Independent Market Intelligence & Feasibility Advisory

SBA · USDA · EB-5 · Conventional · Since 1998
+1 310-857-2443 ext. 800
Laguna Beach – Dallas – Miami – Jersey City
IndependenceFor lender-commissioned feasibility studies, fiduciary duty runs to the lender and agency — not to the borrower. Other assignments follow their signed engagement scope. Determinations are independent and never revised under commercial pressure.  ·  International assignments accepted case by case.
Public record

Wert-Berater Feasibility Study & Advisory Experience

Approved project summaries from Wert-Berater’s public Experience record. This archive describes scope at a coarse level and does not disclose confidential client information.

Showing 423 of 423 approved project summaries.

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403 of 423 matching projects have map locations. 20 without verified map locations remain in the list.

Municipal Hotel Feasibility Study Completed in Belle Glade, Florida

Belle Glade, Palm Beach County, Florida, USA

A completed municipal hotel feasibility assessment in Belle Glade, Florida, received a FAVORABLE WITH CONDITIONS determination. The analysis found lodging demand, while an unsubsidized new build did not meet the required equity return; a public-capital path and an existing-property conversion remain conditional alternatives.

Municipal hotel assessment

Pyrolysis & Biochar Fertilizer Manufacturing Expansion Feasibility Study Supports USDA FIELDS and B&I Financing in Duval County, Florida

Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, USA

Wert-Berater, Inc. prepared an independent feasibility study for a $32.2 million pyrolysis and biochar enhanced-efficiency fertilizer manufacturing expansion at an operating plant in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, supporting a USDA FIELDS cost-share grant application and a USDA Business & Industry guaranteed term loan. The study evaluated economic, market, technical, financial, and management feasibility against federal program standards, rendering a weighted score of 3.72 of 5.00 and a determination of Conditionally Favorable, restating to Favorable upon satisfaction of three conditions precedent. Steady-state projections reflect $56.3 million in operating revenue, a 65.1% EBITDA margin, and first-production-year global debt-service coverage of 2.66x under a deliberately harsh full-payment convention against a 1.25x covenant.

USDA FIELDS / USDA B&I

Clean Ammonia Production Facility Feasibility Study Supports USDA FIELDS Program Application in Kern County, California

Taft, Kern County, California, USA

Wert-Berater, Inc. prepared an independent feasibility study for a proposed low-carbon anhydrous ammonia production facility in Kern County, California, in support of a USDA Fertilizer Investment and Expansion for Long-term Domestic Supply (FIELDS) program application and for prospective lender review. The facility is designed to produce approximately 196,000 metric tonnes of anhydrous ammonia per year using a patented partial-oxidation process with carbon capture and geologic sequestration, qualifying for federal clean-hydrogen production credits. The overall determination rendered is Conditionally Feasible, with each of five analytical sections returning Favorable With Conditions against the FIELDS Feasibility Study Guide's prescribed elements.

USDA FIELDS

Select-Service Hotel Feasibility Study Supports SBA 504 Financing in Seward, Alaska

Seward, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska, USA

Wert-Berater prepared an independent SBA 504 feasibility study for a proposed 44-room ground-up select-service hotel with café and event room in downtown Seward, Alaska. The study evaluated economic, market, technical, financial, and management feasibility against SBA SOP 50 10 8 standards, replacing the sponsor's unsupported assumptions with analyst-developed figures throughout. The determination is Feasible Subject to Stated Conditions, contingent on verification of total project cost, program-minimum equity injection, a funded two-year debt-service reserve, and nine additional documented conditions precedent.

SBA 504

Wedding & Event Venue Feasibility Study Supports Conventional Financing in Harris County, Texas

Tomball, Harris County, Texas, USA

Wert-Berater, Inc. completed an independent feasibility study for a proposed wedding and event venue on a seven-acre site in the Tomball corridor of Harris County, Texas, evaluating a conventional first-mortgage loan against a total project cost of approximately $15.7 million. The study's determination is Favorable Subject to Conditions, as the project clears the lender's 1.20x debt-service coverage covenant under the borrower's demand case but fails materially under the study's own evidence-based demand case. Five conditions precedent—led by a pre-sold pipeline of signed wedding contracts with deposits—must be satisfied before the full loan amount can be supported.

Conventional

Highest and Best Use Study for Two-Parcel Commercial Assemblage in Mundelein, Lake County, Illinois

Mundelein, Lake County, Illinois, USA

Wert-Berater, Inc. completed an independent Highest and Best Use Study for two contiguous parcels totaling approximately 1.89 acres on a suburban commercial corridor in Mundelein, Lake County, Illinois. Applying Appraisal Institute four-test methodology, the study concluded that small-format commercial redevelopment emphasizing restaurant and small-shop retail uses represents the highest and best use of the combined assemblage, supported by an 8.0 percent stabilized yield on cost and a 17.7 percent ten-year equity IRR. A hybrid concept preserving a wedding and event venue component was also tested at the client's request and ranked fourth among ten alternatives examined.

Feasibility Study

Commercial Truck Wash Site-Selection Feasibility Study, Mahoning County, Ohio

North Jackson, Mahoning County, Ohio, USA

Wert-Berater, Inc. prepared an independent six-site investment feasibility study for a proposed freestanding commercial truck wash in Northeast Ohio, evaluating candidate locations across four counties on fleet demand, corridor traffic, competitive gap, access, financial performance, and development risk. Applying weighted multi-criteria decision analysis, fatal-flaw screening, a bottom-up FMCSA fleet-demand model, and a 5,000-iteration Monte Carlo simulation, the study identified a Mahoning County site along a major interstate corridor as the clear first-ranked candidate. That recommended site was the only location among the six to clear a 15 percent equity IRR in the base case and held its top ranking under every weighting variant tested.

Feasibility Study

Hotel Feasibility Study Supports SBA 504 New-Construction Financing in Montgomery County, Alabama

Montgomery, Montgomery County, Alabama, USA

Wert-Berater prepared an independent SBA 504 feasibility study for a proposed 120-key, new-construction, upper-midscale all-suite hotel in Montgomery County, Alabama, with a total project cost of approximately $21.9 million. The analysis evaluated economic, market, technical, financial, and management feasibility against SBA SOP 50 10 8 standards, producing a determination of Feasible — Subject to Stated Conditions following a mid-engagement capital-structure revision. Stabilized Year-3 operating DSCR reached 1.365x under the revised structure, passing the SBA 1.15x minimum, conditioned on independent equity verification, a recorded land transfer, an executed management agreement, and guarantor financial statements.

SBA 504

Manufacturing capacity expansion at an operating rural fertilizer production site

Turkey, Sampson County, North Carolina, USA

A $70,000,000 expansion of an operating rural fertilizer production business, funded on a 50/50 cost-share basis under the federal fertilizer program: a $35,000,000 grant against a $35,000,000 applicant match. The study tested the expansion on its own documented merits — verified capital budget, contracted input supply, and a stabilized operating forecast in which sources equal uses at the study date — and reached a favorable determination subject to conditions precedent carried into the executed report. What the Project Included Added finished-goods production capacity at an existing fee-owned site, expanded post-processing and material handling, and the supporting site infrastructure required to operate the added capacity year round. Capital Structure $70,000,000 total project cost — a $35,000,000 federal cost-share grant (50 percent) against a $35,000,000 applicant match (50 percent). Feasibility Study Challenges The analytical work turned on ramp risk rather than stabilized economics. Stabilized coverage is comfortable at 5.73×, but first-year coverage of 1.68× leaves materially less room, so the study conditioned its determination on contracted input supply, committed offtake at the pricing carried in the forecast, and completion of the added capacity before the first full production year. Sensitivity testing ran price and volume together, in steps, rather than one variable at a time.

USDA FIELDS

Two-site Gulf Coast fertilizer manufacturing program — new construction plus an existing-plant expansion

Orange, Orange County, Texas, USA

A $41,395,349 two-site fertilizer manufacturing program on the Texas Gulf Coast — a new-construction plant in one county paired with an expansion of an existing plant in the next — funded fifty percent by federal grant and fifty percent by applicant match. Because no project debt is proposed, the binding feasibility question is not coverage of a loan but coverage of the match: whether the applicant can actually fund its half, on the schedule the program requires. What the Project Included A new-construction production facility, an expansion of an existing plant in a neighboring county, and the process, utility, and logistics infrastructure connecting the two into one operating program. Capital Structure $41,395,349 total project cost — a 50 percent federal cost-share grant against a 50 percent applicant match of $20,697,674.50. No project debt is proposed. Feasibility Study Challenges Three items carried the file. First, match sufficiency: the study verified 1.85× coverage of the required match at the study date rather than accepting a certification at face value. Second, cost basis: the budget was tested against front-end engineering pricing rather than allowance figures. Third, downside recovery: the study priced a liquidation floor against total project cost so the agency could see what remains if the program stops mid-construction.

USDA FIELDS

Fertilizer production facility with on-site energy generation on a rural Ozark site

Green Forest, Carroll County, Arkansas, USA

A $244,098,940 production facility on a rural Arkansas site, of which $208,479,813 is program-allowable under the grant's fertilizer-scope screen. The study separated the two questions the agency actually has to answer — whether the fertilizer scope stands on its own, and whether the wider facility can be executed — and answered them independently. What the Project Included Fertilizer production capacity with supporting on-site energy generation, together with the receiving, process, storage, and outbound logistics infrastructure the site requires. Capital Structure $244,098,940 total project cost, of which $208,479,813 is program-allowable under the fertilizer-scope screen; the balance sits outside program scope and is carried by the sponsor. Feasibility Study Challenges The study priced execution risk explicitly rather than treating the facility as routine. Coverage was reported three ways to keep the record honest: 1.52× fixed-charge coverage against obligations that actually exist, an illustrative 2.52× against a note that does not yet, and roughly nine times coverage of the one recurring maintenance reserve. The favorable determination is conditioned on execution gates — scope conformance, phased commissioning, and entity conformance — not assumed away.

USDA FIELDS

Distributed fertilizer manufacturing platform across three rural Upper Midwest communities

Benson, Swift County, Minnesota, USA

A $47,371,560 distributed fertilizer manufacturing platform anchored in one rural Minnesota community and extended to two more across Minnesota and Wisconsin, funded by a $19,685,780 federal share (41.56 percent) against a $27,685,780 applicant match (58.44 percent). The study asked the narrow question the program requires — not whether the platform is attractive, but whether it is feasible on its documented merits — and answered it on verified figures with sources equal to uses. What the Project Included An anchor production site acquired and placed into service, two additional community-scale production sites, and the shared logistics and offtake arrangements that let the three operate as one platform. Capital Structure $47,371,560 total project cost — $19,685,780 federal share requested (41.56 percent) against a $27,685,780 applicant match (58.44 percent), with a single leverage event at the Year 5 refinancing. Feasibility Study Challenges A distributed platform fails site by site, not all at once, so the study modeled each site's contribution separately before consolidating. The single leverage event is the Year 5 refinancing, covered 12.45× against a 1.20× lender requirement; the study still tested what an insolvency case would cost a lender rather than treating the coverage cushion as the end of the analysis. Match composition — secured versus unsecured — was verified against the program's eligibility screen, because unsecured match does not count.

