San Francisco Liquor Licenses For Sale

Across the 30 San Francisco licenses on our book the median ask is $205,000, inside a range of $15,000 to $350,000. The class is what moves it: a Type 47 eating-place license runs a $232,500 median, a Type 21 off-sale $175,000, and the single Type 20 sits at $15,000 . The price is for the license alone, no premises, no fixtures, no goodwill, and completing costs about $8,045 on top.

Because supply is fixed by statute rather than by demand. California limits on-sale general licenses (Types 47 and 48) and off-sale general licenses (Type 21) against county population, and San Francisco has been over both ceilings for decades. No new originals are issued here, so the only route in is to buy an existing one. A class that sits outside the quota is cheap for exactly the same reason, in reverse: the Type 20 on this book asks $15,000.

A median of the time it takes , from accepted offer to a license issued in your name. Thirty of those days are the statutory posting period at the premises and cannot be compressed by anyone. The figure assumes your address is already cleared for the use, if your Neighborhood Commercial District requires Conditional Use Authorization from San Francisco Planning, add three to five months for that track, running on its own calendar.

The whole price. This catches out buyers who have done a transfer in another state. California requires the full consideration for a license transfer to be placed with a licensed escrow holder before the Department will approve it, and it is released to the seller only when the license issues. There is no 10% down and no balance on completion, the money sits in escrow for the length of the process.

Both permit beer, wine and distilled spirits for consumption on the premises. A Type 47 is tied to a bona fide eating place: a real kitchen serving real meals, and if the food operation stops the license is at risk. A Type 48 is a public premises license with no food obligation at all, and the trade-off is that nobody under 21 may enter and remain, which closes off families, all-ages events and most daytime food trade. Pick on the room you intend to run, not on the price.

No, and this is the single most common way a San Francisco Type 47 gets into trouble. The eating-place obligation is continuing, not a box ticked at application: meals have to be prepared and served on the premises whenever the license is being exercised, with the kitchen and the seating to support them. A room that drifts into trading as a bar with a warming cabinet is a room with an exposed license. If the concept is drinks-led after nine, look at a Type 48 and price in what the under-21 rule costs you.

Inside the county, usually yes. A premises-to-premises transfer needs ABC approval and a fresh 30-day posting, and the new address has to clear San Francisco Planning on its own account. Moving a quota license out of San Francisco County is generally not available, the quota is counted county by county, which is why you buy in the county you intend to trade in.

Both, and that is why this is one page rather than two. San Francisco is a consolidated city and county: the city and the county are the same jurisdiction with the same boundary and the same quota. A “San Francisco city” license and a “San Francisco County” license are the same thing.

Often, yes, and it is the step that sets the timetable. ABC handles the license. San Francisco Planning handles whether an alcohol use is permitted at your address, and in many Neighborhood Commercial Districts a new or changed alcohol use needs Conditional Use Authorization from the Planning Commission. Some districts restrict off-sale licenses further still. The Police Department’s alcohol liaison also reviews on-sale applications. Tell us the address before you sign a lease, not after.

Because the seller is almost always still trading. Publishing the license number, the licensee of record, the trading name or the address tells their staff, their landlord, their suppliers and the operator across the street that the business is for sale. In a city this size a neighborhood alone would do it, which is why we do not publish that either, every listing here says San Francisco and stops. The full file is released to a qualified buyer under a mutual NDA, at no charge, within one business day.

No. Our commission is our fee, quoted in writing before we start, paid by the seller at closing. There is no buyer-side commission, no registration fee, no charge for the confidential file and no charge for a lender introduction. You will pay your own counsel, the escrow holder, ABC and the publisher of the notice, about $8,045 in total, and nothing to us.

Not at the moment, nothing in either class is on the San Francisco book today. Both classes have a page here anyway, because we do the other half of this job: we file new applications with the ABC and see them through. Tell us what you are opening and we will tell you whether the answer is to apply or to buy, and handle whichever it turns out to be.