Child Care Center Feasibility Study in the Jacksonville, FL Metro Area

What SBA's own loan files show about child care center lending in the Jacksonville, FL Metro Area, and what a feasibility study for a project there has to test.

The $705,700 median in Jacksonville

Over FY2017 to FY2026, child care center borrowers in Jacksonville took 78 approvals summing to $74.4 million. The median loan is $705,700, and the middle half land between $273,450 and $1.2 million. Set beside the class nationally, the Jacksonville median comes to 1.56x.

Jacksonville ranks 29 of 493 for child care center

By program, 7(a) has 54 loans and 504 has 24, so 7(a) is the larger. In Jacksonville, 29.5% of the 78 loans belong to a franchise brand. On rank, the area is 29 of 493 nationally for child care center loans, and the class takes fourth place among 39 locally. A location quotient of 1.60x means the class holds a larger share of Jacksonville loans than of loans nationally. The leading counties are Duval County, FL with 38 loans, St. Johns County, FL with 20 and Clay County, FL with 14.

Who holds the 78 Jacksonville loans

By year, FY2017 leads with 12 loans and $10.1 million, while FY2022 is lowest with 6 and $3.0 million. Years resting on few loans are left out of the series, which is different from zero. The one lender on the list is American Momentum Bank, which holds 5 loans and $12.4 million. Read that $12.4 million as an inventory of holdings; it does not describe the bank's lending practice. Cancellations are at least 10.8% of FY2017 to FY2024 approvals, and Loan Analytics does not print the ceiling. Charge-offs stand at 0.00% of 40 loans disbursed through FY2021, a floor, with 0.00% inside five years of approval.

What a child care center study in Jacksonville has to prove

The demand test measures competing centers, family enrollment and the local share of working parents, trade area by trade area. A sound budget lists classroom furnishings, a building fit for licensed use and safety upgrades, then tests each line against comparables. Earnings should be tested under a $273,450 loan and under a $1.2 million loan, with a note on where coverage weakens. Appraisers value enrollment goodwill, classroom fit-out and the licensed building one at a time, so the study ought to do the same. The $74.4 million total measures past lending only; it forecasts nothing and promises no borrower an approval.

What the Jacksonville figures cannot say about child care center

Each loan reaches Jacksonville through its project's county. Duval County, FL and its neighbors are matched to the area by name under the July 2023 delineation. Within these 78 loans, centers cannot be told from family child care homes. The cancellation and charge-off rates name their own cohort years, so their spans differ.

SBA child care center loans in the Jacksonville, FL Metro Area

Loans approved, FY2017 to FY202678
Gross dollars approved$74.4 million
Median loan$705,700
Middle half of loans, from$273,450
Middle half of loans, to$1.2 million
SBA 7(a) loans54
SBA 504 loans24
Franchise share of loans29.5%
Rank among metro and micro areas for child care center loans29 of 493
Rank of child care center among the classes in this area4 of 39
Location quotient (share of loans against the national share)1.60x
Median loan against the national median for the class1.56x

Cancellation and charge-off

Cancelled after approval, FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor)10.8%
The same, counting loans still undisbursed as cancelled (a ceiling)withheld
Charged off to date, FY2017 to FY2021 disbursed loans (a floor)0.00%
Charged off within five years of approval0.00%
Loans in that cohort40

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 child care center loans approved in the Jacksonville, FL Metro Area, by fiscal year

02.557.51012.5FY2017FY2018FY2019FY2020FY2021FY2022FY2023FY2024FY2025FY2026Loans, FY2017: 12Loans, FY2018: 7Loans, FY2019: 11Loans, FY2021: 10Loans, FY2022: 6Loans, FY2024: 10
Fiscal yearLoansDollars
FY201712$10.1 million
FY20187$7.9 million
FY201911$9.8 million
FY2020withheldwithheld
FY202110$14.8 million
FY20226$3.0 million
FY2023withheldwithheld
FY202410$6.1 million
FY2025withheldwithheld
FY2026withheldwithheld

Most active SBA lenders

SBA 7(a): lenders by loans approved (the current holder of each loan, as SBA reports it)
LenderLoansDollars
American Momentum Bank5$12.4 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.

Where the loans are, by county

CountyLoans
Duval County, FL38
St. Johns County, FL20
Clay County, FL14

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.

Family child care homes cannot be separated from centers.

Shared code: 624410 also holds in-home child care.

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 MA-27260-C36.

Loan Analytics prepares the feasibility study a lender reads before it commits: for a child care center project in the Jacksonville, FL Metro 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.

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