Worked Example: SBA 504 RV and Boat Storage Feasibility Study in New Jersey

This is a worked example, not a client engagement. The facility is a ground-up, 300-space yard for recreational vehicles and boats in Ocean County, New Jersey. It is financed under 504 in three layers: the bank's first-position loan, the debenture of a Certified Development Company (CDC) and the borrower's own cash. Public publishers supply the market and program numbers; every project number is a stated assumption. No operator, brand, lender, CDC or address is named; Ocean County is context, not a site.

At a glance. A 300-space RV and boat storage facility on an assumed 8.0 acres in Ocean County, New Jersey, costing $9,097,450 in all, financed with a $4,311,225 bank first lien, a $2,645,376 gross 504 debenture and $2,199,490 of borrower cash (Table 3). At the assumed 90 percent occupancy and assumed rents near 2023 western United States averages, stabilized coverage is 1.10x (Table 6), short of the 1.15x program floor stated on the site's own SBA program page ^[1] and also short of the 1.25x lender minimum assumed here, the larger of the two and the one that binds, so the base case fails; Table 10 shows the facility would need 97.9 percent occupancy, or rents 8.9 percent higher, to reach the minimum.

• Total project cost: $9,097,450
• SBA 504 financing: third-party first lien plus gross debenture: $6,956,601
• Borrower equity (504 contribution plus lease-up reserve): $2,199,490
• Stabilized net operating income after reserves: $659,096
• Stabilized debt service coverage: 1.10x
• Break-even occupancy at 1.00x: 84.8%
• Occupancy needed for the 1.25x lender minimum: 97.9%

What a Feasibility Consultant Tests First on an SBA 504 RV and Boat Storage Loan

Two questions come before any rent or occupancy figure, and both are about the program rather than the market. The first is whether an RV and boat storage business is eligible at all. Under 13 CFR 120.110(c), a company owned by a developer or landlord that does not itself use or occupy what the loan buys or improves is a passive business, and SBA business loans are closed to it unless it qualifies as an Eligible Passive Company ^[2]. A storage facility rents space to the public, so a lender, a CDC and ultimately SBA must decide whether the applicant is an operating business or a landlord.

The second is the 504 program's economic development purpose. A 504 project must produce or keep one Job Opportunity for each increment of 504 funding that SBA announces from time to time ^[3]. A facility run by one manager and part-time relief creates few jobs, so the project would most likely have to rest on one of the program's community goals, and that route is open only when the CDC's whole 504 portfolio, this loan included, meets or exceeds the Job Opportunity average the CDC is held to ^[4].

Only then does the lender's question become a credit question: whether a new facility with no operating history will fill 300 spaces at rents high enough to carry two layers of 25-year debt. The 504 rules fix the capital stack: the third-party loans together cannot be smaller than the 504 loan ^[5] and must reach half of total project cost when the borrower's operating record is two years or shorter ^[6], and the borrower contributes at least 15 percent as a new business ^[7] and at least 20 percent where the project also involves a limited or single purpose building or structure ^[8]. This example is structured 50 / 30 / 20 on the view that RV-height canopies and drive-in units may be treated as limited purpose; that classification is the CDC's, and it is an assumption here. With the debt shares fixed by rule, the first credit test is coverage, and Table 6 prints 1.10x. Two minimums apply. The site's own SBA program page puts the 504 floor at 1.15x, tested on history or on two-year projections ^[1], and 1.10x is below it. It is lower still than the assumed 1.25x lender minimum, which 13 CFR 120 does not set; 1.25x is the larger figure, so the lender minimum binds.

Decision. The study would open with eligibility and the job test as gates, then size the structure on coverage, show the 1.10x as short of both minimums, with the assumed 1.25x lender minimum the binding one, and treat achievable New Jersey rents as the one input on which the result turns.