USDA FIELDS

Citywide community development plan — 17,000 residential units, 500,000 SF of commercial development, and ancillary uses

Laredo, Webb County, Texas, USA

A citywide community development plan for the City of Laredo, Texas evaluating a large, phased program of residential, commercial, and ancillary uses with a total program value of approximately $5.3 billion. Wert-Berater served as independent feasibility consultant, testing market demand, absorption, and financial feasibility across the full program so the City could stage development in line with population growth, infrastructure capacity, and market depth. What the Program Included Approximately 17,000 residential units spanning a range of housing types, roughly 500,000 square feet of commercial development, and ancillary uses supporting the residential and commercial core — including the civic, institutional, and public-realm components typical of a master-planned community district. Feasibility & Absorption Analysis Wert-Berater analyzed demand and supportable absorption for each major use independently — residential by product type, commercial by category, and the ancillary uses that depend on rooftops and daytime population — then phased the program so infrastructure and faster-absorbing components lead and demand-sensitive uses follow. The result gave the City a defensible basis for sequencing, sizing, and prioritizing public and private investment across the plan. Feasibility Study Challenges The central task was scaling a multi-billion-dollar, multi-year program to a single border-region market without overstating near-term absorption. Key risks identified: pacing 17,000 residential units to real household growth, timing 500,000 SF of commercial to established rooftops, and carrying infrastructure and ancillary costs ahead of the revenue they enable — addressed through use-by-use demand analysis, conservative absorption, and phase-gating tied to demonstrated demand.

Community Development Plan

100-acre adaptive reuse of a former regional mall into a phased mixed-use residential, retail, and hospitality district

Plano, Collin County, Texas, USA

An approximately $1 billion redevelopment converting a 37-year-old, 100-acre regional shopping mall into a phased, mixed-use district combining for-sale residential, rental apartments, an open-air retail and dining atrium repurposed from the original enclosed structure, a hotel, senior living, and extensive public open space. The program is deliberately staged so that faster-absorbing residential and infrastructure phases establish the district before higher-risk retail, hospitality, and senior-living components come online. What the Project Included Brownstone-style for-sale townhomes, a 412-unit apartment block, an open-air retail and restaurant promenade created from the repurposed mall, a 200-room luxury hotel, a senior-living community, a 2,000-space structured (underground) parking system, and a public realm anchored by an 8-acre central park, a crystal lagoon, and roughly 1.6 miles of walking trails. Land Residual Analysis Wert-Berater prepared land residual valuations for each parcel across all proposed uses — testing residential, multifamily, retail, hospitality, senior-living, and structured-parking scenarios so the master plan allocated every parcel to its highest and best use. The residual framework isolates supportable land value by backing developer profit, construction cost, and absorption timing out of each parcel’s projected completed value, giving ownership and its capital partners a parcel-by-parcel basis for phasing, pricing, and disposition. Feasibility Study Challenges The central analytical task was reconciling a single, billion-dollar master plan with staggered absorption across six distinct product types on one site. Key risks identified: adaptive-reuse execution on a 37-year-old structure, phasing risk if early residential absorption lagged, retail and hospitality demand timed years into the build-out, and cost exposure on structured parking and shared infrastructure carried ahead of vertical revenue — addressed through phase-gating tied to demonstrated absorption, parcel-level residual testing, and conservative treatment of later-stage retail, hotel, and senior-living components.

Feasibility & Land Residual Analysis

Three-phase regional public sports district

Anthony, Doña Ana County, New Mexico, USA

A three-phase, approximately $115 million public sports district structured so that no phase is required to financially carry facilities belonging to a later stage of maturity. Phase I establishes demand through participation-driven outdoor facilities financed primarily with public-purpose capital; Phase II expands capacity only after utilization confirms absorption; Phase III introduces higher-revenue indoor and event facilities once the campus operates as a year-round destination. The approved ten-year operating forecast produces an unlevered project-level IRR of 17.9 percent. What the Project Included A regional, multi-sport destination combining outdoor tournament fields with weather-independent indoor capacity: an arena, three indoor basketball/volleyball courts, and seventeen pickleball courts, with hard construction representing approximately 59 percent of total project cost concentrated in durable, long-lived sports assets. Capital Structure $115,000,000 single tax-exempt municipal bond issuance — 100% of total project cost, including capitalized interest and funded reserves. Feasibility Study Challenges The study's principal analytical task was proving that a $115 million single-issuance bond could be reconciled with phased absorption. Key risks identified: construction execution at district scale, utilization variability, revenue concentration during tournament periods, and operating cost inflation — mitigated through phase-gating tied to demonstrated absorption, diversified programming, fixed-rate debt, and funded reserves stress-tested under downside scenarios.

Municipal Bond

17-story, 184,960 SF office tower repositioning — ten-scenario highest and best use analysis

Durham, Durham County, North Carolina, USA

Repositioning analysis of a vacant 17-story, 184,960-square-foot tower in Durham, North Carolina — a full highest and best use study built around ten redevelopment scenarios spanning market-rate apartments, condominium sell-out, medical and life-sciences conversion, mixed-use, upper-upscale hotel, senior living, demolition with land resale, and continuation as Class A office. Each scenario was modeled through discounted cash flow with IRR, MIRR, XIRR, DSCR, ROE, and residual land value calculations, then ranked on capitalized value, land residual, debt capacity, and risk. What the Project Included The comparative grid put hard numbers against every path: market-rate apartments at $95,000,000 total project cost producing $121,000,000 of capitalized value and a 13.90 percent IRR; condominium sell-out at a 14.10 percent IRR; an upper-upscale hotel generating the highest revenue but carrying $110,000,000 of cost; demolition and land resale at $22,000,000; and Class A office conversion at a negative ten percent IRR — the decisive evidence that continuation in office use is not the highest and best use in today’s leasing market. Capital Structure Each scenario was capitalized at approximately 65 percent loan-to-cost debt with the balance — 35 percent of total project cost — as sponsor equity, with hard costs, soft costs, sales and lease-up costs, and entrepreneurial profit expectations carried separately so that the residual land value under each program could be compared on a consistent basis. Feasibility Study Challenges The analytical problem was discipline against wishful thinking: a highly visible tower invites every reuse idea, and the study’s job was to eliminate most of them. Heavy commercial allocations and all-large-unit residential mixes drove land residuals to breakeven or below; the hotel scenario carried the largest absolute cost and flag-related lease-up expense; and the office-continuation case, far from supporting any land value, produced a negative residual in the prevailing leasing market. The concluded apartment-anchored program won on the combination of land residual, financeability, and risk diversification rather than on any single headline figure.

Highest & Best Use

Integrated bio-carbon (biochar) pyrolysis manufacturing facility

Indiantown, Martin County, Florida, USA

A $52,688,000 integrated bio-carbon (biochar) pyrolysis manufacturing facility producing approximately 28,750 metric tons annually — approximately $1,915.93 of invested capital per annual ton. Base-case revenue of approximately $34,375,000 is anchored by an industrial biochar offtake of $20,500,000 (59.7 percent of revenue) and carbon-credit monetization of $8,900,000 (25.9 percent), with the balance in specialty, energy, and soil-amendment channels. Projected EBITDA of $16,500,000 against annual debt service of approximately $4,012,000 yields a baseline coverage of 4.11x, with the Year 1 monthly ramp moving from 1.92x in January to 5.18x by December. What the Project Included One of the first feasibility studies prepared under the USDA Timber Production Expansion Program (TPEP) framework in combination with a Business & Industry guarantee under 7 CFR Part 5001 — a dual-program structure for timber-feedstock bio-industrial manufacturing. Technology Basis Continuous-pyrolysis vertical retort technology with more than thirty industrial installations, supplemented by fourteen traveling-grate systems deployed since 1986 — more than forty years of documented industrial operation, evaluated as proven process equipment rather than venture-stage technology. Feasibility Study Challenges Biochar sits at the intersection of commodity manufacturing and an immature carbon-credit market, and the study refused to let the second category carry the first. Revenue quality was tiered: contracted industrial offtake was underwritten as the load-bearing element, while carbon-credit revenue — a quarter of the top line in a market without mature price discovery — was stress-tested rather than capitalized at face value. Coverage holds above 2.5x even with EBITDA reduced 10 percent or rates up 200 basis points, and breakeven revenue of $21,884,566 sits 36 percent below base case. Equipment risk was addressed through deployment history rather than vendor representations. The favorable recommendation was explicitly conditioned on final underwriting validation, independent engineering confirmation, and covenant structuring — scope boundaries stated, not blurred.

USDA B&I + TPEP · Reg 5001

1,000-space interstate travel center and truck stop

Scott Depot, West Virginia, USA

A corridor-based freight-service asset — not a conventional highway retail outparcel — evaluated under USDA Regulation 5001 for whether the site, at scale, can convert national truck-parking scarcity into durable operating revenue. The approximately 60-acre build envelope sits within a 366-acre tract at a major interstate interchange, with the largest capital allocations directed at exactly the elements that drive freight-service economics: parking, fueling, and the driver-services building. What the Project Included 1,000 truck parking spaces, 30 high-speed diesel pumps with storage and canopy, 20 gasoline lanes, a main building of approximately 50,000 square feet, a truck wash, and CAT scales — a program built around parking and driver utility rather than fuel sales alone, positioned to capture FHWA-documented overnight and mandated-rest demand. Capital Structure $25,000,000 proposed loan plus $9,000,000 imputed land equity identified at study date — leaving a $14,571,365 capital-stack gap (≈30% of TPC) documented as the principal open item. Feasibility Study Challenges The defining challenge was capital-stack honesty: against $48.6 million of total project cost, identified sources covered roughly 70 percent. The study states this plainly — the project is economically justified in concept and projected operating scale, but cannot be characterized as fully financeable without qualification until the $14.6 million gap is resolved. Strong operations do not by themselves establish feasibility when the capital stack is incomplete.

