SBA 7(a) Flex Space Feasibility Study in Florida

A class that nearly stops after FY2023

Florida flex space under SBA 7(a) is defined as much by its cutoff as by its size. The file shows 58 approvals from FY2017 to FY2026 worth $54.4 million, but the yearly table runs 12 loans in FY2021 and 13 in FY2023, then none in FY2024 and none in FY2025, and a single loan in FY2026. The same code covers office, retail and banquet-hall landlords besides flex owners, and the class nearly stops from FY2024. For that reason the recent years describe how lessor loans are handled, not what tenants want. Read the $11.4 million of FY2023 as the last full year.

Size and standing

Loans here are large: the median is $631,750, which is 1.06x of the national 7(a) median for this lessor group, and Florida flex loans in the central half of the distribution fall between $346,075 and $1.3 million. Florida ranks 5 among states by count, yet the class lands at 24 of 39 on the list of Florida asset types, so it is a sizeable but unremarkable corner of the state's lending. Franchising is 5.2%. Hillsborough County leads with 10 loans, Broward and Miami-Dade each have 8, and Duval adds 5.

Cancellations, the distinctive outcome

What sets Florida flex space apart is cancellation. 26.3% of FY2017 to FY2024 approvals ended before disbursement, and the ceiling for loans still undisbursed matches it. That is a high floor for a class with big tickets, and it is the cell's marker against the state and the class nationally. No charge-off rate is printed: the early funded cohort has fewer than 30 loans, so that figure is withheld and nobody should treat it as nil.

Lenders

The lead holder is Harvest Small Business Finance, LLC with 8 loans valued at $8.8 million; trailing it, Wells Fargo Bank National Association accounts for 5 loans and $4.8 million of flex-space lending in the state. SBA records them as the present holders of the loans, which tells a borrower where Florida flex files have landed but not who first underwrote them.

Testing a Florida flex building

Because the code covers lessors of property, many of these borrowers are owners renting space to small businesses. A study has to test the tenant base: who leases bays that mix warehouse, showroom and office, at what rent, and how long space sits empty between tenants. Construction or acquisition cost must be weighed against the $631,750 median. The payment coverage test should rest on leases already signed or in place, and the appraisal will lean on market rent and a vacancy allowance that the study should document. The study should also say plainly why the project survives the high cancellation floor: closing risks such as environmental findings, zoning for mixed use or tenant pre-leasing.