diff --git a/pkg/server/server_sql.go b/pkg/server/server_sql.go
index f944e91421c0..005129b11b1c 100644
--- a/pkg/server/server_sql.go
+++ b/pkg/server/server_sql.go
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ package server
 
 import (
 	"context"
+	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/sql/catalog/catalogkeys"
+	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/sql/catalog/systemschema"
 	"math"
 	"net"
 	"os"
@@ -252,7 +254,6 @@ func newSQLServer(ctx context.Context, cfg sqlServerArgs) (*SQLServer, error) {
 			codec = keys.MakeSQLCodec(override)
 		}
 	}
-
 	// Create blob service for inter-node file sharing.
 	blobService, err := blobs.NewBlobService(cfg.Settings.ExternalIODir)
 	if err != nil {
@@ -745,6 +746,22 @@ func newSQLServer(ctx context.Context, cfg sqlServerArgs) (*SQLServer, error) {
 	}, nil
 }
 
+// Checks if tenant exists. This function does a very superficial check to see if the system db
+// has been bootstrapped for the tenant. This is not a complete check and is only sufficient
+// to be used in the dev environment.
+func checkTenantExists(ctx context.Context, codec keys.SQLCodec, db *kv.DB) error {
+	key := catalogkeys.NewDatabaseKey(systemschema.SystemDatabaseName).Key(codec)
+	result, err := db.Get(ctx, key)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	if result.Value == nil || result.ValueInt() != keys.SystemDatabaseID {
+		return errors.New("System DB uninitialized, check if tenant is non existent")
+	}
+	// Tenant has been bootstrapped successfully
+	return nil
+}
+
 func (s *SQLServer) preStart(
 	ctx context.Context,
 	stopper *stop.Stopper,
@@ -763,6 +780,13 @@ func (s *SQLServer) preStart(
 			return err
 		}
 	}
+	// Confirm tenant exists prior to initialization. This is a sanity
+	// check for the dev environment to ensure that a tenant has been
+	// successfully created before attempting to initialize a SQL
+	// server for it.
+	if err := checkTenantExists(ctx, s.execCfg.Codec, s.execCfg.DB); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
 	s.connManager = connManager
 	s.pgL = pgL
 	s.execCfg.GCJobNotifier.Start(ctx)