Feasibility Study Data for the Gainesville, GA Metro Area

Loans well above the national median

Gainesville, GA is a small book, 415 loans and $378.8 million from FY2017 to FY2026, rank 187 of 928, yet its loans are large. A $483,000 median reaches 2.32x the national figure; Gainesville's central loans climb from $231,400 all the way to $1.2 million. Hall County, GA holds every one of the loans. Franchise brands appear in 19.8% of them. For a lender used to national patterns, this is a place where a request of seven figures is not an outlier but part of the ordinary range.

Limited-service restaurant leads the tracked classes with 29 loans, ahead of liquor store with 22, a notable second place, and full-service restaurant with 19. Gas station and truck stop shows 15, car wash, automotive mechanical repair and child care center 12 each, and self storage 11. Hotel and motel has 7 and assisted living 6. A total of 225 loans sit outside every tracked class. Program mix is 353 under 7(a) and 62 under 504.

Holders recorded by SBA

The institutions below are those SBA lists as present or past holders, a record of where loans sit that implies nothing about a bank's preferences. Metro City Bank holds 23 7(a) loans worth $54.0 million, a dollar total far beyond what the same count brings at Wells Fargo Bank National Association, which also holds 23 but for $2.7 million. United Community Bank (SC) holds 23 worth $13.1 million, The Huntington National Bank 19 and SouthState Bank, National Association 15. On 504, Small Business Access Partners, Inc. holds 37 loans worth $26.4 million and Capital Partners Certified Development Company 11.

Of FY2017 to FY2024 approvals, at least 11.3% were cancelled once approved, and counting loans that never disbursed, 12.9%. Among 164 loans funded, 3.7% have been charged off to date. A five-year charge-off figure is not published for Gainesville because the group behind it is too small, so none is shown, and no reader should assume it is nil. Volume was lowest at 34 loans in FY2019 and highest at 55 loans and $54.7 million in FY2025.

A Gainesville study

With loan sizes like these, a study cannot lean on small-business averages. It has to show that revenue at the specific Hall County site can service debt on a request near the median and well beyond it, test supply for the use in the immediate trade area, and weigh construction cost honestly. Coverage should be run at the floors above, with an appraisal that holds the assumed value. Hall County comes straight from the 2023 delineation. This reading is neutral context for borrowers and lenders and promises nothing.