Fitness Center Feasibility Study

Questions buyers ask

Who writes fitness center feasibility studies for lenders?

Loan Analytics does, as an independent study signed by Daniel Smith, MAI, for the credit file of a fitness center loan. The program behind it may be 7(a), 504, a Business and Industry guarantee from USDA, or a bank's conventional credit, and the tests stay the same. It reads the subject club against the SBA record on this page: 11,604 7(a) and 916 504 fitness loans from FY2017 to FY2026, the state, metro and lender tables, and the cancellation and charge-off floors.

Does a lender have to see a study before it funds a gym?

That is the lender's call, set by its credit policy and the deal in front of it. The record explains why fitness files draw the request: the 7(a) charge-off floor for fitness loans funded from FY2017 through FY2021 is 9.5%, the cancellation floors are 11.6% under 7(a) and 12.9% under 504, and the newest vintages, including the record 1,606 approvals of FY2025, have no loss history yet. A start-up club, a new building or a franchise build-out is where an independent test adds the most to the file.

How much does a fitness center feasibility study cost?

Prices come from one place, the fee survey for 2026 that Loan Analytics publishes on this site, which records what providers charge for SBA studies. For one location of an ordinary special-purpose property it shows $5,000 to $12,500; complex assignments, with several sites, an unusual concept or phased construction, fall at $10,000 to $25,000; and where the USDA standard of 7 CFR Part 5001 applies the survey shows $7,500 to $18,750 or more. Fitness centers have no line of their own in that survey, so the fee for your club comes in the scope reply, set by program, format and site count.

How long does a fitness center feasibility study take?

We give the timeline in the scope reply, set against the lender's deadline, rather than as a standard figure. What drives it is the work the fitness record calls for: surveying every competing club and studio in the trade area, testing the membership forecast against attrition and a closure case, checking the equipment and build-out budget, and judging how the space would be re-let. A ground-up club, a franchise concept or several sites add sections; an acquisition with an operating history shortens the market and ramp work.

What will the lender check first in a gym feasibility study?

A lender reads a fitness study for the points where clubs in its book have failed. The 7(a) record shows 9.5% charged off in the FY2017 to FY2021 cohort, with 5.3% inside 5 years, so the lender wants coverage that holds after churn and after the ramp, a downside case in which the club is closed for a time, a budget for equipment and mechanical systems that will not be cut at closing, and a view of how the space is reused if the club goes dark. In a high-floor state such as Texas (13.5%) or South Carolina (24.1%), expect that downside case to be read first.

Which SBA lenders make the most fitness center loans?

First by count is The Huntington National Bank, 1,771 loans for $472.8 million; next come Wells Fargo Bank National Association (513), Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company (403), Newtek Bank, National Association (318), Stearns Bank National Association (317) and U.S. Bank, National Association (299). By dollars, Live Oak Banking Company ranks second at $241.5 million on 260 loans. The lender table on this page ranks them all, never listing a lender below 5 loans, with each one's charge-off floor where the cohort supports one.

Which states have the most SBA fitness center loans?

Texas leads with 1,212 loans and $637.0 million from FY2017 to FY2026, with California close behind at 1,210 loans and $563.5 million. Florida (859 loans, $424.6 million), New York (645) and Ohio (547) follow. Georgia ranks ninth by loans but fifth by dollars, $241.0 million, on the highest state median, $360,400. Wyoming (9 loans) and Alaska (15) record the fewest, too few for a median.

Which metro areas see the most SBA gym and fitness lending?

At the top sits New York-Newark-Jersey City, with 773 loans and $390.9 million, ahead of Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington (414), Chicago-Naperville-Elgin (390), Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim (378) and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands (371). Houston carries the most dollars after New York, $205.2 million. Among metros with a measured floor, Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario has the highest, 24.3%, and Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington the lowest, 6.7%.

How often are SBA fitness center loans charged off?

The national floors are 9.5% for 7(a) and 0.58% for 504, measured on the fitness loans funded from FY2017 through FY2021 and the charge-offs recorded on them so far; 5.3% of that 7(a) cohort was charged off within 5 years, and 0.00% of the 504 cohort. Every rate on this page is a floor, so the true figure can be higher, never lower, and a rate is shown only where at least 30 loans support it.

