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.
Shellfish culture — oyster bags and cages, clam beds, mussel longlines, off-bottom and bottom systems — earns on lease productivity: marketable pieces per acre per year, governed by seed supply, growing waters classification, and the multi-year path from spat to market size. The study documents the lease and its water-quality classification status, validates the grow-out timeline against local growing conditions, and builds the revenue case from the half-shell, wholesale, and restaurant channels at the price tiers the product's quality actually commands.
Multi-year crop overlap modeling — several cohorts in the water at once — seed cost and availability by hatchery source, harvest labor as the dominant operating line, and closure-event sensitivity, since water-quality closures are the category's revenue interruption risk and the credit must carry through one.
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. Lease-based coastal operations in rural areas fit USDA programs; SBA structures serve integrated operations with processing or hospitality components; the lease itself, as the core productive asset, shapes collateral analysis in every framework.
The firm's coastal and marina practice — including waterfront engagements under FEMA flood and storm analysis — carries directly into shellfish siting and infrastructure work. 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 →