Hotel Feasibility Study in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metro Area

A huge lodging market that barely registers in SBA files

South Florida shows the sharpest mismatch in this set between size and SBA presence. The area is 33 of 807 for hotel and motel loans, with 49 approvals worth $137.3 million from FY2017 to FY2026, yet the location quotient is a mere 0.15x and hotels sit at 16 of 39 on the metro's class list. In plain terms, lodging is a small slice of the SBA lending done in the three-county metro, even though the dollars are large when it does appear. Whatever financing larger hotels here use outside SBA is not in these files.

Ticket size and mix

A midpoint of $2.8 million sits 1.28x above the national midpoint for hotels, and typical loans stretch from $875,000 up to $5.0 million. That breadth separates a small independent motel from a branded, mid-scale property. The program split is 30 for 7(a) and 19 for 504, and franchised properties account for 51.0%, so the market is evenly divided between branded and unbranded stock. One shared code hides whether a property is limited service or full service.

Counties and the 504 holder

Broward County has 22 loans, Miami-Dade County 16 and Palm Beach County 11. Florida Business Development Corporation is the one named holder, with 10 loans in the 504 table worth $27.8 million, as the holder SBA lists today. No 7(a) lender has enough loans to appear.

Years and gaps

Two years can be printed: FY2017, with 14 loans and $35.1 million, and FY2021, with 6 and $18.1 million. Every other year is concealed because the counts are thin. Cancellation after approval is not printed and neither is the charge-off rate; a withheld figure is not a zero, and there is no floor to cite.

What a South Florida hotel study must establish

Since the metro's SBA hotel record is thin, a study cannot lean on a deep local pool of comparable loans, and should build its case on the property: segment, brand, rooms and the competitive set. Insurance, flood and wind exposure, and construction cost along the coast are first-order tests in this market, as are seasonality and the share of demand from leisure versus business travel. The stabilization period and the payment coverage during it matter most for a new property. The appraisal must keep the going concern apart from the real estate.