USDA Reg 5001

184-unit Class A condominium sell-out

Winter Haven, Florida, USA

Feasibility analysis of a Class A condominium sell-out in Winter Haven, Polk County, evaluated for conventional construction lending — an engagement defined by the willingness to reject the program as submitted. The sponsor’s 170-unit base case at $60,250,000 of total development cost failed the feasibility test; the study’s concluded program restructured the project to 184 units at $48,456,000, converting an infeasible submission into a financeable one. What the Project Included A full sell-out absorption analysis — unit mix, pricing, monthly absorption pace, and presale thresholds — built into a fully linked financial model alongside the development cost optimization work, with the comparison between base case and concluded program carried through every schedule so the lender could see exactly which cost and program decisions moved the determination. Capital Structure Conventional construction financing repaid through unit sell-out proceeds, with the development budget, contingency, and absorption-driven repayment schedule restructured around the 184-unit concluded program. Feasibility Study Challenges Independence was the engagement: a feasibility consultant paid to validate a $60,250,000 program instead concluded it infeasible and demonstrated what would be feasible — a larger unit count on a substantially smaller budget. The analytical work sat in the cost optimization (an $11,794,000 reduction in total development cost) and in defending the absorption assumptions that make any condominium sell-out determination credible to a construction lender.

Conventional Lending

Commercial corridor highest and best use study — four development scenarios under the Appraisal Institute four-test framework

Pasadena, Los Angeles County, California, USA

A consulting engagement commissioned in March 2026 to determine the highest and best use of a commercial parcel on East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. Four candidate development scenarios were modeled in full and ranked under the Appraisal Institute four-test sequential framework. The study is a consulting work product prepared under that framework; it is not an appraisal and renders no opinion of value. Analytical Approach Each scenario carried its own development budget, absorption schedule, financing structure, and return stack, with the concluded program differentiated on levered internal rate of return, equity multiple, and profit margin rather than on gross value alone. Conclusions were benchmarked against recent land sales in the corridor so that the residual implied by the concluded use is observable in the local market rather than purely model-derived. Why It Matters to a Lender A highest and best use determination of this kind gives a construction or bridge lender an independent, scenario-tested basis for the use assumption embedded in any subsequent appraisal — the analysis demonstrates not only that the concluded program is feasible, but that the competing programs are inferior and by how much. Underwriting Perspective The differentiation between scenarios was driven by structural factors — density achievable under the corridor zoning, parking ratios, and the cost-to-revenue relationship of each program — rather than by aggressive rent or pricing assumptions, which were held to market evidence across all four models.

HBU Consulting · Appraisal Institute Framework

19-building medical office village on 12.18 acres

Foley, Baldwin County, Alabama, USA

A 12.18-acre suburban medical village proposing approximately 68,000 square feet of medical office space distributed across nineteen buildings of 3,500 to 4,920 square feet — a deliberately decentralized campus design serving physician practices that favor identity, signage, and potential ownership over space in a consolidated MOB. Tenant interest at study date was oversubscribed, including specialties favoring condominium-style ownership, supporting a hybrid lease-and-sale absorption strategy. What the Project Included Nineteen medical office pads with full site infrastructure: internal roadways, parking fields, stormwater systems, and utility laterals, with pad-consolidation flexibility engineered in — adjacent 3,500 SF pads sharing utility laterals can convert to 7,000 SF suites if demand favors larger tenants. Capital Structure The study evaluated the proposed financing structure against program coverage minimums under base-case and stressed assumptions, with sources and uses reconciled to the development budget across the hybrid lease-and-sale absorption program. Specific facility terms are withheld consistent with engagement confidentiality. Feasibility Study Challenges The multi-building format carries a structural per-square-foot cost premium: infrastructure, lobbies, and utility connections are duplicated across nineteen structures, and the village consumes acreage faster than a consolidated design. The study's value-engineering pass — rationalized parking, consolidated stormwater basins, clustered utilities, phased roadways, reduced ornamental landscaping — identified $2.0–2.5 million in upfront savings and $2.5–3.0 million in ten-year operating efficiencies, cutting total project cost by nearly 8 percent without compromising the patient or provider experience.

Development Feasibility

Restoration of an idle sugar refinery to production — approximately 359,000 SF of processing, warehouse, and cane-yard facilities

Santa Rosa, Texas, USA

Restoration of an idle sugar refinery in Santa Rosa, Texas to full production through infrastructure rehabilitation, modernization, and recommissioning. The property includes approximately 359,000 square feet of industrial buildings, warehouses, processing facilities, and cane yards together with supporting utility infrastructure. At design capacity the facility processes approximately 2.05 million tons of cane annually, equivalent to roughly 246,000 tons of refined sugar. Market Position The refinery’s Rio Grande Valley location provides dual-market access: the Texas market, which consumes more than 500,000 tons of refined sugar annually, and the established refining corridor served by Louisiana and Florida producers located far from the border. This dual access materially enhances revenue stability relative to a single-market processor and underpinned the demand analysis. Capital Structure Total capitalization of $38,110,000, funded by $25,000,000 of USDA Business & Industry guaranteed debt and $13,110,000 of equity provided by aligned sponsors. The structure places roughly one-third of the capitalization in equity ahead of the guaranteed facility, consistent with the tangible-balance-sheet expectations of 7 CFR Part 5001. Feasibility Study Challenges Restoring a dormant heavy-processing asset concentrates risk in the technical dimension: rehabilitation scope, commissioning schedule, and cane supply contracting all had to be evidenced rather than assumed. The analysis therefore weighted contractor capability, equipment condition, and grower-supply arrangements alongside the financial projections, and stated each dependency plainly as a condition of the program rather than absorbing it into base-case assumptions.

USDA B&I · 7 CFR Part 5001

125,000 SF airport-integrated cold storage center

Kenner, Louisiana, USA

A Phase I cold storage and logistics facility integrated with the region's international airport, evaluated under USDA Regulation 5001 across six alternative building programs from 110,000 to 250,000 square feet using a 90+ tab financial model. The recommended 125,000-square-foot configuration carries a total project cost of $33,656,250 ($269.25/SF), reaches 84 percent stabilized utilization in Year 2 with a 41.7 percent EBITDA margin, and supports 65–85 permanent jobs with $3.2–4.5 million in annual payroll. What the Project Included Temperature-controlled warehouse and logistics space with ammonia refrigeration, 72-hour backup diesel generation, building design exceeding local wind-load standards, and full regulatory compliance programs (EPA Risk Management Plan, OSHA Process Safety Management), supported by a 10 percent construction contingency of $2,923,296. Capital Structure $17,481,604 senior secured loan (51.9% of TPC) at 9.50% on 25-year amortization, sized to a Year 2 DSCR floor of 1.40x; equity of $16,174,646 (48.1%). Feasibility Study Challenges Three challenges shaped the determination. First, leverage discipline in a 9.50 percent rate environment: at the 1.40x DSCR floor, a 5 percent revenue shortfall thins coverage to 1.07x and a 10 percent shortfall breaches it — the study sized the loan at 51.9 percent of cost rather than maximizing proceeds. Second, Gulf Coast hurricane and flood exposure, addressed through hardened design, comprehensive windstorm/flood coverage, and FEMA zone analysis. Third, ammonia-system regulatory compliance, budgeted explicitly at $75,000–150,000 initial and $30,000–50,000 annually.

USDA Reg 5001

51,999 SF wellness center

Costa Mesa, California, USA

Feasibility analysis of a proposed 51,999-square-foot wellness center in Costa Mesa, Orange County, evaluated for SBA 504 construction-to-permanent financing — a large-format health, fitness, and wellness facility in one of Southern California’s most affluent and health-conscious trade areas. What the Project Included Membership-model revenue analysis, trade-area demographics, competitive supply mapping across the Orange County fitness and wellness market, and construction-to-permanent underwriting consistent with SBA 504 requirements for special-purpose recreational property. Capital Structure SBA 504 construction-to-permanent structure: senior bank construction loan converting to permanent first mortgage alongside the SBA debenture, with borrower equity injection per program minimums for special-purpose property. Feasibility Study Challenges Large-format wellness facilities are special-purpose buildings underwritten on the operating business, not the real estate — so the study’s weight fell on membership absorption, price-point defensibility in a market dense with boutique and big-box competitors, and the construction-period risk inherent in a 51,999-square-foot build carried on a construction-to-permanent structure.

SBA 504

Full-service lake marina and resort operation

Lake Cumberland, Kentucky, USA

Feasibility analysis of a full-service marina and resort operation on Lake Cumberland — one of the largest reservoirs east of the Mississippi and among the busiest houseboating destinations in the United States — evaluated for a USDA Business & Industry guaranteed loan under Instruction 5001 in a rural Kentucky county where the marina is a primary economic anchor. What the Project Included Multi-revenue-stream marina underwriting: wet-slip and dry storage rental, houseboat and watercraft rental fleets, fuel sales, service and repair, ship’s store, and food and beverage — each modeled against lake-level operating constraints, seasonality, and the destination tourism draw of the Lake Cumberland market. Capital Structure USDA B&I guaranteed loan structure consistent with Instruction 5001 rural-area eligibility, collateralized by the marina’s real property, improvements, and operating assets. Feasibility Study Challenges Marina underwriting on a flood-control reservoir lives with the water level: seasonal drawdowns and multi-year lake-level management decisions directly drive slip utility, rental-fleet season length, and revenue timing, so the analysis had to demonstrate debt service capacity across the operating calendar rather than at a single stabilized point — alongside the concentration risk inherent in a destination market where the asset is both the business and the draw.

USDA B&I · Instruction 5001

437-space dry-stack boat and RV storage facility

Sarasota, Florida, USA

Ground-up development of a 437-space marine and recreational-vehicle storage facility on 3.871 acres of industrial-zoned land: 350 dry-stack boat positions inside a 79,864-square-foot hurricane-rated pre-engineered metal building, plus 87 RV and trailer spaces. The site sits in FEMA Zone X (minimal flood hazard) — a meaningful underwriting distinction for coastal Florida marine assets. The construction budget was validated at $143.99 per square foot for the PEMB structure, at the low end of the applicable RSMeans range, with a 5 percent contingency. What the Project Included A demand-driven storage platform serving the Sarasota boating market, underwritten on a Year 1 average occupancy ramp of 47.5 percent rising to stabilization in Year 2 — deliberately conservative entry assumptions rather than stabilized-day-one optimism. Capital Structure Classic 50/30/20 SBA 504 stack: $11,875,000 bank first mortgage at 6.10% with one year interest-only; $7,125,000 CDC debenture at 5.45% over 20 years; $4,750,000 equity ($3,562,500 investor; $1,187,500 sponsor). Annual principal and interest from Year 2: $1,512,592. Feasibility Study Challenges The determination was favorable but conditioned, and the conditions were stated as conditions — not buried. The Phase I ESA was 44 months old at the study date, beyond regulatory currency, and its update was made a condition precedent to closing rather than a footnote. Three further conditions followed: lender and CDC confirmation of the SBA 504 operating-business determination, personal guaranties from all owners of 20 percent or more, and confirmation of SBA eligibility for the development management fee. The study also flagged the sponsor's dual role as developer and property manager as a governance consideration. Coverage discipline anchored the analysis: a full 49-combination stress grid across interest-rate and occupancy scenarios, every combination through +2.5 percent passing SBA minimums, with the +2.5 percent rate case still producing 1.30x.

