Dental Office Feasibility Study in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN Metro Area

Dental offices around Chicago: cheaper than the nation, and no franchises

The median dental office loan around Chicago-Naperville-Elgin is $300,000, only 0.59x on the national comparison, and loans in the middle of the pack run $129,000 to $623,600. SBA approved 199 loans worth $98.0 million from FY2017 to FY2026. Chicago stands 5 of 562 among areas for dental offices, while dentistry stands 11 of 39 among Chicago's classes, and 0.75x on the location quotient shows less weight in local lending than the national mix gives dentistry. The franchise share is printed as 0.00%, which leaves every practice a standalone concept.

SBA 7(a) carried 172 loans and SBA 504 carried 27. Cancellation for FY2017 to FY2024 approvals prints 12.0% at the floor and 12.0% at the ceiling, so counting approvals not yet disbursed changes nothing. The file prints 0.00% for both charge-off measures on the 95 loans funded in FY2017 to FY2021, so no loss appears yet, though later years can still raise both floors.

Lenders by program

The Huntington National Bank holds 36 SBA 7(a) loans and $17.2 million. Live Oak Banking Company carries 11 loans for $14.8 million, so its loans are far larger on average. Readycap Lending, LLC holds 7, as does Newtek Bank, National Association, while Byline Bank holds 6. For SBA 504, Small Business Growth Corporation holds 12 loans and $8.8 million, with Regional Development Company at 7. These are holder records, not a judgment of any lender. Cook County, IL has 112 loans, DuPage County, IL 39, Lake County, IL 15, Kane County, IL 13, and Will County, IL and Lake County, IN 5 each.

Approvals ran from 25 loans in FY2017 to 13 in FY2020, back to 28 loans and $15.5 million in FY2021, and 17 loans and $5.5 million in FY2026. The area is built from project counties in the 2023 delineation, so the totals leave out any loan that cannot be placed.

Testing a Chicago dental office

A review should test patient demand near a site, the practices already open in Cook or DuPage County, and the payer mix of the area. It prices operatory equipment, imaging and build-out against $300,000, and tests whether hygiene revenue, collections and chair time cover the loan payment. A separate appraisal covers the real estate. The Chicago study is ours; Daniel Smith, MAI, attaches his credential, and 199 past approvals are only context.