What SBA's own loan files show about lending in the Fayetteville, NC Metro Area, every asset class together, and what a feasibility study for a project there has to test.
Fayetteville, NC records 279 loans and $230.2 million from FY2017 to FY2026 and ranks 259 of 928. Nearly a third of the loans, 30.5%, carry a franchise brand, and the tracked classes are led by hotel and motel with 30 loans, followed by limited-service restaurant with 15, full-service restaurant with 13 and fitness center with 12. Gas station and truck stop shows 8, and automotive mechanical repair 6. A further 163 loans fall in no tracked class.
Loans run large, with a $356,500 median at 1.71x the national level and a central band from $149,250 to $969,050. Cumberland County, NC holds 257 loans and Hoke County, NC 22. Of the total, 268 are 7(a) and 11 are 504, so a project needing a real estate-type structure will find almost no local precedent. Hoke County's 22 loans are a small addition to Cumberland County's 257, so almost all of the precedent a study can cite lies in Cumberland County.
SBA's holder field says who holds or held each loan and nothing about how it lends. By count, Northeast Bank (ME) is first with 19 loans for $2.4 million, followed by 18 loans, $4.4 million, at Wells Fargo Bank National Association; Live Oak Banking Company has 16 for $19.1 million and GBank 11 for $40.9 million. GBank's dollars per loan are the largest here by a wide margin. Readycap Lending, LLC also holds 11, worth $2.5 million.
Cancellation reached at least 10.3% of the approvals through FY2024, and the matching ceiling is held back by SBA. Of 108 funded loans, 7.4% show a charge-off to date, a floor on a small base, and the five-year rate is also held back. We estimate neither and call neither zero. FY2018 brought just 16 loans and FY2024 as many as 39, while FY2021 was the largest year in dollars at $41.9 million.
A study should ask whether demand rests on a base population that can shift and whether new lodging or food capacity would split a market that existing franchise units already serve. It must show coverage at the visible charge-off floor and justify value with an appraisal. Cumberland and Hoke are placed by the 2023 delineation. We write neutrally for borrowers and lenders alike.
| Loans approved, FY2017 to FY2026 | 279 |
|---|---|
| Gross dollars approved | $230.2 million |
| Median loan | $356,500 |
| Middle half of loans, from | $149,250 |
| Middle half of loans, to | $969,050 |
| SBA 7(a) loans | 268 |
| SBA 504 loans | 11 |
| Franchise share of loans | 30.5% |
| Rank among metro and micro areas by loans | 259 of 928 |
| Median loan against the national median | 1.71x |
| Cancelled after approval, FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor) | 10.3% |
|---|---|
| The same, counting loans still undisbursed as cancelled (a ceiling) | withheld |
| Charged off to date, FY2017 to FY2021 disbursed loans (a floor) | 7.4% |
| Charged off within five years of approval | withheld |
| Loans in that cohort | 108 |
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 loans approved in the Fayetteville, NC Metro Area, by fiscal year
| Fiscal year | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| FY2017 | 34 | $28.1 million |
| FY2018 | 16 | $12.2 million |
| FY2019 | 20 | $15.4 million |
| FY2020 | 26 | $25.2 million |
| FY2021 | 28 | $41.9 million |
| FY2022 | 20 | $15.7 million |
| FY2023 | 30 | $17.3 million |
| FY2024 | 39 | $31.9 million |
| FY2025 | 38 | $25.0 million |
| FY2026 | 28 | $17.6 million |
| Asset class | Loans |
|---|---|
| Not in any of the 39 asset classes | 163 |
| Hotel and motel | 30 |
| Limited-service restaurant | 15 |
| Full-service restaurant | 13 |
| Fitness center | 12 |
| Gas station and truck stop | 8 |
| Automotive mechanical repair (car and truck) | 6 |
| Self storage | 5 |
| Beauty salon | 5 |
Classes with 5 or more loans; smaller ones are withheld, and more where a small one could be derived.
| Lender | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| Northeast Bank (ME) | 19 | $2.4 million |
| Wells Fargo Bank National Association | 18 | $4.4 million |
| Live Oak Banking Company | 16 | $19.1 million |
| GBank | 11 | $40.9 million |
| Readycap Lending, LLC | 11 | $2.5 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.
| County | Loans |
|---|---|
| Cumberland County, NC | 257 |
| Hoke County, NC | 22 |
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.
All assets: every 7(a) and 504 approval in the metro, including those outside the 39 asset classes.
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 MT-22180.
A worked example of the feasibility study a lender would read for a hotel project in North Carolina, financed with a conventional bank loan.
Loan Analytics prepares the feasibility study a lender reads before it commits: for a commercial project in the Fayetteville, NC 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.
Start with the data.
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