Fitness Center Feasibility Study in the Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT Metro Area

What SBA's own loan files show about fitness center lending in the Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT Metro Area, and what a feasibility study for a project there has to test.

Provo gyms: below national weight, above national size

Fitness center sits 5 of 39 among the classes of Provo, Orem and Lehi, and Provo, Orem and Lehi sits 60 of 608 among areas. Its location quotient of 0.75x says gyms weigh less in this market than nationally. All 40 loans, for $21.7 million across FY2017 to FY2026, sit in Utah County. Size is the Provo, Orem and Lehi story for fitness center: $305,000 at the median, 1.18x of the countrywide fitness center median, within a $187,500 to $508,400 band.

Provo, Orem and Lehi fitness center loans under a flag come to 30.0%. Under 7(a), lenders named include Central Bank (UT), 10 loans and $5.0 million in all. The Provo, Orem and Lehi lender columns as whichever lender holds the paper, with no claim about Central Bank (UT)’s criteria. Holdings, not standards. For Provo, Orem and Lehi fitness center borrowers, nothing prints for the division between the two programs as the loans behind it are few; no zero is implied.

For Provo, Orem and Lehi fitness center borrowers, nothing prints for the charge-off floor together with the cancellation rate as the loans behind it are few; no zero is implied. FY2020 brought 5 loans and $767,500; FY2021 brought 5 loans and $1.7 million; FY2025 brought 5 loans and $3.3 million; and FY2026 brought 6 loans and $2.4 million.

Only one lender clears the naming threshold, and the withheld program split means the study, not the cell, has to say how the project is financed.

What a Provo gym study tests

A study should test membership demand from the local population, rival clubs, lease and build-out cost, equipment replacement, and debt service when dues drive revenue. A fitness center loan belongs to Provo, Orem and Lehi via a project county lookup using the July 2023 metro map. No match, no inclusion. The pairing of a below-average share with an above-average loan size is worth a sentence of its own: fewer gyms are financed here, but those that are tend to be larger projects. A study should therefore ask whether the proposed club is a large format with real estate or a smaller studio, and test the debt accordingly. The numbers here sit alongside a fitness center venture within Provo, Orem and Lehi, signed by Daniel Smith, MAI; no outcome is promised.

SBA fitness center loans in the Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT Metro Area

Loans approved, FY2017 to FY202640
Gross dollars approved$21.7 million
Median loan$305,000
Middle half of loans, from$187,500
Middle half of loans, to$508,400
SBA 7(a) loanswithheld
SBA 504 loanswithheld
Franchise share of loans30.0%
Rank among metro and micro areas for fitness center loans60 of 608
Rank of fitness center among the classes in this area5 of 39
Location quotient (share of loans against the national share)0.75x
Median loan against the national median for the class1.18x

Cancellation and charge-off

Cancelled after approval, FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor)not reported: fewer than 30 loans in the cohort
Charged off to date, FY2017 to FY2021 disbursed loans (a floor)withheld

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 fitness center loans approved in the Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT Metro Area, by fiscal year

0246FY2017FY2018FY2019FY2020FY2021FY2022FY2023FY2024FY2025FY2026Loans, FY2020: 5Loans, FY2021: 5Loans, FY2022: 0Loans, FY2025: 5Loans, FY2026: 6
Fiscal yearLoansDollars
FY2017withheldwithheld
FY2018withheldwithheld
FY2019withheldwithheld
FY20205$767,500
FY20215$1.7 million
FY20220$0
FY2023withheldwithheld
FY2024withheldwithheld
FY20255$3.3 million
FY20266$2.4 million

Most active SBA lenders

SBA 7(a): lenders by loans approved (the current holder of each loan, as SBA reports it)
LenderLoansDollars
Central Bank (UT)10$5.0 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.

Where the loans are, by county

CountyLoans
Utah County, UT40

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.

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 MA-39340-C33.

Loan Analytics prepares the feasibility study a lender reads before it commits: for a fitness center project in the Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT 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.

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