The Site and Its Market in New Jersey

The example is placed on an assumed 8.0 acres of inland Ocean County land, zoned for the use, at an assumed land price of $225,000 per acre. No Ocean County land sale was sourced, and no town is named. New Jersey's coastal and environmental rules are left blank: the state environmental publisher's rule pages were not readable for this example, so no coastal zone, Pinelands or stormwater threshold is stated.

What was sourced is the population the facility would serve. In the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 series Ocean County has 673,746 people as of July 1, 2025; the starting point, the April 1, 2020 estimates base, was 637,328, so the county added about 5.7 percent ^[9]. New Jersey as a whole grew from 9,289,024 to 9,548,215 over the same period, about 2.8 percent ^[10]. Monmouth County, in the same Census file, stood at 651,035 residents on July 1, 2025 ^[11]; Matthews reports that boat and RV storage customers travel on average between 20 and 50 miles to store their vehicles ^[12], so a facility in the Ocean County interior would draw from a trade area that reaches well beyond the county line.

Matthews reports 2025 RV and boat storage facility sales averaging $505,000 per acre, up from $308,000 the year before ^[13]; those are sales of operating facilities with their improvements, so the assumed $225,000 per acre for raw land sits below them by design, and a study would replace it with a comparable land sale or a contract price. Density is checked against the same broker: Matthews, citing Toy Storage Nation, reports that a facility with 600 to 800 spaces may need about 15 to 20 acres of land ^[14], a range of 30 to 53 spaces per acre, and the assumed 300 spaces on an assumed 8.0 acres, 37.5 per acre, sit inside it.

Property tax is the one operating input with a sourced anchor. The Division of Taxation's 2025 table lists effective property tax rates for Ocean County's 33 taxing districts from 0.531 percent to 2.123 percent, with the larger mainland townships, Berkeley at 1.498, Brick at 1.575, Jackson at 1.458, Manchester at 1.514 and Toms River at 1.523, near 1.5 percent ^[15]. The model assumes an effective rate of 1.55 percent on an assumed taxable value of $7,000,000, which Table 5 turns into $108,500 of real estate taxes, the largest operating expense.

Decision. The study would present Ocean County as the setting and not as the trade area, carry land price, zoning, environmental approvals and household income as open items until a parcel is chosen, and treat the county's growth as a reason to believe demand exists, not as proof of it.

Demand: Boats and RVs That Spend Most of the Year Parked

The boat count is a state figure. The Coast Guard's 2024 registration table reports 153,292 recreational vessels registered in New Jersey in 2024, against 157,391 in 2023 ^[16], and a study would have to say whether the decline is a trend or a reporting artefact. The same table notes that New Jersey excludes non-motorized boats under 12 feet and canoes and kayaks from registration ^[17], so the registered fleet is the part that needs a trailer, a rack or a slip; what share of it sits in Ocean and Monmouth counties was not sourced.

New Jersey RV and trailer registrations were not sourced; a study would obtain them from the state motor vehicle agency. What exists is national production and state spending. The RV Industry Association's December 2025 survey put 2025 United States wholesale RV shipments at 342,220 units, up 2.5 percent from 2024 ^[18]; of those, the RV Industry Association counted towable RVs at 306,191 units, up 2.5 percent, and motorhomes at 36,029 units, up 3.3 percent ^[19]. The Bureau of Economic Analysis puts New Jersey's 2024 boating and fishing value added at $803,114,000 and its RVing value added at $325,483,000 ^[20]: a boating state first and an RV state second, which is why the example puts both uses on one site.

Usage is where the storage case is made. Matthews, citing the RV Industry Association, reports that RV owners use their vehicles about 25 days a year and boat owners operate their boats about 54 days a year ^[21]. Where they are parked the rest of the year is constrained: Matthews, citing Mini-Storage Messenger, reports that fewer than 14 percent of existing homeowners associations offer storage or parking for recreational vehicles and watercraft in their communities ^[22], so the association-governed households inside the trade area are the core of demand.

