Feasibility Study Data for the Fort Smith, AR-OK Metro Area

Fort Smith: what the area shows

Fort Smith, AR-OK logged 211 SBA approvals in FY2017 to FY2026, worth $134.7 million in gross dollars. Fort Smith counts as a mid-table area, ranked 305 of 928 by loans. Fort Smith is read whole in Fort Smith, AR-OK, every class counted. Both sides of the AR and OK boundary count.

$225,000 is the Fort Smith median loan, and the middle half runs $52,600 to $748,500. Fort Smith sits above the national level, at 1.08x the national median, so a Fort Smith study should size its request from Fort Smith approvals. 198 of the Fort Smith loans are 7(a); 13 are 504; Fort Smith borrowers meet 7(a) most. 12.8% of Fort Smith loans went to franchised businesses, so a Fort Smith study names the brand, if any, for Fort Smith.

Who lends in Fort Smith, and for what

Tracked classes in Fort Smith, with loan counts: gas station and truck stop 12, hotel and motel 8, fitness center 7, full-service restaurant 7. Fort Smith also holds 144 loans outside every tracked class; Fort Smith small business lending shows here. Sebastian County, AR (148 loans), Crawford County, AR (46 loans), and Sequoyah County, OK (17 loans) lead by county; a Fort Smith study names which county it covers. Fort Smith 7(a) record, longest first: Arvest Bank with 26 loans, $4.4 million; U.S. Bank, National Association with 25 loans, $744,500; Bank OZK with 19 loans, $8.9 million. Fort Smith 504 list: Rural Missouri, Inc. ($3.8 million, 5 loans). SBA keeps records of Fort Smith loans each lender holds or held; Arvest Bank leads with 26, and no Fort Smith lender is judged.

Fort Smith approvals peaked in FY2018 at 30 loans and $12.8 million, bottomed at 17 in FY2023, and ended FY2026 at 19, higher than the 18 of FY2017. Fort Smith cancellation after approval runs at 12.7% as a floor for Fort Smith approvals, FY2017 to FY2024, and 12.7% as a ceiling that counts Fort Smith loans still undisbursed as cancelled. The Fort Smith charge-off floor reaches 5.8% across a cohort of 103 loans disbursed between FY2017 and FY2021. The Fort Smith five-year loss figure is withheld; Fort Smith cannot read it as zero. Fort Smith faces a geography limit: Fort Smith, AR-OK uses the July 2023 definition; 211 loans are matched by county, and unplaceable Fort Smith loans are omitted, so Fort Smith counts and rates are floors.

Fort Smith: what a study has to test

A Fort Smith feasibility study begins with Fort Smith demand from the right counties: Sebastian County, AR leads the loan counts, though Fort Smith is wider. If a Fort Smith concept resembles gas station and truck stop, Fort Smith offers size and lender precedent; other Fort Smith concepts must rest on their own Fort Smith evidence. Fort Smith quotes should price construction and equipment. Then Fort Smith debt service coverage is tested at $225,000, and again at $748,500. Because Fort Smith, AR-OK spans AR and OK, the Fort Smith study compares taxes and licensing in AR and OK, then incentives on each side; the Fort Smith appraisal uses Fort Smith sales from the right side of Fort Smith, AR-OK. Fort Smith is metropolitan, so submarkets differ, and a Fort Smith appraisal should use the site's own Fort Smith submarket comparables. The Fort Smith record frames questions, and each lender in Fort Smith decides on its own.