SBA 504 · SOP 50 10 8

20-court indoor pickleball and padel sports complex

Middletown, Middlesex County, Connecticut, USA

Proposed development of a purpose-built indoor pickleball and padel sports complex at stabilization comprising 20 total courts — 18 pickleball and 2 padel — supported by mezzanine-level food and beverage service, structured league and instructional programming, and event capability within a single integrated facility. The 25-minute drive-time trade area contains 966,341 residents and 386,789 households, more than one quarter of Connecticut’s population, with median household incomes supporting premium pricing for indoor court access. What the Project Included The market analysis quantified a structural supply deficit: Connecticut is estimated to hold fewer than 90 dedicated indoor courts statewide, and Middlesex County only 5 to 7, against the fastest-growing sport in the United States for three consecutive years. Using a conservative planning ratio of one dedicated court per 250–300 active players, regional equilibrium demand supports roughly 190–270 courts. The study also modeled the national saturation question directly — the conditions under which court supply growth overtakes participation — concluding that cold-weather markets such as Connecticut retain premium pricing power longest because outdoor play is limited to roughly April through October. Capital Structure Annual debt service of approximately $783,100 was tested against a pro forma that intentionally constrains early-year coverage during the membership and league ramp-up period, consistent with SBA SOP 50 10 8 underwriting discipline, before coverage builds well above the 1.25x–1.35x SBA minimum guideline at stabilization. Feasibility Study Challenges Two issues carried the underwriting weight. First, ramp-up realism: the feasibility conclusion is explicitly not predicated on aggressive growth or ideal operating conditions, so the early years were modeled with deliberately constrained coverage and the conditions precedent attach there. Second, saturation risk: the study confronted the question every lender asks about a boom sport — what happens when supply catches up — and answered it with a regional equilibrium model, break-even analysis showing an approximately 24 percent revenue cushion, and stress cases holding DSCR above 2.0x in all downside scenarios tested.

SBA · SOP 50 10 8

Multi-basin oilfield well-servicing expansion

Troy, Michigan, USA

Expansion financing for an established oilfield well-servicing company — founded 2012, more than 150 field personnel — operating across five major U.S. producing basins: Permian, Williston, Eagle Ford, Appalachian, and Haynesville. The expansion is anchored by two long-term master service agreements with a supermajor and a large-cap independent producer, representing approximately $60 million in contracted revenue over sixty months and more than 65 percent of projected revenue through 2030. Company revenue grew roughly 200 percent in the twenty-four months preceding the study. What the Project Included Fleet and equipment expansion to service contracted multi-basin demand under a USDA Business & Industry guaranteed structure — an operating-company credit underwritten on contract quality and coverage durability rather than real-estate collateral. Return & Coverage Profile Project IRR of 22.4 percent; NPV of $41.3 million at a 12.5 percent weighted average cost of capital; payback in 2.6 years. Ten-year debt-service coverage averages 3.19x with a minimum of 2.48x and a Year 6 peak of 4.28x — no non-coverage periods in any projection year. Feasibility Study Challenges Oilfield services is a cyclical, commodity-exposed sector, and the study treated that exposure as the central underwriting question rather than an inconvenience. The analysis rested coverage on contracted rather than speculative revenue — the two master service agreements were evaluated for counterparty quality, term, and concentration, with the offsetting concentration risk stated plainly: contracts representing 65 percent or more of revenue are both the credit's strength and its single largest dependency. Monte Carlo simulation demonstrated a greater-than-85-percent probability of maintaining DSCR above 1.25x across commodity-cycle scenarios, and the rapid 200-percent revenue growth was stress-examined for operational scalability rather than extrapolated forward uncritically.

USDA B&I · Reg 5001

Geothermal-heated greenhouse and nursery enterprise — 20+ acres under glass

Radium Springs, Doña Ana County, New Mexico, USA

Acquisition of an established greenhouse and nursery enterprise in Radium Springs, Doña Ana County — more than 20 acres of geothermal-heated greenhouses with secured groundwater rights providing 2.3 times the water required at full production, evaluated for a USDA Business & Industry guaranteed loan under Regulation 5001. The site sits 20 minutes from Las Cruces, 1.5 hours from El Paso, and within same-day distribution reach of markets across New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona, in a national nursery and garden industry generating more than $54 billion annually. What the Project Included The economic feasibility analysis confirmed labor availability through the county’s agricultural workforce and the plant- and soil-science graduate pipeline from the nearby land-grant university; the technical analysis confirmed that geothermal heating materially reduces energy-price exposure while the secured water rights neutralize the binding constraint on greenhouse operations in the arid Southwest; and the market analysis benchmarked the operation against regional and national competitors, most of which operate with limited capital reserves. Capital Structure Purchase of business assets of $16,500,000 funded by the USDA-guaranteed loan plus equity; $100,000 of working capital contributed by the borrower; and $750,000 of closing costs and fees funded from loan proceeds, consistent with USDA B&I norms — a total project cost of $17,350,000. Feasibility Study Challenges The rate structure carried the principal risk: the B&I loan floats on a Wall Street Journal prime-based adjustable rate, so the study stress-tested coverage against rate movement and a five percent operating-cost increase, with DSCR remaining above the USDA minimum in each case. Competitive pressure from regional growers and the seasonality of nursery demand were addressed through capacity-utilization analysis and a distribution strategy spanning three states, and the break-even calculations required under 5001.203(i) confirmed solvency margins throughout the projection period.

USDA B&I · Reg 5001

102,471 SF refrigerated cold storage facility — 2.77 million cubic feet

Amarillo, Potter County, Texas, USA

Proposed development of a 102,471-square-foot refrigerated cold storage facility with 28-foot clear height and 2.77 million cubic feet of storage capacity on a 19.97-acre industrially zoned site in the Amarillo logistics corridor, positioned on Interstate 40 with rail service. The facility is designed around automated pallet handling, warehouse management software, and continuous temperature monitoring, operating a lean five-to-seven-employee model with food-safety compliance to federal regulatory and HACCP standards. What the Project Included Demand was anchored rather than assumed: a letter of intent from a regional dairy processor (party withheld) commits up to 25 million pounds of bulk cheese annually, with non-member volumes conservatively projected at 2 to 5 million pounds in year one. The ten-year pro forma builds revenue from $3,957,594 toward $5,174,877 across storage fees, handling and ancillary services — shrink wrapping, labeling, cross-docking — and spot-market activity, with discounted cash flow analysis at an eight percent rate supporting the financial feasibility determination. Capital Structure Opening long-term debt of $13,353,508 amortizing to $11,542,298 by Year 10 against fixed annual debt service of $1,185,721, with net worth building from $559,629 to $16,816,682 over the ten-year horizon as cash accumulates and principal retires. Property taxes were modeled at full assessment on the $16,000,000 construction basis with no abatement assumed, despite available county incentives. Feasibility Study Challenges The structural challenge was concentration: a lean automated staffing model magnifies key-person risk, addressed in the study through cross-training, redundancy in critical roles, and succession planning requirements; and the anchor-supplier relationship concentrates demand, addressed through the conservative non-member volume assumptions and competitive demand analysis for the Amarillo region.

Bank / SBA 504

Travel center: fuel, convenience retail, and QSR

Castle Rock, Washington, USA

Feasibility analysis of a travel center combining branded fuel, convenience retail, and quick-service restaurant operations on the Interstate 5 corridor at Castle Rock, Cowlitz County — the I-5 gateway between Portland and Seattle traffic and the Mount St. Helens recreation draw — evaluated for SBA 504 financing. What the Project Included Component-level revenue modeling across fuel gallons, inside sales, and QSR; corridor traffic capture analysis; and a complete 160-slide study supported by a 65-tab model in which every figure links to the assumptions tab — ten-year pro forma, sensitivity at ±5/10/15 percent, interest-rate stress, and the full ratio suite benchmarked against industry data. Capital Structure SBA 504 structure: senior bank first mortgage, CDC debenture, and borrower equity injection, with fixed-asset eligibility and occupancy requirements confirmed under the program rules. Feasibility Study Challenges High-coverage deals carry their own analytical burden: a 3.12x Year 1 DSCR invites the question of whether the revenue model is too optimistic, so the study’s work was defending the fuel-volume and inside-sales assumptions against corridor traffic data and industry benchmarks — proving the coverage was earned by the site, not assumed by the model. Margin compression and competitive-entry scenarios left repayment capacity intact in every case tested.

SBA 504

48,560 SF hybrid owner-user industrial acquisition

Hayward, California, USA

Acquisition of a two-building, 48,560-square-foot industrial property on 1.85 acres, structured as a hybrid owner-user strategy: the 28,560-square-foot front building operated as a contractor overflow logistics platform serving Bay Area specialty trade subcontractors, with the 20,000-square-foot rear building generating stabilizing triple-net lease income. Owner occupancy of 58.8 percent exceeds the SBA 504 minimum of 51 percent by 7.8 percentage points. The $13,752,000 purchase price was validated against a contemporaneous MAI appraisal of $13,800,000 and against replacement cost of $350–$500 per square foot versus the $283.20 contract basis. What the Project Included A 1,200-position pallet storage operation configured across five functional zones with a seven-stream service revenue model — base pallet storage, accessorial handling, reserved blocks, rush retrieval, contractor mini-bays, logistics coordination, and ancillary services — alongside the contractual NNN lease. The competitive analysis mapped six named facilities in the ten-mile market area with zero direct overlap: no existing operator provides integrated pallet storage, handling, and project tagging for the contractor segment. Capital Structure $6,975,702 senior first mortgage at 8.84% over 30 years (50.00%); $4,864,000 SBA 504 debenture at 4.64% over 25 years (34.86%); $2,063,000 subordinate note at 0% interest; $48,702 cash injection — total borrower contribution of $2,111,702 or 15.14% of sources. Annual debt service: $993,006. Feasibility Study Challenges Two analytical problems defined the study. First, SOP 50 10 8 dual-coverage discipline: passive NNN income had to be excluded from the primary operating test, so the startup logistics business alone was required to clear 1.15x — it achieved 1.72x in Year 1, and Monte Carlo simulation across 1,000 iterations showed only a 4.2 percent probability of breaching the floor. Second, pricing defensibility: the $100-per-pallet-per-week rate is 21.7 times commodity warehouse rates per square foot, so the study validated it on three independent bases — per square foot, per cubic foot, and avoided remobilization cost of $500–$2,000 per event — concluding the customer purchases logistics services, not square footage. The October 2028 rear-lease expiration was stress-tested to a 1.46x no-lease floor case.

