SBA 504 Auto Repair Shop Feasibility Study in Ohio

504 repair shops are small, and almost all independent

Auto repair shops under 504 in Ohio borrow $265,000 at the midpoint, 0.65x the national 504 repair midpoint, across 28 loans totalling $9.0 million. The quartiles are close together, at $145,500 and $397,000, which suggests a consistent product: a shop buying a small building or a lot. No loan is franchised, at 0.00%. Ohio ranks 17 among states by count, and repair shops hold place 8 of 39 at home.

Two development companies and a Columbus lead

Community Capital Development Corporation has the larger book, 9 loans carrying $4.2 million. Behind it, Ohio Statewide Development Corporation reports 8 loans for $1.5 million, much smaller tickets. SBA names the present holders. Franklin County, which holds Columbus, has 7 loans; Fairfield, Licking and Warren have 3 each; Cuyahoga and Hamilton 2. Years were steady, with 4 loans in FY2018, FY2019 and FY2024, and the lowest in FY2017, with 1 loan and $144,000.

The limits of the class

The class mixes trades: truck repair rides on the car-repair index, so a heavy-truck yard counts beside a neighborhood garage, while collision, glass and lube shops stay out. For Ohio, SBA prints no cancellation or charge-off percentages, both cohorts having been below its minimum, and the silence is unknown, not favorable.

What an Ohio 504 repair study has to test

A 504 loan finances the shop's real estate and heavy equipment, so the study has two jobs. For the business, show cars registered near the shop, how old the fleet is, the competing shops and dealers, and the technicians who will do the work, with the labor rate and hours per bay. For the property, give price or construction cost, the state of the lifts, floor drains and oil separators, and the environmental history, since a garage site can carry contamination from fluids and tanks. Ohio winters raise tire, battery and brake demand; show monthly revenue. Coverage must be tested for the combined first-mortgage and development-company payments, and for the loss of a lead technician. Appraisers should be asked what another automotive or light-industrial user would pay for the building.