Which states have the highest charge-off rates on fitness loans?

Among states with a measured cohort, South Carolina has the highest floor, 24.1% on 150 loans, ahead of Texas (13.5%), Florida (12.4%), Iowa (12.2%) and California (12.1%). The lowest are Oklahoma (2.3%), Missouri (2.7%) and New Hampshire (3.0%). States whose cohorts fall short of 30 loans, such as Rhode Island, Vermont and Hawaii, show no floor, which is not the same as showing no losses.

Why do approved fitness center loans get cancelled?

This page's tables count cancellations; they do not give reasons. What they show is the scale: floors of 11.6% for 7(a) and 12.9% for 504 fitness approvals from FY2017 to FY2024, and state floors as high as 17.8% in Nevada and 17.2% in Massachusetts. A study cannot stop a cancellation on its own, but it can remove the causes it controls by settling the budget, the space and the equity case before the lender commits.

Which SBA program finances gyms, 7(a) or 504?

The tables show what each program has financed, not which one suits your club. 7(a) carries the class, 11,604 loans at a $246,000 median with a lower quartile of $75,000. 504 finances larger projects, 916 loans at a $786,000 median and an upper quartile of $1.4 million, and it alone financed the fitness loans in the open-ended top size band. The loss floors differ sharply, 9.5% against 0.58%. You and your lender make that choice, and we write the study for the program the loan goes forward under.

What size SBA loan does a gym typically get?

The national median is $246,000 under 7(a) and $786,000 under 504. 7(a) loans run from a lower quartile of $75,000 to an upper quartile of $494,625, and 504 loans from $353,000 to $1.4 million. Across states, the median runs from Hawaii's $50,000 up to Georgia's $360,400, and across metros from Rochester's $65,000 up to Jacksonville's $457,950, so the right comparison for your request is the row for your own market.

Is SBA lending to fitness centers growing again after the 2020 closures?

By approvals, yes. After the FY2021 low of 786 7(a) loans the count rose every year to a record 1,606 in FY2025, and FY2026's 1,382 loans carried $671.6 million, the most dollars of any year. 504 set its count record of 129 in FY2022 and its dollar record of $170.0 million in FY2025. None of these newer vintages has a measured loss rate yet, so for a new club the study, not the lender's history, has to carry the evidence.

Does the study cover boutique studios as well as large clubs?

Yes. The SBA record files fitness loans under the borrower's industry code, so boutique studios, franchise gyms and full-service clubs all land in this one class and the tables on this page cannot tell them apart. The study does: it sets the subject's format, price point and membership target against the competing clubs and studios in its trade area, which is why a studio and a large club in the same metro can need very different evidence.

Do I need a feasibility study for a franchise gym?

Whether the lender orders one is its decision, but a franchise concept brings its own questions. The brand's required build-out drives the budget, and the brand's system figures are not evidence for your site. The study tests the franchisor's membership and revenue assumptions against your trade area and checks the build-out cost against the loan request. In the SBA record franchise and independent clubs share one class, so the floors on this page, 9.5% for 7(a) and 0.58% for 504, apply to both.

Can a fitness center study support a USDA Business and Industry or a conventional loan?

Yes. Our fitness work is not limited to SBA files: a club financed with USDA's Business and Industry guarantee, or by a bank lending on its own account, gets the same study. The tables here cover SBA lending only, and leased equipment and non-guaranteed bank credit do not appear in them, so for a USDA or conventional file the study rests on the market evidence for the subject site and uses the SBA record as the closest public loan history for the class.

Can my lender trace the figures the study uses back to this page?

Yes. Every table here is built from the SBA's loan-level FOIA releases for 7(a) and 504 as of September 30, 2026, aggregated by Loan Analytics, and each table can be downloaded as a CSV with its own citation line. The study quotes the national figures and the particular state, metro and lender lines that bear on the subject, so a credit officer can follow any number in it to its source table.