Fitness Center Feasibility Study in the St. Louis, MO-IL Metro Area

A fitness market that straddles the Mississippi

Gyms in the St. Louis area logged 120 SBA loans over FY2017 to FY2026, amounting to $52.4 million. The area is 26 of 608 for the category, and fitness is third among 39 local classes. At 1.39x, the location quotient shows a distinctly heavier local reliance on these loans than the national pattern. Tickets are typical: a $290,000 median is 1.12x what the class borrows at the midpoint nationwide, and the middle half of loans lies from $100,000 and $568,450. Nearly half of the loans, 48.3%, carry a franchise flag.

Cancellation with no spread

Here the cancellation floor and ceiling coincide at 9.6%: the share of FY2017 to FY2024 approvals that were cancelled is the same whether or not loans left undisbursed are counted as cancelled. That is a rare and useful result, since it means nothing is hiding in the middle. No charge-off rate is printed, because the loans behind it are very few, and an unprinted rate is not a zero.

Banks and the program split

Programs divide the 120 loans into 113 on 7(a) and 7 on 504. Five 7(a) holders reach the threshold: The Huntington National Bank (11 loans, $2.8 million), U.S. Bank, National Association (8, $633,800), Midwest Regional Bank (7, $3.5 million), UMB Bank, National Association (6, $3.0 million) and Midland States Bank (6, $1.8 million). That is SBA's roll of holders and it carries no judgement on any institution.

Two states, two rulebooks

St. Louis County, Missouri has 52 loans and St. Charles 27, while Illinois contributes Madison County with 13 and St. Clair with 8, and the city of St. Louis has 7. The area crosses the river, so a gym on the Illinois side faces different taxes, licensing and labour rules than one in Missouri. Yearly counts ran from 7 loans in FY2022 to 17 in FY2024. A study of a club here has to test the catchment on each side of the river, the density of competing clubs, the weight of the franchise agreement if a brand is involved, lease cost against sales, fit-out and equipment cost, and the valuation a lender would reach if the leasehold had to be sold.