Verified — real FDD extraction
Not found in the SBA Franchise Directory under this name — though SBA loans to its franchisees exist; verify eligibility with your lender
COSTA VIDA FRESH MEXICAN GRILL
Food & Dining · independent · est. —
Costa Vida is a fast-casual restaurant serving fresh Baja-style Mexican food such as burritos, tacos, salads, and bowls made to order. A franchisee runs a restaurant with an assembly-line ordering format, managing kitchen prep, line staff, and daily operations.
COSTA VIDA FRESH MEXICAN GRILL net unit count grew 0.0% from 2021–2023 per its FDD Item 20.
New to franchising? Start here
A franchise is a business where you (the franchisee) pay a company (the franchisor) for the right to open and run a location using their brand and system — think a local Anytime Fitness or Taco John's owned by a small-business owner, not the corporation.
Before you can buy in, U.S. law requires the franchisor to give you a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) — a long legal filing covering its fees, finances, and history. The numbers on this page come straight from that document:
- Franchise fee — the one-time cost to buy in.
- Royalty — the ongoing cut of your sales you pay the franchisor.
- Item 20 — how many locations opened and closed, the basis for our verdict (from Proven & strong down to Distressed — or Too new to judge).
The verdict
Proven & strong
Distress
Enough units and history to judge, and the record is good: growing or stable units with clean exits by the standards of its disclosed record. The standout in the record: owner turnover is low.
Exit rate · latest year
5.4%
vs 8.6% across 137 food & dining systems
Cost to open
$660K–$1.3M
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
9.1%
22 loans resolved — directional only
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
3-yr trend · Item 20 Table 1
terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3
transfers vs. base · Table 3
actual vs. projected openings · Table 5
Item 19 disclosure + completeness
Systemwide units
2021–2023
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2023, 3 of 56 franchised outlets left the system — a 5.4% annualized exit rate, vs 8.6% across 137 food & dining systems. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 94 | 91 | 93 |
| Opened | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Transfers | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Terminations | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Outlets at end | 91 | 93 | 91 |
| Net change | -3 | +2 | -2 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 33 SBA-backed loans to COSTA VIDA FRESH MEXICAN GRILL franchisees since 2005. Only 22 have resolved so far — too thin for a reliable default rate, but 2 of them charged off.
—
22 resolved · too thin to rate
—
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
—
default rate × loss severity
$692,183
what recent franchisees borrowed
39 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
3 vs 10
distinct banks — pulling back
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
Loan performance by state
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO COSTA VIDA FRESH MEXICAN GRILL BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
Glacier Bank
16.7% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 5.6% of its loans to other franchise brands, vs 14.8% nationally.
Who buys it
72.7%
first-time franchise owners
The rest already owned at least one other franchise. Across the corpus, brands bought mostly by repeat operators charge off at roughly 10% versus 17% for brands sold mostly to newcomers.
Does experience help here?
Not enough resolved loans to split
Computed from 33 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to COSTA VIDA FRESH MEXICAN GRILL franchisees joined to the brand's own FDD. Debt service assumes level amortization at the average disclosed term and rate. A lender's rate excludes its loans to this brand, so it reads the lender, not the brand.
What it costs — and what it drags
FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty
Buying in means a $30K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $660K–$1.3M (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.
To open (Item 7)
$660K–$1.3M
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$30K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
6%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — cross-check against this brand's Item 19 and current-owner validation.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$60K
6% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$600K
royalties alone, excl. ad fund
This is not profit. It's the only money the FDD actually pins down — what you put in, and the royalty you owe on every dollar of sales. Your real take-home depends on labor, rent, food cost, and ramp-to-breakeven, none of which any FDD discloses.
Build a real pro-forma for COSTA VIDA FRESH MEXICAN GRILL with an independent CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 3 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $59K in back wages for 42 workers, including 2 child-labor cases. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
3
Back wages owed
$59K
Employees affected
42
Since 2020
0
2 of these cases involved child-labor violations, covering 46 minors across the system's franchised locations.
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual COSTA VIDA FRESH MEXICAN GRILL franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not COSTA VIDA FRESH MEXICAN GRILL itself. The franchisor is not the respondent and in most cases is not a party. What the record shows is how this system's operators run their payrolls, which is worth knowing before you become one of them. Counts rise with system size and with age: a 20-year-old, 10,000-unit system will out-count a young one regardless of conduct. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2021.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
Modeled from the public record, this brand sits mid-pack: riskier than 57% of systems we score.
Risk percentile
57 / 100
Loan-corroborated
Modeled SBA charge-off
13.7%
Observed SBA charge-off
9.1%
Top drivers: System size (log units) (raises) · Share financed by high-loss lenders (lowers) · Investment ceiling (log) (lowers) · Net unit growth (raises). 15+ resolved loans stand behind this estimate. A linear scorecard built from this brand's own disclosure figures plus the federal loan record behind its franchisees; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.
Distress signals
news-sourced · bankruptcies, closures, lawsuits
No recent closures, bankruptcies, or major lawsuits found in the news for COSTA VIDA FRESH MEXICAN GRILL. That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. An independent CPA is paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing COSTA VIDA FRESH MEXICAN GRILL's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →COSTA VIDA FRESH MEXICAN GRILL franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of COSTA VIDA FRESH MEXICAN GRILL franchises closed last year?
In COSTA VIDA FRESH MEXICAN GRILL's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2023), 3 of 56 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 5.4% — compared with 8.6% across 137 food & dining systems tracked here. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons." There is no official failure rate, and not every exit is a failure, but this is the measurable floor.
How much does a COSTA VIDA FRESH MEXICAN GRILL franchise cost?
Per COSTA VIDA FRESH MEXICAN GRILL's 2024 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $30K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $660K–$1.3M (Item 7).
What royalty does COSTA VIDA FRESH MEXICAN GRILL charge?
COSTA VIDA FRESH MEXICAN GRILL charges an ongoing royalty of 6.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2024 FDD.
Does COSTA VIDA FRESH MEXICAN GRILL disclose earnings (Item 19)?
Yes — COSTA VIDA FRESH MEXICAN GRILL makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2024 FDD. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.