SBA 7(a) Medical Office Feasibility Study in Florida

Physician offices in Florida: larger tickets, a measured loss record

Florida stands third among states for 7(a) loans to physician offices, and medical offices rank 5 of 39 among Florida's asset classes. SBA approved 660 loans from FY2017 to FY2026, with $463.4 million in gross dollars. The distinctive metric is the median loan, which is set out in the loan size section below.

Loan size

The median of $350,000 is 1.39x the 7(a) median for medical offices nationwide; the central half of loans stretches from $141,600 to $895,200. Franchising, at 2.7% of loans, is almost irrelevant. With so few branded loans, the file is made up almost entirely of independent practices.

Who holds the paper, and where

Of the loans in this cell, TD Bank, National Association is the holder of 60, Newtek Bank, National Association 53, JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association 44 and Truist Bank 37, with Wells Fargo Bank National Association at 40, as SBA records the holder, with no comment on any institution's rules. Miami-Dade County leads with 111 loans, Broward has 76, Palm Beach 61, Hillsborough 58 and Orange 48. Activity peaked at 97 loans in FY2024 and 86 in FY2025, with FY2025 dollars of $64.0 million, and fell to 41 in FY2020.

What the floors say

Among Florida physician-office approvals dated FY2017 to FY2024, cancellation stands at 13.1% or more, or 14.1% with undisbursed loans counted. Losses on the 254 loans funded from FY2017 into FY2021 total 2.8% so far, and 2.0% had occurred by the fifth anniversary. As floors they leave room to grow. The cancellation figure means that a meaningful part of approved medical office loans never reach disbursement, which a borrower should allow for in the timeline of a purchase or build.

Testing a Florida physician office

The Florida study should establish referral sources, payer mix and the patient volume that a physician group can see per day, since revenue depends on reimbursements. It should test whether space is sized to the number of providers, how long a new provider takes to reach full schedule, and whether the lease or purchase price compares with other office buildings nearby. Coverage of debt payments must hold with a delayed credentialing period and a departure of one provider. The appraisal of a practice or building will rely on collections, and the study must give credible figures for them.