SBA 504 · SOP 50 10 8

Major-brand truck stop: 4,000 SF c-store with gasoline and diesel canopies on 6 acres

Delhi, Merced County, California, USA

Proposed development of a major-brand truck stop on a 6-acre parcel at the southeast corner of CA-99 and Shanks Road in Delhi, Merced County — a 4,000-square-foot convenience store with a 4,000-square-foot gasoline canopy and a 3,000-square-foot diesel canopy serving the Golden State Highway truck corridor between the Bay Area and Southern California. Year 1 sales are projected above $61,000,000, growing three percent annually, with total revenues exceeding $60,000,000 at stabilization. What the Project Included The market analysis was built on corridor truck-traffic counts along CA-99, a captive and diverse demand base with limited direct competition in the immediate trade area, and seasonality patterns specific to Central Valley freight movement. Fuel gross margins were set at the ten percent industry standard, the technical analysis confirmed soils, grading, and drainage suitable for cost-effective construction, and a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment completed under CEQA returned no recognized environmental conditions. Capital Structure Financing through a combination of equity and long-term SBA-backed debt at a conservative loan-to-value ratio, with annual debt service of $675,000 covered by projected EBITDA at better than 4.0x in every projection year — coverage headroom that holds under the cost-inflation, competition, and margin-compression scenarios tested. Feasibility Study Challenges High-revenue, thin-margin fuel retail lives on the margin line, so the sensitivity analysis concentrated there: per-gallon margin reduction scenarios, competitive entry, and economic-cycle stress all left debt service comfortably covered, and no adverse scenario tested threatened the ability to meet obligations. The remaining work identified by the study is execution — finalizing the SBA-backed financing structure and phasing staffing to actual traffic capture as the site ramps.

SBA-Backed

Luxury wedding and event venue with 9-key boutique hotel

Temecula Valley, California, USA

Feasibility analysis of a 17,771-square-foot luxury wedding and event venue with a 9-key boutique hotel in the Temecula Valley wine country — Southern California’s premier viticultural destination market — evaluated for SBA 504/7(a) financing on behalf of the lender and certified development company. What the Project Included A dual-revenue hospitality model: high-margin wedding and event bookings anchored by the wine-country destination draw, with the boutique hotel keys capturing event-driven room nights and smoothing midweek utilization. Demand was benchmarked against the regional wedding market, venue comparables, and ADR evidence from the Temecula Valley lodging set. Capital Structure Blended SBA 504/7(a) structure: senior bank financing, CDC debenture against the eligible fixed assets, and borrower equity injection consistent with special-purpose hospitality property requirements. Feasibility Study Challenges The study’s defining finding was physical, not financial: primary access runs over a one-lane unpaved road, and the analysis flagged it as the highest-priority conditional item — a constraint bearing on guest experience, emergency access, weather resilience, and ultimately the premium pricing the pro forma depends on. The determination was structured so the access condition had to be resolved before the otherwise favorable economics could be relied upon.

SBA 504 / 7(a)

60-unit hybrid boutique resort refinance

Dunsmuir, California, USA

Refinance of a repositioned hospitality asset transformed from a legacy 25-unit roadside motel into a 60-unit hybrid resort combining lodge rooms, rustic cabins, modern cabins, tiny homes, and Airstream-style accommodations, with approximately $7.0 million already deployed by ownership since 2022. Rather than relying on borrower-provided historicals, the study built a market-supported underwriting framework: differentiated ADRs of $176–$248 by unit type producing a blended stabilized ADR of approximately $217, occupancy ramping from 57.0 percent to a stabilized 64.5 percent, and stabilized revenue of approximately $3.19 million with NOI of $1,147,623 after a 2.0 percent reserve allowance — a 36.0 percent margin. What the Project Included A mixed-format, experience-driven lodging platform positioned above traditional motels, competitive with boutique and short-term-rental supply, and below luxury resort pricing in a small, seasonal Northern California tourism market driven by Mount Shasta, river access, and outdoor recreation. Capital Structure $4,990,438 bank first mortgage at 8.100% over 300 months; $4,436,000 SBA debenture at 5.725% — total refinance debt of $9,426,438 with annual debt service of $800,260. Feasibility Study Challenges The study's defining task was distinguishing stabilized supportability from ramp-period risk — and stating both without softening. Projected coverage of 0.96x in Year 1 and 1.17x in Year 2 falls below the 1.25x lender-comfort threshold, so the study quantified the required interim DSCR reserve at $295,827 ($235,666 Year 1; $60,161 Year 2) rather than adjusting assumptions to make the problem disappear. When SBA-related review requested a coverage case excluding the twelve Airstream units, the addendum recomputed the deal on a 48-unit basis — stabilized DSCR of 1.16x, below threshold through Year 6 — and concluded plainly that the no-Airstream case is not supportable on the original stabilized basis without additional structural credit support or reduced leverage. The determination was narrowed, not revised, under underwriting pressure.

SBA 504 Refinance

Boutique marina hospitality redevelopment with floating lodging units

Catskill, Greene County, New York, USA

Redevelopment of an existing Hudson River waterfront marina site in Catskill, Greene County, into a professionally managed boutique hospitality operation combining upland luxury suites with purpose-built floating lodging units — an integrated, revenue-generating hospitality business rather than a passive real estate investment, intentionally positioned between high-end boutique hotels and experiential lodging. The absence of a full-service restaurant reduces operational complexity, and staffing is structured to comparable boutique benchmarks. What the Project Included The floating lodging units are the competitive core: a product type scarce in the regional market and increasingly sought by experiential travelers, centrally owned and managed unlike peer-to-peer floating accommodations. The study evidenced the typology premium from a national comparable set of floating-lodging operators, supporting an ADR adjustment of $150–$250 over land-based equivalents, with phased deployment of additional floating units providing concept scalability. Eligibility screens confirmed compliance with the program’s ineligible-business rules and, where an Eligible Passive Company structure is used, conformance to the applicable operating-control and lease-term requirements. Capital Structure A proposed SBA-guaranteed loan of approximately $6,991,250 — roughly 75 percent of total project cost — with the balance funded through borrower equity of approximately $2,308,750. Sources and uses were reviewed to confirm all costs relate directly to the eligible operating business, with no allocation to speculative land holding or passive investment. Feasibility Study Challenges The underwriting tension was typology risk against coverage cushion: a floating-lodging product with no direct local comparable had to be priced from national evidence, while early-year DSCR of 1.26x sits closer to program minimums than the stabilized 1.53x — so the ten-year DSCR analysis, marina and waterfront permitting pathway (state environmental and federal dock permitting), and phased capital deployment carried the conditions.

SBA 7(a) / 504 · SOP 50 10 8

Concluded-use development cost — branded express tunnel car wash with national drive-through ground-lease pad; indicated stabilized value approximately $19,375,000

Chino, San Bernardino County, California, USA

A highest and best use study of a commercial corridor parcel in Chino, California, evaluated under the four required tests of legal permissibility, physical possibility, financial feasibility, and maximal productivity. The candidate uses screened included retail-only development, mixed-use development, a gasoline station with ground-lease pad, and an express tunnel car wash with ground-lease pad, in both branded and unbranded configurations. Residual Analysis A land residual indications grid was constructed for each feasible use, deriving stabilized net operating income, applying market capitalization rates, and netting total development cost to an implied land residual. Retail-only development produced a comparatively low residual; mixed-use development at approximately $38 million of cost did not support land value at current cost and rent levels; the gasoline alternative performed strongly but carries environmental and fuel-margin volatility; and the branded car wash plus pad configuration produced the highest residual of the set. Concluded Use The branded express tunnel car wash integrated with a national drive-through ground-lease pad demonstrated strong capital efficiency, balanced active and passive income, a manageable stabilization timeline, and favorable financing capacity — the configuration that generates the most value relative to cost among the tested programs. A corridor car wash saturation analysis was performed to confirm depth of unmet demand before the use was concluded. Feasibility Study Challenges The discipline of the engagement lay in keeping the screening honest: each alternative was carried through the full four-test sequence rather than eliminated early, so that the conclusion rests on a complete comparative record — including the finding that a financially feasible use (the gas station alternative) is nonetheless not maximally productive once environmental exposure and margin volatility are priced.

HBU Consulting · Land Residual Analysis

Phase II hangar and aviation-services expansion of an established operating platform

Bridgeport, Harrison County, West Virginia, USA

A Phase II hangar and aviation-services expansion at North Central West Virginia Airport in Bridgeport, West Virginia, with a total Phase II project cost of $9,201,736. The expansion completes an established maintenance, repair, and aviation-services operation, adding hangar capacity to a platform already generating revenue under existing contracts. Operating Platform The analysis treated the incumbent operation as the central underwriting fact: existing customer relationships, contract coverage, and demonstrated execution capability materially de-risk the expansion relative to greenfield aviation projects. Customer base, contracts, and revenue concentration were examined explicitly, including the dependency profile created by anchor relationships. Execution Review Contractor capability, materials, and labor availability were reviewed against the construction plan and budget, with fire-protection scope and identified contractor records examined as part of the technical record. The plans and budget were found to be actionable as presented, with the conditions disclosed in the body of the study. Feasibility Study Challenges Aviation-services expansions concentrate two risks the study had to weigh against the platform’s incumbency: revenue concentration in a contracted customer base, and the schedule sensitivity of hangar construction at an operating airfield. Both were stated plainly and carried into the coverage analysis rather than netted away.

Independent Feasibility Study

Ambulatory surgery center conversion — 62,259 SF medical office building, up to 30 operating rooms

Maitland–Winter Park–Orlando corridor, Florida, USA

Investment prospectus and advanced capital feasibility analysis supporting a physician equity offering for the repurposing and clinical refitting of an existing four-story, 62,259-gross-square-foot medical office building in the Maitland–Winter Park–Orlando corridor into a licensed ambulatory surgery center — among the larger physician-aligned ASC platforms modeled at up to 30 operating rooms and procedure suites at full buildout. The analysis was prepared to the standard of scrutiny applied in private placements under Regulation D and in SBA-financed healthcare transactions. What the Project Included The phasing logic drives the economics: Phase I refitting of approximately $5,800,000 activates operating rooms on the first and second floors; Phase II adds capacity to roughly 15–18 active rooms at approximately $2,200,000 — about 24 percent of total capitalization — because core systems and shared clinical infrastructure are already installed; and a final phase brings capacity to the low-to-mid 20s at approximately $1,000,000, with incremental cost per operating room declining materially at each step. Revenue modeling spans payer mix, reimbursement differentials between hospital outpatient departments and ASCs, and an aggregate contractual adjustment of approximately 15 percent. Capital Structure Total capitalization of approximately $9,000,000 comprising SBA-backed senior debt of approximately $6,500,000 and physician equity, with leverage intentionally conservative relative to projected cash flow. The waterfall analysis modeled equity raise scenarios, ownership dilution, and distribution timing across operating and exit cases, including the personal-guarantee considerations that attach to SBA-backed financing. Feasibility Study Challenges A prospectus for physician investors demands different discipline than a lender study: every return figure had to be presented with its risk counterpart. The analysis therefore separated IRR from equity multiple explicitly — early exits trade total dollars for IRR while long-term holds reverse the trade — stressed the regulatory exposure of Medicare conditions for coverage and state healthcare regulation, and confined downside scenarios to return compression rather than capital impairment or debt stress. The engagement’s purpose was an informed determination of whether the project warrants investment, not a sales document.

