Dental Office Feasibility Study in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metro Area

Dentistry in South Florida

Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach show 212 SBA dental office approvals between FY2017 and FY2026, totalling $160.4 million. Nationally the area is 4 of 562 for the class; locally dental offices are 7 of 39. The location quotient is 0.90x, a little below the national share, so dentistry is a solid but not a dominant presence. Miami-Dade County leads with 90 loans, Broward has 70 and Palm Beach 52.

Loan size is notable. The median is $450,000, which compares with the national class median at a ratio of 0.89x, and the quartiles are $150,000 and $1.0 million. By program, 169 loans are 7(a) and 43 are 504, a clear real-estate component. The franchise share is 0.00%. In practice this suggests practice purchases, equipment and sometimes owned suites, each with a different coverage test.

Holders

Development company on 504: Florida First Capital Finance Corporation, Inc. (24 loans, $18.1 million). Bank holders: Bank of America, National Association (19 loans, $13.3 million); TD Bank, National Association (19 loans, $4.2 million); Live Oak Banking Company (13 loans, $31.6 million); United Community Bank (SC) (13 loans, $12.9 million); Wells Fargo Bank National Association ($10.7 million across 13 loans). Live Oak's dollar total is large next to its count, which signals a book of bigger dental loans. All entries are SBA records of holdings, so they say nothing of what any lender would do today.

Why a missing rate is no comfort

Cancellation after approval has a floor of 13.9%. Miami dental lacks two numbers, a ceiling on cancellations and a charge-off rate, and neither is zero. A lender should therefore not treat the lack of a printed charge-off rate as good news; it signals only that the cohort was too small to publish.

Before a Miami dental request is judged, line up chairs with patient volume, the payer mix, what associate dentists will be paid, whether the suite is leased or bought, and coverage near $450,000. It should separate a first practice from an acquisition, because goodwill changes the collateral picture, and it should say which of Miami-Dade, Broward or Palm Beach the patients come from. Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach dentists account for the 212, each county present in the delineation of July 2023; a practice in a county that failed to match is omitted from all metros, so 212 is a minimum.