The national boat market is softer than the RV market. The National Marine Manufacturers Association reports that United States new boat retail unit sales fell 8.8 percent in 2025 to 215,237 units, from 236,070 units in 2024 ^[23], which with the lower 2024 New Jersey registration count argues for building the demand case on the existing fleet rather than on growth.

Decision. The study would build demand from registered boats and RVs inside the travel radius and from the share of households barred from keeping them at home, and would treat the assumed 90 percent occupancy as unproven until a local survey supports it.

Competition and Supply: What a Lender Would Want Counted

No local competitor, local rent or local occupancy figure was sourced for this example, and none appears; the rents in Table 4 rest on a national broker's citation of western United States averages.

Rents are rising nationally, unevenly. Yardi Matrix reports that RV and boat storage parking rents rose 4.4 percent year over year in September 2025, the strongest increase since Yardi Matrix began tracking these rates, with double-digit growth in dense metros such as Los Angeles and New York ^[24]. Earlier in the year, Matthews reported rent growth of 1.1 percent year over year in March 2025, led by small unit types ^[25].

Supply is slowing. Matthews reported that trailing 36-month new supply declined to 15.8 percent in March 2025 ^[26], and Yardi Matrix reports that rent growth was weakest in Sun Belt markets with heavy recent development, with development and sales activity both slowed notably from their 2022 to 2024 peaks ^[27]. The question for Ocean County is how many spaces are under construction or approved inside the travel radius, which a study would answer with a drive-by census and a search of municipal approvals.

The sourced rent benchmark is the point of greatest exposure. Matthews, citing Toy Storage Nation, reported in September 2023 that overhead canopy storage in the western United States averaged $400 per month, large open parking spaces $200 per month, and fully enclosed structures started at $700 per month ^[28]; those are 2023 figures for a different region, and the model's assumed rents of $205, $400 and $725 sit at or just above them.

Decision. The study would treat the absence of local rent and occupancy data as disqualifying for a final opinion, and would build the competitor census before any other field work.

SBA Lending Record for This Asset Class in New Jersey

Loan Analytics keeps a loan-outcomes dataset built from the SBA's own loan-level 7(a) and 504 files ^[29]. For this example's state and asset class it covers SBA loans approved in fiscal 2017 to 2026 to businesses coded to self storage, with the project in New Jersey. The figures are the SBA program's record in the state, not Loan Analytics' work and not this hypothetical project. RV and boat storage has no industry code of its own, so the dataset files it under self storage, and every figure below is for self storage as a whole.

Cost Basis: Land, Site Work and Three Kinds of Space

Table 2 lists every input with its basis: the program shares, fees and the Treasury yield are sourced, and everything about the site, the structures and the operation is an assumption.

Rounded to the dollar; lines may not foot by $1.

The facility is assumed at 300 spaces: 170 open paved spaces for towables, motorhomes and boats on trailers, 90 canopy-covered spaces and 40 enclosed drive-in units with overhead doors, all assumptions.

Table 3 builds the cost from those inputs. Land is $1,800,000 at the assumed $225,000 per acre on an assumed 8.0 acres. Site work, paving, stormwater, fencing, lighting and utilities are $1,520,000 at an assumed $190,000 per acre. The canopy structures are $1,458,000 at an assumed 540 square feet per space and an assumed $30 per square foot; the enclosed buildings are $2,016,000 at an assumed 630 square feet per unit and an assumed $80 per square foot. Office, gate, access control and cameras are an assumed $350,000; the dump station and wash bay an assumed $225,000, included because Matthews identifies dump stations and wash stations among the income-producing supplementary services a boat and RV storage owner can add ^[35]. A 5 percent hard cost contingency adds $278,450. Soft costs are an assumed $450,000 for design, engineering, permits and municipal fees, an assumed $225,000 for third-party reports, closing and financing costs in one combined line, and an assumed $300,000 of construction-period interest. The 504 project cost is $8,622,450, or $30,325 per space on the total. Outside the project sits an assumed $475,000 lease-up and working capital reserve, funded by the borrower in cash and sized to the shortfalls of years 1 and 2 in Table 7; the total project cost is $9,097,450.

