Physical Therapy Clinic Feasibility Study in Utah

A cell that matches the national class

Utah's physical therapy lending reads almost exactly like the class does everywhere else. Utah clinics drew 71 SBA approvals in FY2017 to FY2026, worth $24.9 million, and the median of $150,000 is 1.00x the national class median, with a location quotient of 1.04x. The useful content is structural: where the loans sit, who holds them and what a borrower should plan for. On volume Utah comes 18 of 54, and therapy clinics hold 15 of 39 among Utah's asset classes.

Lenders, programs and the Wasatch Front

Loans in the central half span $100,000 to $429,300. SBA 7(a) supplied 56 loans and SBA 504 supplied 15. No clinic in the file carries a franchise, since the franchise share is 0.00%. Zions Bancorporation, National Association is the largest 7(a) lender with 12 loans worth $1.8 million, then Mountain America FCU with 8 worth $881,000, Central Bank with 6 worth $2.3 million and Northwest Bank with 5 worth $1.9 million. Mountain West Small Business Finance leads 504 with 10 loans and $4.3 million. Utah County has 21 loans and Salt Lake County 18, well ahead of Cache with 7 and Tooele and Weber with 6 each.

A late surge, and what the rates can say

Annual approvals sat at 3 or 4 loans in several early years, then rose to 13 a year from FY2024 through FY2026. A lender should treat that jump as recent and untested. Before funding, cancellations ran at a floor of 8.9% for the approvals of FY2017 to FY2024, with an identical ceiling, so nothing sat undisbursed. Loan Analytics holds back Utah's charge-off rates: the funded cohort is under 30 loans, and a rate drawn from so few would mislead in either direction. We therefore say nothing about losses beyond that they cannot yet be measured for this cell.

Questions for the study

A Utah clinic study should size referral flow from orthopedic and sports medicine practices and from local employers, and should test whether a growing suburb can support another clinic without splitting an existing therapist's caseload. Cost should be set against a ticket near $150,000, keeping working capital for the months before payer contracts mature. Debt service coverage should be modelled on a visit ramp with a slower case, and therapist hiring tested against it. The appraisal will rely on collections or, for a startup, on the credibility of the visit forecast, so the study ought to write its assumptions down where an appraiser can rebuild them.