Fitness Center Feasibility Study in New Jersey

New Jersey fitness center loans are sized like the class nationwide, with a median of $258,500 that is 1.00x the national median, but their outcomes are hard. The charge-off floor is 11.5% across the 182 loans disbursed in FY2017 to FY2021, and 8.2% went bad inside five years of approval. Cancellations add to the strain, with a floor of 14.4% and a ceiling of 15.6%. These rates are read here as plain floors; the point for a borrower is that a lender will start from them.

The size and shape of the market

New Jersey ranks 6 of 54 among states with 456 approvals and $228.2 million from FY2017 to FY2026. Inside New Jersey, fitness ranks 4 of 39 by loan count; its location quotient, 1.12x, means gyms make up a bigger slice of New Jersey's SBA loans than of the nation's. Franchise units are 51.5% of loans. Half of the loans fall between $75,000 and $657,250. SBA 7(a) carries 443 loans and SBA 504 only 13.

Lenders active in New Jersey fitness

TD Bank, National Association holds 71 loans worth $12.4 million, The Huntington National Bank 53 worth $15.1 million and Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company 42. Unity Bank holds only 14 loans but $16.3 million, the largest dollar figure among the leading holders. Empire State Certified Development Corporation leads the small 504 field with 8 loans. SBA names whoever holds each loan today, so these counts are of holdings. Lending recovered from 28 approvals in FY2020 to 74 and $31.8 million in FY2025, and FY2026 brought 62.

What a New Jersey fitness study has to show

With a loss floor at this level, the study's main job is to prove the membership ramp. Demand has to be counted against the clubs already open in the county, and the most SBA-active counties are Bergen with 70 approvals, Monmouth with 54, Middlesex with 45, Morris with 39 and Somerset with 35. Cost testing must price the build-out and equipment from quotes. The coverage ratio has to survive a slower ramp and higher attrition than the franchisor's sales case, with a reserve sized to carry the club until it breaks even. If real estate is involved, the appraisal should value the building for uses other than a gym. No coding caveat applies to the class, and every rate quoted here is a floor.