklahoma restaurant

A study should begin with the corridor: daily traffic counts, anchors that bring diners, and the number of full-service competitors already within a short drive. It must test average check against food and labour cost, seasonal swings, and the alcohol-licensing rules that affect revenue. At a median near $240,000 the kitchen and finish-out take much of the money, so contingency matters. Debt service coverage should hold when sales run below plan for a stretch of quarters, and the later-year charge-offs argue for a reserve past the opening months. An appraiser will value the going concern, though the report should explain how sales were built up from covers, check average and operating days, since a restaurant with no trading history has little else to show.