Investment Prospectus · Physician Equity

Private Montessori school serving 120 students in the Vail Valley

Avon / Edwards, Eagle County, Colorado, USA

Development of a private Montessori school serving 120 students in the Avon and Edwards communities of Colorado’s Vail Valley, with a total project cost of $8,800,000. The program serves a resort-economy labor market in which year-round professional families face acute shortages of high-quality early and primary education capacity. Demand Evidence Enrollment demand was evidenced through the mechanisms that matter in a capacity-constrained market: waitlists with families paying deposits to secure future access, and employer partnerships with major Vail Valley employers for whom education capacity is a workforce-retention issue. Favorable demographic and economic conditions in Eagle County supported the tuition assumptions underlying the revenue model. Financial Structure At capacity, tuition revenue of $3,435,000 against operating costs of $2,611,220 produces an operating cushion sufficient to service the contemplated debt of approximately $6,100,000 — 69 percent of the program — with the balance funded as equity. The ramp to full enrollment, rather than stabilized operations, is where the coverage analysis concentrated its attention. Feasibility Study Challenges Private-school feasibility turns on the enrollment ramp: tuition revenue arrives per enrolled student while costs are substantially fixed from opening day. The study therefore tested the early-year gap between staffed capacity and actual enrollment, and treated the waitlist and employer-partnership evidence as the principal mitigant to ramp risk rather than assuming capacity from the first term.

Independent Feasibility Study

Large-format liquor retail development — 32,829 SF building; lump-sum construction budget as evaluated, with full development costs of $404 per square foot inclusive of land, soft costs, FF&E, and working capital

Doraville, Georgia, USA

Development of a large-format liquor retail operation in Doraville, Georgia — a 32,829 square foot building with construction budgeted at $8,084,744 under a lump-sum contract. Total development cost equates to $404 per square foot inclusive of land, soft costs, furniture, fixtures, equipment, and working capital. Trade Area The Doraville location sits in a dense, demographically favorable section of the Atlanta metro: the analysis cited a favorable age distribution and favorable demographics within the one-mile and broader trade rings, alongside favorable distributor credit terms supporting inventory economics at large-format scale. Financial Findings The projections indicated stabilized performance exceeding total project costs by 121 percent, with Monte Carlo simulation applied to validate the robustness of that margin across simultaneous variations in revenue, margin, and cost inputs — the dispersion analysis rather than the point estimate carrying the conclusion. Feasibility Study Challenges Large-format beverage retail concentrates risk in two places the study addressed directly: licensing — a binary regulatory gate that no financial cushion can substitute for — and inventory-carry economics, where distributor terms and turn rates determine working-capital adequacy. Both were stated as explicit dependencies of the program.

Independent Feasibility Study

34-site waterfront RV resort on Santa Rosa Sound — conditionally favorable, SBA-compliant site plan identified

Navarre, Florida, USA

Feasibility analysis of a 34-site waterfront RV resort at Navarre on Florida’s Emerald Coast — between Pensacola Beach and Destin in one of the Gulf’s strongest beach-tourism corridors — evaluated for SBA 504 financing. Direct water frontage positions the property at the premium end of the regional RV market. What the Project Included Small-site premium-rate underwriting: with only 34 sites, the revenue case rests on rate rather than volume, so the analysis benchmarked nightly and seasonal rates against the waterfront RV comparable set, modeled the Gulf Coast seasonality curve, and quantified the snowbird long-stay segment that carries shoulder-season occupancy. Capital Structure SBA 504 structure: senior bank first mortgage, CDC debenture, and borrower equity injection consistent with special-purpose outdoor-hospitality property requirements. Feasibility Study Challenges Coastal Florida underwriting starts with wind and water: flood-zone determination, named-storm insurance cost and availability, and elevation requirements bear directly on both the development budget and the operating expense load, and a 34-site property has no scale to absorb surprises — so the study’s discipline was in the expense side and the downside cases as much as the premium-rate revenue argument.

SBA 504

Ground-up express tunnel car wash on a primary arterial corridor

Alhambra, Los Angeles County, California, USA

Ground-up development of an express tunnel car wash at 2424 West Main Street in Alhambra, California, in the heart of a primary arterial retail corridor. The total development budget of approximately $7,480,000 is financed under the SBA 504 program through a $3,225,000 bank loan in first position, an SBA debenture, and a $1,289,000 borrower equity injection on fixed 25-year amortizations. Market Position The site’s trade area presents favorable demographics within the primary ring and a favorable competitive position: the analysis examined corridor traffic, membership-model penetration achievable at the location, and alignment with the industry’s documented success factors for express-tunnel operations in dense Southern California submarkets. Entitlement Record Drawings and conditional use permit approvals formed part of the evaluated record, placing the project beyond the entitlement-risk stage that defeats many car wash developments in California jurisdictions and allowing the construction budget to be assessed against an approved scope. Feasibility Study Challenges Express car wash underwriting in Southern California turns on saturation: membership economics are strong until a competitor opens inside the drive-time ring. The competitive analysis therefore mapped existing and pipeline tunnels within the trade area, and the coverage analysis was tested against membership-penetration assumptions held below the levels achieved by mature comparable sites.

SBA 504 · SOP 50 10 8

4,971 SF c-store, 16 fueling positions, dual QSR, EV supercharging

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

New construction of a 4,971-square-foot convenience store with sixteen fueling positions, two quick-service food concepts, and electric-vehicle supercharging at a signalized arterial intersection in one of Palm Beach County's fastest-growing residential corridors. Year 1 pro forma: $13,480,000 total revenue and $1,287,214 EBITDA, producing an operating DSCR of 3.87x against the 1.15x SBA minimum — 4.67x standalone before accounting for the companion station across the intersection. What the Project Included Ground-up development: fuel canopy and sixteen positions, full-format convenience store, dual QSR build-outs, EV supercharging infrastructure, site work, and signalized-corner access improvements. Capital Structure $5,052,768 permanent loan (including capitalized construction interest) on $4,920,000 of construction-to-permanent financing; borrower equity well above the SBA 10% minimum. Feasibility Study Challenges The analytically interesting problem was cross-corner cannibalization: the same intersection hosts a companion development on the opposite corner, so the study modeled the station both standalone (4.67x DSCR) and with the companion operating (3.87x) — feasibility holds decisively in both states. Monte Carlo simulation across 10,000 iterations varying fuel volume, margin, store revenue, QSR revenue, and expenses produced a 0.0 percent probability of breaching the SBA floor. Phase I ESA remained pending at the determination date.

SBA 504

4,623 SF c-store, 14 fueling positions, national-brand QSR

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Demolition and new construction of a 4,623-square-foot convenience store with fourteen fueling positions and a national-brand quick-service restaurant at the same signalized intersection. Year 1 pro forma: $15,720,182 total revenue and $1,732,117 EBITDA, producing an operating DSCR of 4.65x — 304 percent above the SBA minimum. What the Project Included Full redevelopment: demolition of the existing improvements, fuel canopy with fourteen positions, branded convenience store, in-store QSR, and complete site reconstruction at the corner. Capital Structure $4,596,198 permanent loan at 6.50% over 25 years ($372,407 annual debt service); $2,075,000 borrower equity — 31.7% of TPC, more than three times the SBA minimum injection. Feasibility Study Challenges Monte Carlo simulation across 10,000 iterations — simultaneously varying fuel gallons ±25%, fuel margin $0.35–0.65, store revenue ±25%, QSR revenue −50% to +20%, and operating expenses — produced a minimum DSCR of 2.14x and a 0.0 percent probability of breaching 1.15x: even the worst randomly generated combination never approached the floor. Open items at the determination date were the pending Phase I ESA and final lender/CDC identification.

SBA 504

Wedding and event venue on 29.6 acres

Conway, Horry County, South Carolina, USA

Proposed development of a best-in-class privately owned wedding and event venue on approximately 29.6 acres of gently rolling, well-drained land on Old Clearpond Road in Conway, Horry County — roughly twenty minutes from the Myrtle Beach tourism engine that generates more than 19 million annual visits. Within a 100-mile radius the Myrtle Beach–Conway region hosts over 6,000 major weddings annually plus corporate, nonprofit, and social events, against limited high-quality competitive supply. What the Project Included Revenue is diversified across venue rental at approximately 65 percent of total, bar and beverage service at 25 percent, and add-on services at 10 percent, with event counts ramping from 133 in the first full operating year to 290 by Year 10 and total sales building from $3,951,850 to $9,125,000 across the same horizon. The technical analysis confirmed nearly 30 buildable acres with favorable soils, dual ingress and egress, and minimal topographic or environmental encumbrance, and the operating plan was benchmarked against industry data for repayment, liquidity, and profitability. Capital Structure A capital stack blending conventional bank and SBA 504 loans with owner equity of approximately 15 percent of the total — satisfying lender and SBA injection requirements — producing total annual debt service of $451,403 beginning after project completion. The opening balance sheet carries $5,450,000 of debt against $950,000 of equity, with the debt-to-equity ratio improving from 5.74 to 1.03 by 2028 as principal retires and earnings accumulate. Feasibility Study Challenges Event venues are absorption stories, and the study’s credibility rests on the ramp: the event-count buildout from 133 to 290 annual events was tied to quantified regional demand rather than aspiration, scenario and sensitivity analysis confirmed economic feasibility even under conservative demand projections, and Monte Carlo testing supported the liquidity and ratio profile. Seasonality of coastal South Carolina event demand and the post-pandemic rebound in consumer event spending were modeled explicitly rather than assumed away.

SBA 504 + Conventional

18-pad food-cart pod anchored by a two-story 9,801 SF taproom and dining hall

Gresham, Multnomah County, Oregon, USA

Ground-up development of an eighteen-pad food-cart pod anchored by a two-story, 9,801-square-foot pre-engineered metal taproom and dining hall in the eastern Portland metropolitan market. The study underwrote the asset as a specialty hospitality property whose income depends on cart-pad rents, taproom sales, and shared common-area throughput, concluding an indicated value of approximately $6.92 million against total project cost of $6,333,516 — a loan-to-value near 57 percent at the evaluated loan amount. What the Project Included Eighteen serviced food-cart pads with utility hookups, a two-story taproom and indoor dining hall, shared restrooms and covered seating, parking, and full site improvements — a managed food-hall platform rather than a single-tenant restaurant. Capital Structure Conventional bank financing of $3,958,000 — roughly 57 percent of indicated value with a 12.2 percent debt yield — against borrower equity funding the balance of the development budget. Specific facility terms are withheld consistent with engagement confidentiality. Feasibility Study Challenges The credit turns almost entirely on one input: the pad rent the pod can actually achieve. Rather than adopt the sponsor’s pro-forma rate, the study concluded an independent, market-supported pad rent and stress-tested coverage against it — stabilized coverage of 1.51x at the underwritten rate compressing to roughly 1.34x at the study’s more conservative concluded rate, still above conventional coverage minimums. Management feasibility was rated favorable with conditions given the operating intensity of a multi-vendor food hall, where common-area management, vendor turnover, and taproom execution drive the difference between the base and downside cases.

