Physical Therapy Clinic Feasibility Study in Ohio

A very small ticket, one dominant lender

Ohio's physical therapy loans are small. The median is $80,000, just 0.53x what therapy clinics nationally post, and the central band of loans spans $40,000 to $175,000. Over FY2017 to FY2026 SBA approved 77 loans for these clinics, worth $15.5 million in gross dollars. No metric is flagged against both Ohio overall and therapy clinics nationally, so the page reads as a portrait of a state where clinic lending is thin: the location quotient is 0.42x, and the class ranks 19 of 39 inside Ohio even though the state sits 15 of 54 for the class by volume.

Programs and who lends

Of the 77 loans, 73 came through the 7(a) programme and only 4 through 504, so 504 real estate financing is rare. Franchising reaches 9.1% of loans. The lender table is notable for its concentration: The Huntington National Bank holds 42 loans worth $6.4 million, well over any other name in the table. By county, Franklin leads with 13 loans, Cuyahoga and Lucas have 8 each, Summit 6, and Hamilton and Lorain 5 each, ahead of Cuyahoga.

Cancellations, losses and the year-to-year pattern

FY2021 stands out with 17 loans, against only 2 in FY2018 and 4 in FY2020, so the series swings from year to year. Among loans approved in FY2017 through FY2024, at least 8.3% were cancelled, rising to 10.0% if the undisbursed ones are counted too. In the cohort of 36 loans disbursed between FY2017 and FY2021, 5.6% are charged off to date, of which 2.8% occurred within five years of approval. All of these are floors, and with a cohort this small one failure alters the figure noticeably.

What the study must test

A clinic study in Ohio should start with referral sources and payer mix, since a median near $80,000 is a small ticket. It should price leasehold work against that small ticket, test therapist hiring against the volume forecast, and show debt service coverage on a conservative visit ramp. Where the borrower is buying a practice, the appraisal will rest on collections, so the study should reconcile its projection with historical revenue. Competition deserves a drive-time map.