Feasibility Study Data for the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH Metro Area

West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio, small loans, nearly all 7(a)

Huntington-Ashland reaches across West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio, and its loans are small: 307 approvals worth $116.6 million, FY2017 through FY2026, at a rank of 234 of 928, with a median of $120,000 that is only 0.58x the national level. The central loans run from $36,000 to $330,800, and 14.7% carry a franchise brand. Of the total, 301 are 7(a) and just 6 are 504, so real estate-style financing is almost absent.

Cabell County, WV holds 104 loans and Putnam County, WV 72, followed by Boyd County, KY with 46, Lawrence County, OH with 39, Greenup County, KY with 18, Wayne County, WV with 12, Lawrence County, KY with 11 and Carter County, KY with 5. Anyone proposing a project must therefore decide which state's rules and which local market apply. Full-service restaurant has 18 loans, the most among tracked classes, hotel and motel and limited-service restaurant have 11 each, and coffee shop and snack bar 10. A total of 208 loans fall in no tracked class.

One bank dominates

The holder field names where loans sit and tells nothing about the bank's rules. The Huntington National Bank holds 127 7(a) loans worth $21.6 million, more than twice any other name; Community Trust Bank, Inc. holds 55 worth $12.8 million, Peoples Bank (OH) 21 worth $8.6 million, U.S. Bank, National Association 12 for $833,400 and Northeast Bank (ME) 11 for $1.5 million.

Cancelled approvals came to 10.0% as a floor through FY2024, or 12.4% as a ceiling that counts undisbursed loans. Among 120 funded loans, 5.8% show a charge-off to date. SBA holds back the five-year rate since too small a cohort sits behind it, and we neither give it nor treat it as nil. Yearly approvals sank to 16 loans in FY2018 and reached their high of 48 loans in FY2024.

The study this record calls for

A study should identify the state and county first, then test local demand without relying on large-metro comparables, and keep cost proportionate to loans of this scale. Debt service coverage should hold at the charge-off floor shown, and the appraisal should support value. Lines come from the 2023 delineation. The page is offered to lenders and borrowers as background and cannot predict approval.