RV Park Feasibility Study in Colorado

Colorado RV parks: larger loans in a seasonal state

Colorado's RV park and campground borrowers take bigger loans than the national norm for the class, and the state ranks high in the count. From FY2017 to FY2026 SBA approved 34 loans in Colorado for the class, worth $48.1 million in gross dollars. The state stands 9 of 47 for the class, while RV parks and campgrounds place 21 of 39 among classes financed in Colorado. The location quotient of 1.42x shows more concentration than the national book. The median loan of $946,000 is 1.34x the national median for the class, a distinctly heavier ticket, and half of the loans lie between $540,125 and $1.6 million.

Program mix and where the parks are

SBA 7(a) accounts for 25 loans and SBA 504 for 9, and franchise affiliation is 5.9% of loans. Lender detail is thin in this cell, so we do not name a leading bank. The county pattern is more telling: Fremont County has 5 loans, ahead of Alamosa, Archuleta, Chaffee, Clear Creek, Gunnison, Jackson, Jefferson, Pueblo and Teller, each with 2. Those are mostly mountain, valley and corridor counties rather than the Front Range core, which fits a class tied to scenery and highway travel. The yearly count was lowest at 1 loan in each of FY2018 and FY2020 and highest at 6 in both FY2017 and FY2024, with dollars of $9.5 million in FY2024, the largest single year, and 2 loans worth $5.6 million in FY2026.

Outcomes we do not print

Colorado RV parks carry no printed cancellation rate and no printed charge-off rate, because the cohorts behind each are too small to support a figure. We do not call either rate low, and we do not call it nil. A lender reading this page should treat the outcome record as unknown for the state and look to the national class page for orientation.

What a Colorado RV park study has to test

A study must begin with the season. Occupancy for a park at altitude is not an annual average, so revenue should be built month by month, with shoulder seasons and weather closures shown honestly. Site count and pad mix, full hookup against dry camping, should be tested against nightly and long-stay demand, and against nearby public campgrounds that price below a private operator. Water, sewer and power capacity, permits and access roads often decide cost, and a ticket near the median leaves little room for overruns. Debt service should be shown on a weak summer. One coding limit applies: RV parks, RV resorts and campgrounds share a single industry code, so the cell cannot separate a luxury resort from a basic campground.