Feasibility Study Data for the Hot Springs, AR Metro Area

What SBA's own loan files show about lending in the Hot Springs, AR Metro Area, every asset class together, and what a feasibility study for a project there has to test.

Hot Springs: what the area shows

Hot Springs, AR logged 185 SBA approvals in FY2017 to FY2026, worth $58.7 million in gross dollars. Hot Springs, AR is distinctive on loan size: its $126,500 median loan is 0.61x of the national median, a Hot Springs gap past our margin. Hot Springs is a mid-table area: 329 of 928 by loans. Hot Springs is read whole in Hot Springs, AR, every class counted. A slice of AR is not how Hot Springs is treated.

Hot Springs: half of loans run $50,000 to $350,000, around a median of $126,500. Outside data makes Hot Springs requests look heavy; at 0.61x, Hot Springs is well below the national level. In Hot Springs, AR the 7(a) count is 171 and the 504 count is 14, which puts 7(a) ahead in Hot Springs. Hot Springs franchise loans reach 6.5%, so brand standards often shape a Hot Springs request there.

Hot Springs: classes, places and lenders

Among Hot Springs's tracked classes, 13 loans in full-service restaurant; 7 loans in rehabilitation and therapy clinic; 6 loans in fitness center come first. Another 130 Hot Springs loans sit in no tracked class, so Hot Springs totals describe operating businesses, not only property. Hot Springs counts by county run 185 loans in Garland County, AR; a Hot Springs study should say which it covers. Hot Springs 7(a) volume: Arvest Bank ($8.0 million, 49 loans); U.S. Bank, National Association ($1.6 million, 29 loans); Southern Bancorp Bank ($4.5 million, 17 loans). Arvest Bank, with 49 loans, tops the Hot Springs rows, each an SBA record of Hot Springs loans held or once held; none judges Hot Springs lenders.

The Hot Springs series opens at 21 loans in FY2017 and closes at 18, lower than the start; its high is 27 loans ($10.3 million) in FY2021, its low 9 in FY2024. Of Hot Springs approvals in FY2017 to FY2024, Hot Springs saw at least 12.2% cancelled, and at most 12.2% if Hot Springs loans still undisbursed count as cancelled in Hot Springs. Of the 96 loans in the Hot Springs cohort for FY2017 to FY2021, 8.3% are charged off, a floor. The Hot Springs five-year loss figure is withheld; Hot Springs cannot read it as zero. Hot Springs, AR membership follows the July 2023 delineation; Hot Springs counties are matched by name, and a Hot Springs loan with no match is dropped, so 185 is a floor, and every Hot Springs rate is too.

Hot Springs: the study questions

For Hot Springs, a study tests Hot Springs demand within a defined trade area, since Garland County, AR dominates Hot Springs loan counts. If a Hot Springs concept resembles full-service restaurant, Hot Springs offers size and lender precedent; other Hot Springs concepts must rest on their own Hot Springs evidence. Hot Springs costs belong on local bids; test Hot Springs debt service coverage for a loan near $126,500, and again near $350,000. Hot Springs is metropolitan; a Hot Springs appraisal belongs in one submarket, not behind Hot Springs averages. The Hot Springs record frames questions, and each lender in Hot Springs decides on its own.

SBA loans in the Hot Springs, AR Metro Area

Loans approved, FY2017 to FY2026185
Gross dollars approved$58.7 million
Median loan$126,500
Middle half of loans, from$50,000
Middle half of loans, to$350,000
SBA 7(a) loans171
SBA 504 loans14
Franchise share of loans6.5%
Rank among metro and micro areas by loans329 of 928
Median loan against the national median0.61x

Cancellation and charge-off

Cancelled after approval, FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor)12.2%
The same, counting loans still undisbursed as cancelled (a ceiling)12.2%
Charged off to date, FY2017 to FY2021 disbursed loans (a floor)8.3%
Charged off within five years of approvalwithheld
Loans in that cohort96

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 loans approved in the Hot Springs, AR Metro Area, by fiscal year

0102030FY2017FY2018FY2019FY2020FY2021FY2022FY2023FY2024FY2025FY2026Loans, FY2017: 21Loans, FY2018: 16Loans, FY2019: 22Loans, FY2020: 20Loans, FY2021: 27Loans, FY2022: 20Loans, FY2023: 13Loans, FY2024: 9Loans, FY2025: 19Loans, FY2026: 18
Fiscal yearLoansDollars
FY201721$3.6 million
FY201816$2.8 million
FY201922$5.1 million
FY202020$9.0 million
FY202127$10.3 million
FY202220$2.9 million
FY202313$3.6 million
FY20249$5.7 million
FY202519$8.7 million
FY202618$7.0 million

Loans by asset class

Asset classLoans
Not in any of the 39 asset classes130
Full-service restaurant13
Rehabilitation and therapy clinic7
Fitness center6

Classes with 5 or more loans; smaller ones are withheld, and more where a small one could be derived.

Most active SBA lenders

SBA 7(a): lenders by loans approved (the current holder of each loan, as SBA reports it)
LenderLoansDollars
Arvest Bank49$8.0 million
U.S. Bank, National Association29$1.6 million
Southern Bancorp Bank17$4.5 million
Northeast Bank (ME)8$1.3 million
Bank OZK6$6.1 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
Garland County, AR185

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.

All assets: every 7(a) and 504 approval in the metro, including those outside the 39 asset classes.

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 MT-26300.

Loan Analytics prepares the feasibility study a lender reads before it commits: for a commercial project in the Hot Springs, AR 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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