Child Care Center Feasibility Study in the St. Louis, MO-IL Metro Area
What SBA's own loan files show about child care center lending in the St. Louis, MO-IL Metro Area, and what a feasibility study for a project there has to test.
97 child care center loans in St. Louis, MO
SBA's records list 97 approved child care center loans in St. Louis between FY2017 and FY2026, $76.2 million gross. A midpoint loan is $410,000; the middle half covers $234,000 to $828,500. Next to the class nationally, St. Louis's median is 0.91x of the national median, below it.
St. Louis against the nation at 1.39x
7(a) outweighs the other program in St. Louis, 68 7(a) loans to 29 504 loans. St. Louis leans to 7(a) over 504. In St. Louis, MO, 14.4% of the 97 loans belong to a franchise brand. Child care center is 4 of 39 among classes inside St. Louis, MO and St. Louis is 25 of 493 among areas for it. At 1.39x on the location quotient, child care center is taking a bigger share of St. Louis lending than nationally, and a study should test what that means. The busiest counties: St. Louis County, MO at 37 loans, St. Charles County, MO at 27, Madison County, IL at 13. St. Louis reaches into IL, MO, which means state rules can change from one site to the next.
Lenders and floors behind 97 St. Louis loans
By year, FY2025 leads with 20 loans and $13.7 million, while FY2019 trails with 5 and $2.9 million. In St. Louis, 7(a) loans sit mostly with Midwest Regional Bank (5 loans, $4.3 million); CDC Small Business Finance Corp. (5 loans, $250,000). The 5 loans at Midwest Regional Bank are the holdings SBA's file credits to that bank, and Midwest Regional Bank's practices are not described. St. Louis 504 entries: St. Charles County Economic Development Council with 11 loans for $7.5 million and Small Business Growth Corporation with 6 loans for $2.4 million. The St. Louis cancellation floor is 14.3%, while its ceiling is withheld, not zero. St. Louis shows 97 loans yet no charge-off rate for child care center, because too thin a disbursed cohort sits behind it; a blank is no zero.
What a child care center study in St. Louis has to prove
Revenue around St. Louis, MO rests on competing centers, the staffing ratios that licensing sets and family enrollment, built from the ground up, not from 97 past loans. Cost comes next: a St. Louis budget must carry playground and outdoor space, safety upgrades and classroom furnishings, each priced against St. Louis quotes. Stress St. Louis earnings with a $234,000 loan and a $828,500 loan, then check where coverage weakens. The St. Louis appraisal is the last gate across St. Louis: it must support classroom fit-out, the licensed building and the land, and the St. Louis, MO study should show each first. A $76.2 million file cannot approve a St. Louis project, and the 97 loans in all are no promise.
Limits behind 97 St. Louis loans
Each of the 97 loans in St. Louis is assigned by project county. County names, St. Louis County, MO among them, are paired to St. Louis, MO using the July 2023 delineation. A reader of the St. Louis figures should know that 97 loans include family homes the data cannot peel off. St. Louis cancellation covers FY2017 to FY2024 approvals across St. Louis; charge-offs cover FY2017 to FY2021 disbursements.
SBA child care center loans in the St. Louis, MO-IL Metro Area
| Loans approved, FY2017 to FY2026 | 97 |
|---|---|
| Gross dollars approved | $76.2 million |
| Median loan | $410,000 |
| Middle half of loans, from | $234,000 |
| Middle half of loans, to | $828,500 |
| SBA 7(a) loans | 68 |
| SBA 504 loans | 29 |
| Franchise share of loans | 14.4% |
| Rank among metro and micro areas for child care center loans | 25 of 493 |
| Rank of child care center among the classes in this area | 4 of 39 |
| Location quotient (share of loans against the national share) | 1.39x |
| Median loan against the national median for the class | 0.91x |
Cancellation and charge-off
| Cancelled after approval, FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor) | 14.3% |
|---|---|
| The same, counting loans still undisbursed as cancelled (a ceiling) | withheld |
| 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 child care center loans approved in the St. Louis, MO-IL Metro Area, by fiscal year
| Fiscal year | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| FY2017 | 11 | $8.8 million |
| FY2018 | 9 | $9.3 million |
| FY2019 | 5 | $2.9 million |
| FY2020 | 9 | $4.2 million |
| FY2021 | 8 | $3.5 million |
| FY2022 | 7 | $4.7 million |
| FY2023 | 8 | $5.2 million |
| FY2024 | 6 | $11.7 million |
| FY2025 | 20 | $13.7 million |
| FY2026 | 14 | $12.3 million |
Most active SBA lenders
| Lender | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| St. Charles County Economic Development Council | 11 | $7.5 million |
| Small Business Growth Corporation | 6 | $2.4 million |
| Rural Missouri, Inc. | 5 | $8.0 million |
| Lender | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| Midwest Regional Bank | 5 | $4.3 million |
| CDC Small Business Finance Corp. | 5 | $250,000 |
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
| County | Loans |
|---|---|
| St. Louis County, MO | 37 |
| St. Charles County, MO | 27 |
| Madison County, IL | 13 |
| Franklin County, MO | 5 |
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-41180-C36.
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