Prepared for lenders, CDCs, and federal agencies to SBA SOP 50 10 8, USDA RD Instruction 5001, and conventional underwriting standards. Fiduciary duty runs to the lender and the agency, never the borrower. More than 4,000 studies since 1998 covering $40.2 billion in evaluated project value.
Live product — lobster pounds, crab and shellfish holding, live finfish for restaurant and ethnic-market demand — earns the seafood category's highest prices by keeping inventory alive, which makes the facility a life-support system underwritten like one. The study validates holding capacity and water-treatment design against the species' requirements, prices the mortality-shrink assumption from operating comparables, and builds the demand case from the restaurant, retail, and export accounts that pay live premiums.
Inventory-turn modeling with mortality as a cost-of-goods line, energy and oxygen systems reviewed with backup power as a condition precedent, freight economics for live shipment, and seasonality mapped to the demand calendar — holiday peaks define the category's revenue concentration.
Every Wert-Berater financial model is fully linked with no hardcoded values, so any reviewer can stress any input. Deliverables comprise a complete narrative report and the linked Excel model, with ten-year pro forma, sensitivity analysis at ±5, 10, and 15 percent, interest-rate stress from +0.5 to +3.0 percent, and ratio analysis benchmarked against RMA and IBISWorld data.
SBA engagements are prepared to SOP 50 10 8, including its debt-service-coverage minimums of 1.15x operating and 1.00x global. USDA engagements follow RD Staff Instruction 5001 across the Business & Industry, Community Facilities, REAP, and Value-Added Producer Grant programs. Conventional engagements are built to the lender's stated coverage standard, typically 1.20x. Distribution-oriented facilities fit SBA and conventional structures; port-adjacent and rural operations reach USDA programs; the specialized envelope takes special-purpose treatment in liquidation analysis.
The practice connects to the firm's cold-storage and logistics work, with the live-systems technical layer added. Independence is non-negotiable: determinations follow the evidence and are not revised under pressure, and studies are built to pass lender, agency, and third-party review without exception items.
Qualify a project. Tell us about the project and the program. We will tell you the truth about it — scope, timeline, and fee confirmed before work begins.
Schedule a Zoom Call →