Conventional

Six-court outdoor recreation and taproom social venue — 40% sponsor equity, Year 1 DSCR 1.97x

Buda, Texas, USA

Feasibility analysis of a pickleball clubhouse and social venue in Buda, Hays County — on the fast-growing southern edge of the Austin metropolitan area — evaluated for SBA 7(a)/504 financing. The concept pairs dedicated court play with a club-format social, food, and beverage operation, positioning the venue as a membership destination rather than a court-rental commodity. What the Project Included Membership and programming revenue modeling across leagues, open play, lessons, and events, with the social and beverage operation underwritten as a margin driver in its own right; trade-area demographics for the Austin MSA’s southern growth corridor; and competitive mapping of the regional indoor and outdoor court supply. Capital Structure SBA 7(a)/504 structure sized to the real-estate and equipment program, with borrower equity injection per program requirements for special-purpose recreational property. Feasibility Study Challenges Early-cycle recreation concepts carry category risk in both directions — explosive participation growth against an unproven local revenue model — so the underwriting question was whether the membership and social-spend assumptions would hold once the novelty curve flattens, answered through conservative ramp assumptions and benchmarking against the operating clubs that preceded this market.

SBA 7(a) / 504

100-site destination RV resort on 55 acres

Van Zandt County, Texas, USA

Feasibility analysis of a 100-site destination RV resort on 55 acres in Van Zandt County on the Interstate 20 corridor east of Dallas, evaluated for SBA 504 financing under SOP 50 10 8 — a ground-up outdoor hospitality development positioned for the East Texas leisure-travel and long-stay markets. What the Project Included Site-by-site revenue modeling across transient, weekly, and extended-stay segments; capture-rate and leakage analysis quantifying the trade-area demand the resort can realistically absorb; and a complete 242-slide study with rebuilt global pagination, supported by a fully linked financial model through the standard sensitivity, rate-stress, and ratio suite. Capital Structure SBA 504 structure: senior bank first mortgage, CDC debenture, and borrower equity injection, with the indicated value of $11,116,839 producing a 34.8 percent loan-to-value — a collateral cushion rarely seen in ground-up hospitality. Feasibility Study Challenges A favorable determination carrying twenty-three conditions precedent is a determination that does its job: the economics cleared comfortably — 2.758x Year 3 coverage on conservative absorption — but ground-up RV development stands or falls on execution items, so the conditions enumerated the permitting, utility, construction, and operational prerequisites one by one rather than waving at them. The capture-rate work carried the market case, tying projected occupancy to quantified regional RV demand rather than industry averages.

SBA 504 · SOP 50 10 8

Off-airport parking facility serving George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH)

Humble, Texas, USA

Development of an off-airport parking facility in Humble, Texas serving George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), with a total project cost of $4,600,000. Off-airport parking is a yield business: the facility competes on price, shuttle convenience, and security against both on-airport garages and established off-airport operators. Competitive Analysis The study constructed a competitor table covering land area, capacity, and density for the existing IAH off-airport parking set, locating the subject’s capacity within the observed market rather than against abstract benchmarks. Zoning, land use, and regulatory compliance were reviewed alongside construction cost validation and schedule. Financial Analysis Monthly operating and cash flow summaries carried the early operating period, with discounted cash flow analysis and sensitivity testing applied over the projection horizon. The structure of the analysis was designed to address the question lenders ask of parking assets: how long the ramp to stabilized occupancy runs and what coverage looks like during it. Feasibility Study Challenges Airport parking demand is a derived demand — it moves with enplanements, airline scheduling, and ride-share substitution, none of which the operator controls. The analysis treated ride-share penetration and on-airport capacity pricing as the principal structural risks and tested the pro forma against adverse movements in both.

Independent Feasibility Study

5,600 SF gas station, convenience store, and packaged-liquor destination — ten fueling positions; feasible subject to conditions

Madison, Madison County, Alabama, USA

Ground-up development of a 5,600-square-foot facility — a 4,400-square-foot fuel and convenience store with an adjoining 1,200-square-foot packaged-liquor store — with five multi-product dispensers (ten fueling positions), canopy, prepared foodservice, and site work on a corner parcel in one of the fastest-growing submarkets of the Huntsville metropolitan area, anchored by Redstone Arsenal, Cummings Research Park, and the regional Mazda-Toyota plant. The surrounding trade area is affluent and growing, with five-mile median household income near $105,000 and a confirmed 23,748 average annual daily traffic count on the primary frontage. What the Project Included Fuel canopy and ten fueling positions, a full-format convenience store, an adjoining packaged-liquor store, a quick-service foodservice program under concept evaluation, and signalized corner-access improvements on an up-to-4.25-acre parcel. Capital Structure Total project cost of $4,144,020 funded by a $3,500,000 loan and $644,020 of borrower equity, evaluated at 7.25 percent over a 25-year amortization. The determination is conditioned on an additional debt-service and interest reserve of approximately $225,000 being fully funded. Feasibility Study Challenges The demographic case for the site is strong; the caution is site-specific and stated plainly. On a conservative pass-by demand case the project does not clear the 1.15x SBA or 1.20x conventional coverage floors, producing coverage of roughly 0.89x to 1.05x. On a destination-adjusted case — reflecting deliberate trip generation from the liquor store and add-on services — coverage clears both floors in all ten years at 1.25x to 1.49x. The study therefore returned a determination of feasible subject to conditions rather than softening the assumptions: the diesel dispenser and self-serve dog wash being built, the liquor store being merchandised and marketed as a destination, direct signalized access confirmed by civil plan and ALDOT driveway permit, the reserves being fully funded, and documented owner-operator experience.

Conventional

Highway travel center: fuel, convenience, QSR, and retail strip — RSMeans location-adjusted budget

US-50 corridor, Nevada, USA

Feasibility analysis of a highway travel center — branded fuel, convenience store, quick-service restaurant, and a multi-tenant retail strip — on the US-50 corridor at Mound House, sponsored by a tribal Section 17 federal corporation, with the financing structured at the component level so each income stream is underwritten on its own merits. What the Project Included A 170-slide study with 27 appendix exhibits, supported by a 57-tab fully linked model carrying 3,696 formulas, in which eight tribal sovereign tax exemptions are embedded directly in the base-case operating economics — fuel excise, sales, and property tax positions that materially alter both the margin structure and the competitive posture against off-reservation operators. Capital Structure Component financing: the fuel and convenience component and the retail strip are sized, collateralized, and covenanted separately, allowing the lender to advance against the 8.38x-coverage fuel business without cross-subsidizing the slower-stabilizing retail strip at 1.50x. Feasibility Study Challenges Tribal sovereign structures demand underwriting discipline in both directions: the eight tax exemptions are real economic advantages that belong in the base case, but each had to be documented to its legal source so the lender relies on established sovereign positions rather than assumptions — and the Section 17 corporate structure required the analysis to address sovereign immunity, waiver scope, and collateral enforceability head-on, the questions every lender to Indian Country asks first.

Component Financing

7,200 SF dual-tenant retail building

Grain Valley, Missouri, USA

Feasibility analysis of a 7,200-square-foot dual-tenant retail building in Grain Valley, Jackson County — a fast-growing Interstate 70 suburb on the eastern edge of the Kansas City metropolitan area — evaluated for SBA 504 financing. The program pairs an owner-operated wine and spirits store with a national-franchise quick-service food tenant in a single new-construction building. What the Project Included Trade-area demand analysis for both retail formats, franchise-system underwriting for the quick-service component, construction and equipment budgeting carried at line-item level, and a 271-slide master study assembled with full cross-referencing between the ownership structure, square-footage program, and financial schedules. Capital Structure SBA 504 structure: senior bank first mortgage, CDC debenture, and borrower equity injection, with the equipment budget for both tenant spaces carried inside the eligible project cost basis. Feasibility Study Challenges Two businesses under one roof and one loan means every inconsistency compounds: the engagement included a dedicated consistency revision pass reconciling the ownership structure, standardizing the square-footage program across every schedule, aligning the equipment budget, and incorporating the franchisor’s multi-unit approval language as a documented condition — the unglamorous work that determines whether a study survives lender and SBA review without exception items.

SBA 504

Six-cabin boutique hospitality lodge with guest-services building — Year 1 DSCR 1.37x

Valdez, Alaska, USA

Ground-up development of a six-cabin owner-operated boutique hospitality lodge in the Prince William Sound tourism market — five standard guest cabins and one larger flagship cabin — supported by a guest-services building with a shared hot tub, sauna, and outdoor gathering area. The study underwrote a blended average daily rate near $370 and occupancy ramping to a stabilized 62.5 percent, producing coverage sufficient to return a favorable determination against the SBA 7(a) framework. What the Project Included Six purpose-built guest cabins across two room types, a central guest-services building, shared amenities including a hot tub, sauna, and outdoor gathering area, and full site improvements on a compact parcel positioned for seasonal Prince William Sound tourism demand. Capital Structure $2,890,461 SBA 7(a) facility (85.4 percent of total project cost) at 8.00 percent over 300 months, with $494,730 of borrower equity (14.6 percent) — total project cost of $3,385,191 against annual debt service of $267,709. Feasibility Study Challenges A six-key lodge in a short, seasonal Alaskan market has little margin for rate slippage, so the study’s central task was testing whether the underwritten average daily rate could actually be realized rather than assumed. Coverage of 1.37x in the first stabilized year is favorable but not generous, and the determination was returned as favorable with conditions: an ADR rate-realization covenant tying the credit to achieved rate, a funded debt-service reserve, and standard closing items including property-tax confirmation, a guarantor personal financial statement, a not-to-exceed construction contract, and Alaska State Fire Marshal plan review. The conclusion was conditioned, not softened.

