Child Care Center Feasibility Study in the Columbus, OH Metro Area

Plentiful but small: Columbus child care

Columbus child care pairs many centers with small loans. At 1.78x, the location quotient shows heavy weight for the class in local lending, and the area is 11 of 493 for child care center loans, with the class 3 of 39 locally. Yet the $303,000 median loan equals only 0.67x the class's national median, and that median differs from the metro's all-class record as well as from the national class. SBA approved 203 loans between FY2017 and FY2026, worth $138.1 million.

Sizes, programs and franchising

The central half of Columbus loans stretches from $100,000 to $851,500. SBA 7(a) accounts for 173 loans and SBA 504 for 30, and franchised centers are 32.0% of the total. Franklin County has 149 of the loans, Delaware County 37 and Licking County 9. After 35 loans in FY2018, volume trended down to 7 loans in FY2025, the lowest in the series, and 15 in FY2026, which brought $14.9 million.

Lenders on the list

The Huntington National Bank dominates with 76 7(a) loans worth $40.2 million. Telhio Credit Union Inc holds 15 worth $3.6 million; First National Bank of Pennsylvania, JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association and Fifth Third Bank follow with 6, 6 and 5. Alloy Development Co., Inc. is the only 504 holder listed, with 5 loans and $7.4 million. The name is SBA's current holder and may differ from the first holder of the loan; nothing in the table speaks to credit criteria.

Cancellations and withheld values

Cancellation after approval reached at least 12.2% for FY2017 to FY2024 approvals. Two measures are absent from the Columbus cell, held back by Loan Analytics on thin counts: the cancellation figure that counts undisbursed loans among the cancelled, and the charge-off rate. Read them as unknown rather than nil. Anyone needing loss evidence for Ohio child care should consult the state page. One industry code serves centers and home-based providers together, so the 203 loans may include homes.

Testing a Columbus center

Tickets this modest mean many projects are leased spaces with improvements rather than new buildings, so a study should compare lease terms against enrollment revenue. It has to show licensed capacity, the staff ratio the state requires and tuition at the level families in the catchment can pay, with downside coverage at slow enrollment. The study should count nearby licensed centers directly. A Columbus site can sit in Franklin, Delaware or Licking County and the study should say which.