Life Science Lab Feasibility Study in Florida

Florida's place in life science lending

Florida ranks 2 of 41 among states for life science research and development lab loans, a position that makes the state one of the main places this class borrows from SBA. Across the FY2017 to FY2026 window the file counts 31 Florida lab loans, totalling $32.2 million. Yet inside Florida the class ranks 31 of 39 among asset classes, so labs remain a small corner of the state's SBA lending. The location quotient of 1.25x points to a somewhat heavier weighting than the country as a whole. The median loan of $350,000 is 1.40x the national median, which means Florida labs borrow more per loan than labs nationally.

Loan sizes, programs and where the labs are

The middle half of approvals runs from $150,000 to $1.9 million. The 7(a) program holds 27 of the loans and SBA 504 holds 4, and there is no franchising at all, with a share of 0.00%. Miami-Dade County dominates with 14 loans, Broward follows with 7 and Palm Beach has 2, so the class clusters in South Florida. Brevard, Collier, Manatee, Orange, Pinellas, Saint Johns and Seminole each recorded a single loan. TD Bank, National Association is the lender listed, holding 7 of the 7(a) loans worth $1.3 million; that is SBA's record of loans the bank holds or held, and does not describe its lending practices.

What the industry code can and cannot show

What gets counted is the research firm, and no lab building is identified as such. Non-life-science research sits in the same code, so some of the 31 loans may have financed physical or engineering research rather than wet labs. Borrowers and lenders should read the figures as a signal about research firms in Florida and not as a clean count of lab space.

Timing and outcome floors

Approvals climbed from 2 in FY2017 to 7 in FY2026, which is the series peak, with 5 in FY2025 and 5 in FY2022. Cancellation and charge-off percentages do not appear for this cell, since each cohort holds under 30 loans; no number is offered and neither is called zero. Rates elsewhere on the site are floors, because loans still open can still fail.

Tenants and build-out

Any study of a Florida life science lab should start with the tenants or the in-house research program that will fill the space: contracted revenue, grant dependence, and the pace at which the business can staff benches. Lab build-out is expensive per square foot and specialised, so the study should price ventilation, fume hoods, backup power and waste handling, then test whether the project fits the typical loan near $350,000 or sits far above it. The coverage ratio should assume a slow ramp. An appraiser will question how readily a specialised lab could be re-let if the first occupant leaves.