Charter School Feasibility Study in New York

A thin, mixed record

In New York the class labelled schools, which includes charter schools, shows only 33 SBA loans from FY2017 to FY2026, worth $23.3 million. That is a narrow base, and the reader should treat every ratio on the page with care. The state ranks 6 of 50 for this class, yet the class places only 24 of 39 among New York's asset classes, and a location quotient of 0.59x says schools carry less weight in New York approvals than in the national book. What does stand out is the median loan of $250,000, only 0.37x the national class median, and that single ratio is what sets New York schools apart from their parents.

What the code hides

The coding limit deserves plain statement. Charter schools cannot be separated from other schools in the industry code they share with private schools, and the bulk of charter operators are nonprofit organisations that fall outside SBA lending. So the loans counted here are largely small, for-profit and private education businesses, not charter operators. Anyone reading this page as a charter finance benchmark would be misled; it is better read as the record of small independent schools that happen to share a code.

Sizes, programs and the one lender named

The central band of loans runs $100,000 to $570,000. By program, SBA 7(a) has 26 loans and SBA 504 has 7, while franchise loans make up 9.1%. By county, New York County has 8 loans, Suffolk 7, and Kings and Queens 4 each. Hanover Community Bank is the lender named for 7(a), holding 5 loans worth $3.3 million, as SBA reports the current holder. The figure describes that bank's book, not what it asks of borrowers.

Timing and unpublished floors

Approvals were uneven: 7 loans in FY2021, 6 in FY2025 and a $7.1 million total in FY2026. Loan Analytics shows a rate only when its cohort holds at least 30 loans, and the cancellation and charge-off cohorts here are smaller, so those rates are withheld rather than shown as zero.

Testing a New York school project

The study behind a New York school project has to test enrolment demand by catchment, tuition or per-pupil funding against the cost of the facility, and the licensing path, since approvals take time before any revenue arrives. Because lending in this class runs well below national loan sizes, the study should show how a project reaches debt service coverage on a modest facility, and whether leasing, not owning, is the sounder structure. The appraiser will treat a school building as a special-purpose property, so the study should address alternative use and re-leasing risk in plain terms.