Fiduciary DeclarationFiduciary duty runs exclusively to the lender and agency — not to the borrower. Determinations are independent and never revised under commercial pressure. Non-negotiable since 1998. · International assignments accepted on a case-by-case basis — experience is global.
Program Experience
Conventional Bank Loan Feasibility Studies
In addition to government-guaranteed programs, Wert-Berater delivers robust feasibility studies and market analyses for conventional commercial bank financing. We provide lenders with the independent verification required for prudent underwriting.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Feasibility study for renovation and expansion of an existing theater building in Downey for restaurant, brewery, and live-entertainment uses.
SBA 504Conventional bank loan
Legal disclosure. Wert-Berater, Inc. offices are mailing addresses only. Following the COVID-19 pandemic the firm has elected to work remotely; its office locations receive mail and are not staffed for visitors or in-person meetings. Headquarters mailing address: 1968 South Coast Hwy, Ste 2382, Laguna Beach, CA 92651.
Wert-Berater, Inc. is an independent provider of feasibility studies and other related services. The firm does not provide financing or equity investment advice, and does not arrange, broker, or place debt or equity capital of any kind.
All appraisal assignments are performed by Bruce E. Jones, MAI, ASA-GC, BCA, CMEA, a member of the Appraisal Institute since 2006, a staff member of Wert-Berater, Inc. and owner of Special Purpose Realty Valuation.