Sources of funds follow the 504 rules. The third-party first-lien loan is $4,311,225, 50.0 percent of the 504 project cost, the minimum for a borrower with two years of operations or fewer ^[6]. The net debenture proceeds are $2,586,735, 30.0 percent. The borrower's contribution to the 504 project is $1,724,490, 20.0 percent, the floor where a new business builds a limited or single purpose structure ^[8]; with the assumed $475,000 reserve the borrower's total cash is $2,199,490. Three fees are financed in the debenture: the CDC's charge for processing the financing, capped at 1.5 percent of the net debenture ^[30], $38,801 here; SBA's 0.5 percent guarantee fee on the debenture ^[31], $13,227; and a funding fee of not more than 0.25 percent of the debenture ^[32], $6,613. The gross debenture is $2,645,376, well under the $5,000,000 outstanding balance limit for each borrower and its affiliates ^[36].

Why 504 and not 7(a): at $8,622,450 the 504 project cost is larger than the $5,000,000 maximum on a single 7(a) loan ^[37], and 7(a) loans with variable rates are priced off prime ^[38], which was 7.00 percent throughout November 2 to 6, 2026 ^[39], so it would carry a higher rate than the blended rates in Table 6.

Decision. The study would carry every cost line as an assumption until a civil estimate and a contractor's bid replace it, would keep the reserve outside the 504 project as borrower cash, and would structure 50 / 30 / 20, noting that a 15 percent contribution would be the floor if the CDC does not treat the facility as limited purpose.

Revenue Build: Three Space Types at a Borrowed Benchmark

Table 4 builds revenue from the assumed space mix and assumed rents. The open spaces are assumed at $205 per month, about the $200 western United States average Matthews reported in 2023, citing Toy Storage Nation ^[28]; they produce $418,200 of annual potential rent. The canopy spaces are assumed at $400 per month, equal to the $400 western average in the same Matthews citation of Toy Storage Nation ^[28], and produce $432,000. The enclosed units are assumed at $725 per month, just above the $700 starting price Matthews, citing Toy Storage Nation, gives for fully enclosed structures ^[28], and produce $348,000. Gross potential rent is $1,198,200, an average of $332.83 per space per month.

The benchmark is three years old: Yardi Matrix reports parking rents up 4.4 percent in the year to September 2025 alone ^[24], and Matthews reported 1.1 percent in the year to March 2025 ^[25], so a 2023 average has probably moved. And it is from the wrong region: whether New Jersey rents are higher, as the Yardi Matrix reference to double-digit growth in dense metros such as New York ^[24] might suggest, or lower, no sourced figure says.

From gross potential rent, Table 4 deducts vacancy of $119,820 at the assumed 90 percent stabilized physical occupancy, for which no New Jersey figure was found, and credit loss and concessions of $21,568 at an assumed 2 percent. Ancillary income of $25,920 is added at an assumed $8 per occupied space per month for dump station and wash bay use, administrative fees and late fees, the services Matthews lists as income-producing ^[35]. Effective gross income at stabilization is $1,082,732.

Rents here are net of New Jersey sales tax, and the operator's registration and collection are a compliance item the study would flag. The Division of Taxation states that, with certain exceptions, New Jersey imposes Sales Tax on receipts from parking, storing or garaging a motor vehicle ^[40], and that the Sales and Use Tax Act imposes Sales Tax on the service of furnishing space for the storage of tangible personal property by a person in the business of furnishing such space ^[41]. The same publication defines space for storage as secure areas such as rooms, units, compartments or containers, for example a self-storage or mini-warehouse unit ^[42], and states that the rental of open and allocated space, such as designated areas in a hangar available for the use of many aircraft, is not subject to tax under that provision ^[43]. How each space type is taxed is a question for the operator's tax adviser; the tax rate itself was not sourced and is not stated.

