Feasibility Study Data for the Longview-Kelso, WA Metro Area

Fuel stops and a firm cancellation floor

Longview-Kelso is Cowlitz County, WA alone, with 151 loans and $113.3 million from FY2017 to FY2026, 371st of 928 by loan count. Gas station and truck stop leads the tracked classes with 16 loans, double the 8 each for hotel and motel and automotive mechanical repair; limited-service restaurant has 5, and 91 loans lie in no class. Through FY2024, 13.2% of approvals were cancelled, and counting undisbursed loans adds nothing: floor and ceiling are both 13.2%.

Median borrowing reaches $350,000, or 1.68x the national figure; the middle of the distribution climbs from $50,000 all the way to $1.0 million. Franchise brands appear in 15.9% of loans. The programme count is 128 under 7(a) and 23 under 504, with Evergreen Business Capital holding 15 of the latter for $10.7 million. Longview-Kelso carries no published charge-off rate, the group of loans being small, so none appears here and the gap is not a zero. Cowlitz County holds all 151 loans. The wide central band, from $50,000 to $1.0 million, means that averages say little here, and a study should benchmark against loans of similar size and use.

Lenders in the record

Each lender named below is an SBA holder entry, past or present, and none comes with a description of its habits. Columbia Bank (OR) holds 35 7(a) loans worth $6.9 million, U.S. Bank, National Association 13 worth $6.1 million, KeyBank National Association 8 worth $6.2 million, Washington Trust Bank 6 worth $292,000 and Celtic Bank Corporation 5 worth $11.4 million. The last two sit at opposite ends in dollars per loan.

The count of approvals ranged from 7 loans in FY2023 to 26 in FY2024, a swing worth remembering when a borrower reads recent volume as a trend. FY2022 produced the highest dollars, $20.8 million, on only 14 loans.

What a Cowlitz County study has to prove

Given how often approvals lapse, a study has to show that the project can close, and that county demand supports the use at larger loan sizes than the country usually sees. The fuel and lodging supply already financed should be checked as well. Coverage needs a conservative loss assumption, since none is published. Cowlitz County enters through the 2023 delineation. Lenders and borrowers should read this as context, never as a forecast.