Worked Example: SBA 504 Owner-Occupied Retail Feasibility Study in Michigan
A worked example of the feasibility study a lender would read for an owner-occupied retail project in Michigan, financed with an SBA 504 loan.
What SBA's own loan files show about lending in the Adrian, MI Micro Area, every asset class together, and what a feasibility study for a project there has to test.
145 approvals inside Adrian, MI from FY2017 and FY2026 carry $51.3 million in gross dollars. In practice, Adrian comes in at 380 of 928 against all CBSAs on approvals. Here, $75,000 stands as the median; the inner half lies between $29,000 and $250,000. In turn, the median in Adrian stands at 0.36x against the median nationwide, which puts ticket size less than the national norm. Here, Adrian holds only its home counties, never a statewide average: 145 approvals altogether.
135 loans under 7(a) accompany 10 loans in 504. Beyond that, 7.6% of the loans go to franchisees here. In practice, in 7(a) cases, the top banks and lenders by loans come out as The Huntington National Bank holding 76 loans and $4.1 million, County National Bank holding 5 loans totalling $2.0 million, followed by Old National Bank booking 5 loans and $2.0 million. Beyond that, no development company in Adrian reaches the listing threshold. Separately, these names are copied from SBA records on 145 loans; they show loans approved only, not what lenders require near Adrian.
8 for full-service restaurant tops the class table. 115 approvals sit beyond all named classes, so the Adrian total covers more than any class table. Lenawee County holds every one of 145 loans, so area and county match. Taking each approval year, FY2017 begins at 15 loans and $6.7 million; FY2020 tops the series at 21 loans and $6.6 million, and FY2026 closes the file at 10 loans and $4.9 million.
7.4% among FY2017 to FY2024 approvals in Adrian have been cancelled before disbursement, and that is a floor; 7.4% marks the ceiling counting undisbursed loans. Here, no default floor is shown for Adrian, MI; the disbursed cohort is too sparse, and a missing figure does not mean zero. Then, take each percentage in this section like a lower bound, as approvals made recently received scant time to cancel or default, across 145 loans. Beyond that, membership in this file is defined as the CBSA holding the loan's project county, using July 2023 boundaries; each county get matched name to name, but a project whose home county cannot be assigned is dropped from any area, with no exception. Inside and outside the classes, every approval in either program across Adrian is included within its $51.3 million total.
Within Adrian, a proper study for a project should start at the particular site, not from the 145-loan file. Worth noting: demand in Adrian opens the work: will Adrian's household base support the turnover planned, set against rivals around Lenawee County? Here, the local median runs 0.36x measured against the country's median, so many deals come in light; a bigger scheme needs to show it can carry its debt. Worth noting: coverage of debt service binds revenue to cost in Adrian: projected net operating income set against loan payments, and a case of falling revenue. The appraisal closes the loop in this area: value as built has to bear the sum proposed. In practice, a borrower carrying an arm's-length feasibility study for Adrian, ahead of speaking with a lender, has faced these rates first; credit is decided by the underwriters and SBA for Adrian, so a study cannot guarantee it.
| Loans approved, FY2017 to FY2026 | 145 |
|---|---|
| Gross dollars approved | $51.3 million |
| Median loan | $75,000 |
| Middle half of loans, from | $29,000 |
| Middle half of loans, to | $250,000 |
| SBA 7(a) loans | 135 |
| SBA 504 loans | 10 |
| Franchise share of loans | 7.6% |
| Rank among metro and micro areas by loans | 380 of 928 |
| Median loan against the national median | 0.36x |
| Cancelled after approval, FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor) | 7.4% |
|---|---|
| The same, counting loans still undisbursed as cancelled (a ceiling) | 7.4% |
| Charged off to date, FY2017 to FY2021 disbursed loans (a floor) | withheld |
Both rates are floors. SBA withholds the status of open loans, so a loan counts as charged off only once SBA reports it; a rate needs at least 30 loans in its cohort and is otherwise not reported.
SBA loans approved in the Adrian, MI Micro Area, by fiscal year
| Fiscal year | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| FY2017 | 15 | $6.7 million |
| FY2018 | 13 | $7.5 million |
| FY2019 | 13 | $1.2 million |
| FY2020 | 21 | $6.6 million |
| FY2021 | 16 | $4.2 million |
| FY2022 | 17 | $2.5 million |
| FY2023 | 11 | $1.0 million |
| FY2024 | 15 | $3.0 million |
| FY2025 | 14 | $13.7 million |
| FY2026 | 10 | $4.9 million |
| Asset class | Loans |
|---|---|
| Not in any of the 39 asset classes | 115 |
| Full-service restaurant | 8 |
Classes with 5 or more loans; smaller ones are withheld, and more where a small one could be derived.
| Lender | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| The Huntington National Bank | 76 | $4.1 million |
| County National Bank | 5 | $2.0 million |
| Old National Bank | 5 | $2.0 million |
| WesBanco Bank, Inc. | 5 | $1.0 million |
Lenders with 5 or more loans here; a lender with fewer is not listed, and loans SBA or a receiver holds are counted but never listed as a lender.
| County | Loans |
|---|---|
| Lenawee County, MI | 145 |
Counties with 5 or more loans; smaller ones are not listed.
Metro is the CBSA (metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area) of the loan's project county, July 2023 delineation (OMB Bulletin 23-01). The county is matched by name (manifests/ld2/county-cbsa-map.csv); a loan whose county cannot be placed in a 2023 CBSA is left out of every metro.
All assets: every 7(a) and 504 approval in the metro, including those outside the 39 asset classes.
A value marked withheld rests on fewer than 5 loans, or is withheld so that such a figure cannot be derived from other published figures.
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, 7(a) and 504 loan-level FOIA files (data.sba.gov), as of 2026-09-30; areas from the U.S. Census Bureau CBSA delineation, July 2023 (OMB Bulletin 23-01); Loan Analytics metro cell MT-10300.
A worked example of the feasibility study a lender would read for an owner-occupied retail project in Michigan, financed with an SBA 504 loan.
Loan Analytics prepares the feasibility study a lender reads before it commits: for a commercial project in the Adrian, MI Micro Area, financed under SBA 7(a), SBA 504, USDA Business and Industry or a conventional bank loan. Tell us the project and the lender's deadline, and we reply with scope, timeline and fee.
Start with the data.
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