Who we are
Wert-Berater, Inc. has prepared independent feasibility studies for lenders, certified development companies, and federal agencies since 1998 — more than four thousand engagements representing $40.2 billion in evaluated project value across all fifty states and international assignments. Our fiduciary duty runs to the lender and the agency, never to the sponsor’s optimism: fees are fixed, quoted up front, never contingent on findings, and a determination is never changed under pressure.
What we do
Retail feasibility turns on trade-area capture: the gravity of the site against competing nodes, the spending power inside realistic drive-time bands, and the durability of the tenant mix against e-commerce displacement. For anchored and unanchored centers alike, the study quantifies retail leakage and surplus by category, tests proposed rents against the sales volumes tenants can actually achieve at the location, and evaluates co-tenancy and lease-rollover risk. For single-tenant and pad-site development, the analysis focuses on the credit and unit economics of the specific operator the income stream depends on.
How we do it
The methodology combines Census and ACS demographic bands, ESRI-grade drive-time analysis, state retail sales tax data where published, traffic counts from the state DOT, and a physical competitive census conducted at the category level. Rent conclusions are benchmarked against RMA and IBISWorld operator margins so that the underwritten rent is one the tenant's profit-and-loss statement can sustain — a discipline that separates a defensible study from a broker pro forma.
How we can help you
Retail reaches us through every program we serve: SBA 504 for owner-operators acquiring or building their premises, USDA B&I for rural retail anchors, and conventional lending for investor-owned centers, each with its own coverage minimums and collateral logic the study addresses directly. The firm's retail work includes dual-tenant retail development, franchise QSR co-tenancy, and wine and spirits anchored projects, among them a $3,659,200 SBA 504 dual-tenant building in Grain Valley, Missouri.
How to engage us
Standard delivery is 10 to 15 business days from complete project data. Rush delivery for deals already in underwriting is accepted case by case for an additional fixed fee, quoted up front and committed in writing. Engagements are typically initiated by the borrower, with lender or CDC confirmation obtained before work begins — institutions differ, so confirm the procedure with your lending contact.