SBA 504 Dental Office Feasibility Study in New York

One development corporation, most of the file

New York's SBA 504 dental office lending runs through a single development corporation to a degree few cells match: Empire State Certified Development Corporation is named as holder of 37 of the 46 loans, with $34.4 million of the $39.2 million approved from FY2017 to FY2026. Dentists rank 4 of 39 among New York asset types for this program, and the state stands 6 nationally for the class. A reader looking for competition among lenders will not find it here; a reader looking for a well-worn path to a 504 dental project will.

Loan size and franchising

The median loan of $641,500 reaches 1.07x of the national 504 dental median, and the central half of the book runs from $496,250 to $1.0 million, a tighter band than in most classes. Dental practices are not franchised in this file: the share is 0.00%. Locations are spread between New York City boroughs and upstate counties: New York and Queens counties show 6 and 5 loans, Saratoga also shows 5, then Erie and Monroe with 4 each.

Timing and outcomes

Approvals rose to 8 in FY2021 with $8.2 million, and fell to 2 in FY2024 and 2 in FY2026. Cancelled loans took 10.3% of the FY2017 to FY2024 approvals, with no change once undisbursed loans are counted. Losses cannot be measured here, since too few New York dental loans funded early enough, so a lender should treat that as unmeasured and not as a clean record.

What a New York dental study must test

A dentist borrowing under 504 usually wants to own the building in which the practice sits, so the study should treat real estate and practice as two economic units. It should count patients by payer, from private insurance to cash, estimate chair utilization and hygiene revenue, and test how a new office draws patients from an established practice nearby. In New York, rent levels differ enormously between a borough and an upstate town, so the study should price space by comparable. Equipment such as imaging and operatory build-out should be listed with cost, and the schedule should show how long it takes the practice to reach a stable collection level. Coverage must hold at a conservative patient count, and the appraisal will need income from a purchaser of a dental building, not only this dentist.