Decision. The study would price the rate card from local asking rents, not from a 2023 western average, would state rents net of sales tax with the treatment of each space type confirmed, and would hold the assumed 90 percent occupancy as the figure the competitor census must support.

Debt Service Coverage and Sensitivity

Table 5 is the stabilized operating statement. Against $1,082,732 of effective gross income, operating expenses and reserves total $423,637, an expense ratio of 39.1 percent. Real estate taxes of $108,500 are the largest line, at the assumed 1.55 percent effective rate on the assumed $7,000,000 taxable value; the county's larger mainland townships tax at 1.458 to 1.575 percent ^[15]. Payroll and benefits are an assumed $95,000 for one full-time manager and part-time relief. Insurance is an assumed $40,000, utilities an assumed $28,000, repairs, maintenance and snow removal an assumed $35,000, marketing, software and payment processing an assumed $30,000 and administrative and professional costs an assumed $15,000. A management fee of 5 percent of effective gross income, $54,137, is charged even though the owner operates, so that coverage does not rest on unpaid owner labour, and a replacement reserve of an assumed $60 per space per year adds $18,000. Net operating income is $659,096, a yield of 7.24 percent on total project cost.

Table 6 prices the debt. The bank first lien of $4,311,225 is priced at 7.36 percent, the 10-year Treasury of 4.86 percent on November 6, 2026 ^[33] plus an assumed 2.50 point spread, amortizing over 25 years for $377,616 of annual debt service. The gross debenture of $2,645,376 is priced at 6.86 percent, the same Treasury plus an assumed 2.00 point all-in spread covering the ongoing CDC and SBA fees, over a 25-year term for $221,537; the actual rate is set by SBA and approved by the Secretary of the Treasury ^[44], so the model carries a proxy. Total annual debt service is $599,153.

Coverage is 1.10x, which falls short of the 1.15x program floor on the site's own SBA program page ^[1] and of the assumed 1.25x lender minimum. The assumed 1.25x is the higher bar and so binds; net operating income sits $89,845 below what it requires. Value is not the test that fails, but its figure is soft. No RV and boat storage cap rate was found in a public, republishable source, so the value check borrows a self storage portfolio rate: Strategic Storage Trust VI's March 2026 Form 8-K reports that its appraiser, Stanger, used direct capitalization rates of 4.25 to 4.75 percent, a weighted average of 4.57 percent, as of September 30, 2025 ^[34], from self storage rates in investor surveys and regional sales ^[45]. At 4.57 percent the indicated stabilized value is $14,422,227 and combined debt is 48.2 percent of it and 76.5 percent of cost; because that rate prices an appraised portfolio of operating facilities, the figure is a ceiling for one new yard until a comparable sale or an appraisal tests it.

Table 7 shows the ramp. At an assumed 50 percent average occupancy in year 1, net operating income is $201,942 against the same $599,153 of debt service, a coverage of 0.34x and a shortfall of $397,211. At an assumed 80 percent in year 2 the shortfall narrows to $54,345 at 0.91x. Year 3, at the assumed 90 percent, is the stabilized year, with $59,943 of cash flow after debt service.

Table 8 tests the reserve against those shortfalls. The assumed $475,000 reserve absorbs the year 1 shortfall of $397,211, leaving $77,789, and the year 2 shortfall of $54,345, leaving $23,444. Because the reserve sits outside the 504 project it is the borrower's cash, which a lender would want on deposit and controlled.

Table 9 shows what moves coverage. Revenue down 10 percent takes net operating income to $556,236 and coverage to 0.93x; down 20 percent, to $453,377 and 0.76x. Both Treasury-linked rates up 2 points raise debt service to $710,342 and cut coverage to 0.93x. Expenses up 10 percent cut coverage to 1.03x, and construction cost up 10 percent raises debt service to $639,785 and cuts coverage to 1.03x.

