Financing a Cold Stone Creamery with an SBA loan
Since FY2020, 45 Cold Stone Creamery locations changed hands on an SBA 7(a) loan. Here is what those deals looked like, which lenders wrote them, and where the brand stands with the SBA.
Cold Stone Creamery franchising: coldstonefranchising.com
What a lender sees
Cold Stone Creamery is an established brand in the SBA loan file: 45 acquisitions cleared underwriting in the last five years. At the $334,000 median loan, a standard 7(a) structure puts roughly $33,400 of buyer equity into the deal at the 10 percent minimum injection, with the rest financed over ten years. The 9.75 percent median rate is the number to model your payment against.
Lenders that actually write these
The banks below approved the most Cold Stone Creamery acquisitions in the file. A lender that has funded this brand before is the fastest path through underwriting.
- Huntington National Bank11 Cold Stone Creamery loans
- Citizens Bank4 Cold Stone Creamery loans
- Bancorp Bank National Association2 Cold Stone Creamery loans
- First Bank of the Lake2 Cold Stone Creamery loans
- KEMBA Financial CU2 Cold Stone Creamery loans
SBA conditions on this brand
1. When the real estate where the franchise business is located will secure the SBA-guaranteed loan, the Lease addendum to Lease agreement and all Sublease docuemnts may not be executed. 2. Lende/CDC must ensure they obtain the correct lien position on all collateral as required pursuant to the SOP 50 10. 3. An applicant operating under an Area Representative Agreement is NOT eligible.
Every franchise the SBA will finance carries an entry in its directory, and some carry conditions like this one about how the real estate and the lease may be held. A lender has to clear these before funding, so they are worth reading before you make an offer.
Loan counts, median size, median rate, and lender ranking are computed from the SBA 7(a) FOIA file, change of ownership approvals, FY2025 to FY2026 Q3, as of June 30, 2026. Eligibility, the identifier code, and any conditions are from the SBA Franchise Directory, effective August 11, 2026. We are not affiliated with Cold Stone Creamery or its franchisor, and directory listing is not an endorsement of any individual deal. Methodology.