SBA 7(a) · SOP 50 10 8

26-unit assisted living facility acquisition

Cortez, Colorado, USA

Acquisition of an operating 26-unit, single-story assisted living facility by an experienced regional operator, evaluated under USDA 7 CFR Part 5001. Year 1 revenue of $1,152,029 assumes 90.5 percent average occupancy — conservative against the 100 percent occupancy confirmed by appraisal at study date — and the acquisition preserves nine rural healthcare jobs with $551,400 in annual local payroll. What the Project Included Going-concern acquisition of the real property, furniture, fixtures and equipment, and intangible going-concern value of an established rural assisted living operation, with single-story construction purpose-suited to resident safety and line-of-sight staff supervision. Capital Structure $1,350,000 USDA B&I guaranteed loan with an 85% federal guaranty (79.4% of TPC); $200,000 cash equity (11.8%); $150,000 subordinated seller note at 9.0% interest-only with a 24-month balloon. Feasibility Study Challenges Small-balance rural healthcare deals live or die on cushion, and the study quantified it: break-even occupancy of 63.0 percent means the facility covers all costs including debt service with only 16.4 of 26 units occupied — a 27.5-point cushion below projected Year 1 occupancy. The structural watch-items were the 24-month balloon on the subordinated seller note, which must be refinanced or retired from cash flow, and the standard pre-closing conditions: Phase I ESA, flood-zone determination, and zoning confirmation.

USDA B&I · Instruction 5001

Evaluated acquisition-and-renovation loan facility — reopening of a historically significant structure as a wedding and special events venue; $250,000 acquisition basis

Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania, USA

Acquisition, renovation, and reopening of a historically significant structure in Reading, Pennsylvania as a wedding and special events venue. The $250,000 acquisition basis is the project’s defining economic fact: combined with renovation-focused capital deployment, it produces a cost-to-income relationship that materially strengthens feasibility, with capital allocated to revenue-enabling improvements, regulatory compliance, and operational readiness rather than speculative enhancements. Financial Performance At stabilization the venue is projected to generate approximately $441,000 in annual net operating income against annual debt service of approximately $127,000 — coverage exceeding 3.4x, evaluated on the full 25-year amortization schedule consistent with standard underwriting practice even though the stated loan term is seven years. A 42 percent EBITDA margin provides substantial cushion, and expenses are structured to scale with event volume, contracting during lower-volume periods. Capital Discipline The financing structure — a $1,500,000 fully amortizing facility at 7.00 percent fixed — aligns with the economic life of the improvements and the durability of event demand. Working capital and a conservatively sized contingency allowance are carried inside the project cost, reducing reliance on short-term borrowing or owner contributions during early operations. Feasibility Study Challenges Reopening a dormant historic asset places execution risk in the renovation scope: rehabilitating older buildings carries inherent uncertainty that the contingency must absorb without funding scope expansion. The early operating years also demand management accountability, consistency, and responsiveness before the booking pipeline matures — both risks were stated plainly and carried as the program’s principal conditions.

Independent Feasibility Study

Major-brand gas station expansion — new-construction convenience store

Mountain Home, Elmore County, Idaho, USA

Feasibility study of a proposed SBA-financed expansion at an established major-brand fuel site in Mountain Home, Elmore County — razing a structure dating to 1962 and constructing a new 2,200-square-foot convenience store to capture inside-sales margin at a location whose fuel business is already proven. Stabilized Year 1 operations are projected at approximately $4,200,000 in revenue and approximately $246,000 of net operating income, confirming that the core business is viable before the expansion premium is counted. What the Project Included The budget allocates $1,200,000 to the new convenience store building — 82.8 percent of total project cost, or $545 per square foot — a concentration the study defended explicitly: inside sales, not fuel, generate the majority of gross margin, so directing capital to the dominant revenue driver is the correct underwriting posture. SBA and lender fees of $85,000 represent a conservative 5.9 percent of cost for a multi-party 504 structure, and $120,000 of initial working capital — 8.3 percent — sits inside the five-to-ten percent range lenders treat as reasonable without overcapitalization. Capital Structure An SBA 504 loan of $1,235,000 amortized over 25 years at an assumed 10.75 percent interest rate against $1,450,000 of fixed, known, and fully funded project costs, producing annual debt service of approximately $142,582 covered at 1.73x from initial stabilized operations. Feasibility Study Challenges The discipline in this study was scale honesty: the pro forma deliberately does not project demand beyond what is feasible within a neighborhood-scale convenience format, the 10.75 percent rate assumption builds in rate stress rather than optimism, and the sensitivity analysis tested whether the business as it exists — not as it might become — sustains the proposed debt. Coverage at 1.73x initial, improving thereafter, answered the question affirmatively under SBA SOP 50 10 underwriting standards.

SBA 504

8.343-acre commercial assemblage — concluded-program residual land value, 54,000 SF medical office, flex, and bank pad program

Eustis, Lake County, Florida, USA

Highest and best use analysis of an 8.343-acre, 363,429-square-foot commercial assemblage fronting N State Road 19 in Eustis, Lake County — a site whose developable footprint is defined by its constraints: 6.054 upland acres suitable for development, two wetland areas totaling approximately 2.3 acres (1.869 and 0.420 acres), and a portion lying within FEMA Flood Zone AE, producing a net buildable envelope estimated at 4.5 to 4.8 acres, or roughly 195,000 square feet after parking and stormwater requirements. What the Project Included Each candidate use — medical office, flex space, bank branch, self-storage, urgent care, grocery, and combinations — was run through discounted cash flow modeling with residual land value calculation, terminal value discounting, entrepreneurial profit expectations, and submarket rent evidence averaging approximately $24.70 per square foot. Medical office and flex space emerged as the strongest single uses, bank branches as stabilizers, storage and urgent care as feasible but lower-productivity, and grocery as unsupportable on residual land value as a primary format. Capital Structure Twenty single-use scenarios were costed in the feasibility ranking table at total costs of $5,550,000 to $7,550,000 — the highest and best use emerging not from any one of them but from the phased mixed program: Phase 1 delivers the flex space and bank pad for early income and equity recycling at roughly 65% loan-to-cost with a 1.30x DSCR sizing constraint, and Phase 2 delivers the medical office once tenants are secured. Each scenario carried site acquisition, preparation, hard and soft costs, and a twelve percent entrepreneurial profit, so the residual land values compare on a consistent, financeable basis. Feasibility Study Challenges Constrained-site HBU work is subtraction before addition: wetlands and the Zone AE floodplain had to be carved out and stormwater compliance engineered before any program could be sized, and only a subset of uses that achieve positive residual land value also produce returns above market expectations — the study’s ranking framework was built to find that intersection. The conclusion is a defensible, supported program identification rather than a single-use bet.

Highest & Best Use

Three-parcel downtown highest and best use analysis — concluded near-term program; vertical concepts to $3,100,000 screened per parcel

Mountain Home, Elmore County, Idaho, USA

Highest and best use study of three parcels in downtown Mountain Home held under common ownership — two fronting N Main Street and one fronting N 2nd East — determining, parcel by parcel, the uses that are legally permissible, physically possible, financially feasible, and maximally productive, both individually and for the ownership viewed as a coordinated but not unified holding. The report explicitly rejects the convenient assumption that proximate parcels on a sketch constitute a seamless development tract. What the Project Included The analytical framework treated the public alley system as a real boundary, which reorganized the entire conclusion: the western parcels form the Main Street–oriented retail component while the N 2nd East parcel stands alone with its own use determination, each evaluated on frontage role, parcel geometry, likely tenancy, downtown rent creation, and traffic pattern including the one-way access logic. Scenario testing included a build-ready commercial pad for long-term ground lease against build-to-suit alternatives, compared on land residual, financeability, and equity return under the user’s requested financing assumptions. Capital Structure Screening feasibility tables priced every concept per parcel — total project costs from $1,300,000 to $3,100,000 for vertical programs, sized against a 1.30x DSCR maximum loan, equity required, value at an 8% capitalization rate, and land residual — under the ownership’s requested financing assumptions of prime plus a margin. 470 N Main Street, at 14,985 square feet the largest parcel and the strongest long-term vertical opportunity, was concluded as the primary future redevelopment parcel while failing the immediate financial feasibility test for speculative development. The city’s development-incentive ordinance, requiring minimum qualifying investment of not less than $500,000, was factored as a threshold condition rather than a direct abatement. Feasibility Study Challenges The hardest part of small-market downtown HBU work is resisting overstatement: a ground-lease benchmark can flatter a parcel’s value while leaving the residual only marginally positive, and the study said so plainly, concluding where the ownership would leave value on the table through fragmented disposition versus coordinated development. The conclusion strengthens downtown identity goals while remaining anchored to what actual market conditions and actual parcel geometry support.

Highest & Best Use

Commercial Bakery Automation & Expansion

Clarkesville, Habersham County, Georgia, United States

Independent feasibility study for the proposed automation and expansion of an existing commercial bakery in Clarkesville, Georgia. The assignment evaluated economic, market, technical, financial and management feasibility in connection with proposed SBA 7(a) International Trade and USDA Business & Industry loans. The study's determination was Favorable With Conditions.

SBA 7(a) International TradeUSDA B&I

Live-Performance Theatre Feasibility — Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas, Clark, Nevada, United States

Feasibility and economic-impact study for proposed new construction of a live-performance theatre complex in Las Vegas, expanding an existing theatre operation. The report reviews economic, market, and financial considerations, with shared support facilities and related food, beverage, and retail uses.

Partial Medical Device Product Feasibility

Not specified, Not specified, Not specified, Not specified

Partial feasibility report for a medical-device product and proposed sales and operations. The supplied sections address economic, market, technical, and financial considerations; project location is not established.

Start-Up Winery and Farmers Market Feasibility — Willcox, Arizona

Willcox, Cochise County, Arizona, United States

Completed analytical assignment for a planned start-up winery and farmers-market operation in the Willcox area, with two proposed locations and site selection still open in the source. The work covers economic, market, technical, financial, and management considerations for a potential USDA loan-guarantee request.

USDA — program not specified

Poultry Processing Expansion Feasibility — Alabama

Not specified, Not specified, Alabama, United States

Feasibility study for continuation and expansion of an operating poultry-processing business across facilities in the Decatur and Florence areas of Alabama. The analysis covers economic, market, technical, financial, and management considerations for potential USDA loan-guarantee underwriting.

USDA loan guarantee

Truck Services and Parking Feasibility — Greentown, Pennsylvania

Greentown, Pike, Pennsylvania, United States

Feasibility analysis for a planned truck repair, truck-wash, and truck-parking facility in the Greentown area. The study reviews site and access conditions, trucking demand, competition, operating considerations, and financial scenarios.

SBA — program not specifiedConventional bank loan

Stone Mining and Manufacturing Expansion Feasibility — Ste. Genevieve, Missouri

Ste. Genevieve, Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, United States

Feasibility study for expansion of a stone-mining and manufacturing operation in the Ste. Genevieve area. The scope covers economic, market, technical, financial, and management considerations.

Conventional loanUSDA B&ISBA — program not specified
Engagements Completed
4,000+
SBA Studies Accepted by Lenders
1,300+
USDA Studies in Agency Financing
950+
Project Value Evaluated
$43.8B
Feasibility Consultants Since
1998

Thousands of real estate, business, and machinery appraisal and litigation assignments.

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