Table 10 turns the result into the two figures a lender would circle. With $369,500 of fixed operating costs and reserves that do not move with occupancy, the facility breaks even at 1.00x at 84.8 percent occupancy at the base rents, and reaches the assumed 1.25x lender minimum only at 97.9 percent occupancy, which no lender would underwrite as stabilized for a new facility. The 1.15x program floor on the site's own SBA program page ^[1] is reached at 92.6 percent occupancy at base rents. Holding occupancy at the assumed 90 percent instead, the average rent must be $312.96 per space per month to cover the debt at 1.00x and $362.62 for the assumed 1.25x minimum, against the base average of $332.83: an increase of 8.9 percent over base. The program floor of 1.15x needs an average rent of $342.76, 3.0 percent over base.

Decision. The study would report the 1.10x as a failure of both minimums, the assumed 1.25x lender minimum binding, would present 84.8, 92.6 and 97.9 percent as the occupancy the base rents require at 1.00x, at the floor and at the lender minimum, and would make the 8.9 percent rent gap the figure the competitor census has to close or confirm.

What the SBA 504 Rule Requires and How the Study Would Meet It

Eligibility first. Section 120.110(c) of the SBA rules shuts out the passive business, one held by a developer or landlord that neither uses nor occupies the property the proceeds acquire or improve, unless it is an Eligible Passive Company under 120.111 ^[2]. The bar is on passive ownership, an owner that collects rent on an asset it does not use or occupy; it does not describe an owner that itself runs a facility on the asset. An RV and boat storage applicant would have to show the following. First, that the borrower, or an Operating Company it leases to, runs the facility with its own staff and systems: gated access, cameras and security, on-site management, customer contracts, and the dump station and wash bay sold as services, which Matthews lists among the income-producing services an owner adds ^[35]. Second, that revenue comes from many short-term customer agreements, not from a master lease of the property to an outside operator, because a master lease is the passive pattern the regulation describes. Third, if the real estate sits in a holding entity, that the entity is an Eligible Passive Company, which may use loan proceeds only to acquire, lease, improve or renovate property that it leases to one or more Operating Companies for conducting the Operating Company's business ^[46].

SBA's operating procedure could not be read for this example, so this case neither says that it allows RV and boat storage nor that it bars it; a study would get that answer from the CDC first.

The occupancy rules add a wrinkle. For new construction, leasing to tenants is capped at 20 percent of the Rentable Property, and the borrower must permanently take and use at least 60 percent of it ^[47]; an existing building instead requires the borrower to occupy and use no less than 51 percent, which caps leasing to others at 49 percent ^[48]. Those rules were written for buildings with tenants; how they apply to a facility whose whole business is renting space is a question for the CDC, not an assumption.

Structure second. Table 3 shows the bank at 50.0 percent and the borrower at 20.0 percent of the 504 project cost, the floors in 13 CFR 120 for a business that has operated two years or less and a limited or single purpose structure ^{[6] [8]}, with the limited purpose classification left to the CDC. The 504 loan may not exceed an outstanding balance of $5,000,000 for each borrower and its affiliates ^[36]; the gross debenture is $2,645,376.

The economic development objective third, and it is a real gate. A project must produce or keep one Job Opportunity for each increment of 504 funding that SBA announces from time to time ^[3]; the amount is published in a Federal Register notice that was not retrieved for this example, so no figure is stated. With one manager and part-time relief, the project would look to the alternative: a project that meets one of the regulation's community development or public policy goals is eligible when the CDC's portfolio average, with this loan counted, reaches the CDC's required Job Opportunity average ^[4]. The first three goals the regulation lists read "Improving, diversifying or stabilizing the economy of the locality; (2) Stimulating other business development; (3) Bringing new income into the community;" ^[49]. A facility that serves owners from the 20 to 50 mile radius Matthews reports customers will travel ^[12] can argue the second and third goals, but whether the CDC has portfolio room for a low-job project is the CDC's arithmetic.

Last, the loan conditions SBA may impose include a feasibility study, a survey and appraisals ^[50]; on this project the appraisal would test the value in Table 6 and the feasibility study the rents in Table 4.

