SBA 7(a) Fitness Center Feasibility Study in Kansas

Kansas gyms: a Johnson County story

Half of everything in the Kansas fitness center file sits in one county. Johnson County has 51 of the 101 loans approved from FY2017 to FY2026, with Sedgwick next at 19 and Shawnee at 7, then Douglas and Riley at 4 each, Butler at 3, and Barton, Cowley, Ellis and Leavenworth at 2. The class is fourth of 39 in Kansas, while the state is 31st among states by count. Loans total $34.6 million, with a $160,900 median that is 0.65x the figure for fitness centers nationally; the central half lies between $60,000 and $422,600. Franchise brands appear in 43.6% of loans.

Lenders

SBA lists INTRUST Bank National Association first with 8 loans and $1.4 million, Small Business Bank with 7 and $783,700, The Huntington National Bank with 6 and $2.8 million, First National Bank of Omaha with 6 and $970,600, and Emprise Bank with 5 and $2.0 million. No holder has more than eight, so the file is spread widely, and Huntington's average ticket is easily the largest. The list records current holders only and is not a statement about any lender's current interest in gyms.

A high charge-off floor

The outcome numbers are the point of the page. Among 43 early loans that disbursed, 11.6% is the floor for charge-offs to date, against 2.3% when the clock stops five years after approval. Loans lost to cancellation reach 6.0% at minimum and 7.1% at most. Treat the figures as minimums. Approvals started at 7 loans and $2.0 million in FY2017, dipped to 9 loans but only $691,600 in FY2021, and reached 6 loans and $2.5 million in FY2026, a thin and uneven record for a lender to rely on.

A Kansas gym study in practice

A study for a Kansas gym should begin with its own catchment. That means counting residents near the site, listing the clubs and studios already serving them, and an honest view of how many members the site can sign before it reaches break-even. The model should hold membership prices fixed, vary retention, and show the monthly payment on a loan near $160,900 covered in a slow first year. Equipment, flooring and locker rooms are the main uses of funds, and they lose value fast, so the appraisal will give them little weight beside the lease. Where the project is in the Kansas City suburbs, the competition is denser than in Wichita or Topeka, and the study should say which it faces. A franchise changes the fee structure and the build-out, and the proposal should state whether one is involved.