RV Park Feasibility Study in Florida

The largest tickets in the group

Florida RV parks and campgrounds borrow on a very large scale. The median loan is $2.0 million, a ratio of 2.83x, and the middle of the range stretches from $617,500 to $3.1 million. The record from FY2017 to FY2026 holds 42 loans and $87.7 million. The state ranks 5 of 47 for the class, yet RV parks are only 28 of 39 within Florida, and a location quotient of 0.62x shows a below-average share of state lending. The median is the distinctive metric: Florida parks are developed or acquired as sizeable resort-style properties, not small campgrounds.

Programs and where the loans are

SBA 7(a) accounts for 28 loans and SBA 504 for 14, and franchising touches 2.4% of loans. No lender reaches the listing threshold of five loans, so we name none. The map is also scattered, with Citrus, Duval and Levy counties each at 3 loans and Columbia, Escambia, Manatee, Santa Rosa, Volusia, Wakulla and Walton at 2 each. That spread reaches the Panhandle, the Gulf coast and north Florida, rather than the crowded southern resort areas, which says something about where land is affordable for a large park.

The cancellation range

Cancellation starts at a floor of 10.0%, and once loans still undisbursed are added the bound rises to 20.0%. That gap is wide, and it tells us that a large block of approvals was waiting on funds. Large park projects need zoning, utility extension, wetlands review and hurricane-ready design, all of which delay closing. No charge-off rate is quoted, as the funded FY2017 to FY2021 pool is thin, under 30 loans, and a blank is not a zero.

One code, many properties

One code covers RV parks and campgrounds, and it is shared with RV resorts, so a modest family campground and a large resort sit in the same count. A median of $2.0 million cannot separate them. A Florida study should therefore define the product: nightly transient, seasonal snowbird, or long-stay. It must test occupancy by month, since the winter season carries most of the revenue, and it must price flood risk, insurance and storm recovery. Debt service coverage should hold through a poor year. The appraisal must separate land, improvements and the operating business.