Decision. The study would state the eligibility question as the regulation frames it, active use against passive ownership, and would make the CDC's answer on both eligibility and the economic development objective a condition of the opinion.

Risks a Lender Would Underwrite

• Rents that do not travel. The base rents are assumed at $205, $400 and $725 against a 2023 western United States benchmark Matthews cites from Toy Storage Nation ^[28]. Table 10 shows the facility needs an average rent 8.9 percent above base to reach the assumed 1.25x minimum.
• Occupancy without a local survey. The assumed 90 percent stabilized occupancy rests on no New Jersey figure, and Table 10 puts break-even at 84.8 percent.
• A boat market in retreat. The National Marine Manufacturers Association reports new boat retail unit sales down 8.8 percent in 2025 to 215,237 units ^[23], and the Coast Guard reports New Jersey registrations down from 157,391 in 2023 to 153,292 in 2024 ^[16].
• New supply inside the radius. Yardi Matrix reports that rent growth was weakest in Sun Belt markets with heavy recent development ^[27], and Matthews reported trailing 36-month supply at 15.8 percent in March 2025 ^[26]. One competing facility opening inside the travel radius would move both rent and occupancy.
• Property and sales tax. Real estate taxes of $108,500 are the largest expense in Table 5, at an assumed 1.55 percent on an assumed $7,000,000 of value, and Ocean County's 2025 effective rates run from 0.531 to 2.123 percent across its 33 districts ^[15], so the choice of township moves the line. An operator that misclassifies a space type for sales tax owes the tax out of rents it has already priced net.
• Eligibility and the job test. The passive business bar of 13 CFR 120.110(c) ^[2], the per-dollar Job Opportunity requirement ^[3] and the CDC portfolio condition on the community development route ^[4] are each capable of stopping the loan before credit is considered.
• Rate risk until the debenture is sold. The debenture rate is set by SBA with Treasury approval ^[44]; the 10-year Treasury ranged from 4.84 to 4.95 percent in the week of November 2 to 6, 2026 ^[33], and Table 9 shows a 2-point rise cutting coverage to 0.93x.
• The ramp, the reserve and the approvals. Table 7 shows coverage of 0.34x in year 1 and 0.91x in year 2, at assumed occupancy of 50 and 80 percent, and Table 8 shows $23,444 of the assumed $475,000 reserve left after year 2. A slow first season, or a stormwater approval that delays the opening under coastal and Pinelands rules that could not be read for this example, would exhaust it.

Decision. The study would rank achievable rent first, eligibility and the job test second and occupancy third, because the first decides whether the loan covers, the second whether it can be made at all, and the third how long the reserve lasts.

What Would Decide the Outcome

The first thing that would decide it is rent. Table 10 shows the base average rent at $332.83 per space per month and the rent needed for the assumed 1.25x minimum at $362.62, a gap of 8.9 percent; the break-even rent at 1.00x, $312.96, sits below base, so the project covers its debt but not the lender's cushion. The base rents are 2023 western United States averages that Matthews cites from Toy Storage Nation ^[28], and the sourced record for 2025 shows national parking rents up 4.4 percent in the year to September 2025 per Yardi Matrix ^[24]. A local rent survey that found Ocean County asking rents 8.9 percent or more above the 2023 western averages would, on its own, bring the base case to the minimum; one that found them below those averages would undo the restructure below as well, since it is sized on base rents.

The second is land and site cost, which drive both the debt and, through the assessed value, the property tax line; Table 9 shows construction cost up 10 percent cutting coverage to 1.03x. The assumed $225,000 per acre is below the $505,000 per acre Matthews reports for 2025 sales of operating facilities ^[13], but no Ocean County land sale supports it.

The third is the program. Whether SBA treats the operator as an active business under 13 CFR 120.110(c) ^[2], and whether the CDC can fit a low-job project under the community development goals within its portfolio average ^{[4] [49]}, are yes-or-no answers that no amount of rent will change.

Table 10 shows that, at base rents, the facility needs 97.9 percent occupancy for the assumed 1.25x minimum, so occupancy cannot close the gap on its own; the cure has to come from rent, a lower cost basis or more borrower cash.

The restructure in Table 11 computes the borrower-cash cure on the base case's own inputs. Base-case income of $659,096 supports $527,277 a year of debt service at the binding minimum, and the loan that sum repays, cut to a round figure, is $6,090,000. The bank first lien cannot shrink, because third-party loans must stay at 50 percent or more of project cost for a business this new ^[6]; it holds at $4,311,225 (50.0 percent), and the whole cut falls on the debenture: $1,778,775 gross, $1,739,344 net, its financed fees recomputed to $39,431. Total project cost stays $9,097,450, since those fees ride in the debenture as before, while borrower equity rises by $847,391 to $3,046,881, 33.5 percent of total cost; the 504 contribution alone is 29.8 percent, above its 20 percent floor ^[8]. With $526,579 of debt service, coverage comes to 1.25x, level with the assumed lender minimum and over the 1.15x program floor stated on the site's own SBA page ^[1], so this restructure passes both tests.

Decision. The study would conclude that the project does not meet the assumed 1.25x minimum at benchmark rents, that it would meet it with the restructure's $847,391 of added borrower cash or if a local survey shows New Jersey rents 8.9 percent or more above the 2023 western averages, and that until the CDC answers on eligibility and the economic development objective no rent figure or structure makes the loan.

Questions to Ask a Feasibility Study Company About an SBA 504 RV and Boat Storage Loan

Is an RV and boat storage facility eligible for an SBA 504 loan? Only if the borrower itself puts the financed property to use: a landlord or developer that holds the property without operating or occupying it is a passive business and is barred, unless it is an Eligible Passive Company ^[2]. An owner that runs the facility with its own staff and services and rents to many customers under short-term agreements is on the active side of that line; one that master-leases the yard to someone else is not. SBA's operating procedure was not confirmed for this example, so the first call a feasibility consultant would make is to the CDC.

Why are the rents taken from the western United States? Because that is the only published benchmark the public record offered: Matthews, citing Toy Storage Nation, reported 2023 western averages of $200 for open spaces, $400 for canopy spaces and from $700 for enclosed units ^[28], the model's assumed rents sit at or just above them, and no New Jersey or Northeast survey was found.

What does a feasibility consultant test on a storage facility that a generic consultant might not? The sales tax treatment of each space type, because New Jersey taxes the storage of motor vehicles ^[40] and the furnishing of secure storage space ^[41] but not open and allocated space under that provision ^[43]. The property tax line, because Ocean County's effective rates run from 0.531 to 2.123 percent by district ^[15]. And the 504 job test, because a facility staffed by one manager must qualify through the CDC's community development goals and portfolio average ^[4].

How should a borrower choose a feasibility study company for an SBA 504 storage loan? Ask whether the firm labels each project figure as an assumption and gives its basis, as Table 2 does; whether it will show the break-even in both occupancy and rent, as Table 10 does; whether it will say plainly when its rents come from another region; and whether it knows the 504 rules well enough to raise 13 CFR 120.110(c) and the economic development objective with the CDC before the application is drafted ^{[2] [3]}.

Can the base case be made to work? On credit, yes. Table 10 says rents 8.9 percent above the 2023 western benchmark reach the assumed 1.25x minimum at the assumed 90 percent occupancy, and the restructure in Table 11 reaches it at base rents with a $1,778,775 debenture and $847,391 more borrower cash. What cannot be worked around is the program: no 504 loan exists for an operator the CDC will not treat as active, or a project outside its job average.

Decision. The firm to hire here writes the 1.10x down as missing both minimums, with the 1.25x lender assumption the binding one, names the rent survey that would change it, and puts the eligibility question to the CDC in writing before market work begins.