SBA 7(a) Physical Therapy Clinic Feasibility Study in Arizona

A modest ticket in a crowded state

Rehabilitation and therapy clinics are not where Arizona's SBA 7(a) lending is concentrated, and the record says so plainly. Across FY2017 to FY2026 the program approved 63 loans for this class in the state, worth $35.1 million in gross dollars. That count puts Arizona at 17 among states for 7(a) therapy clinic loans, and the class sits at 15 of 39 among Arizona's asset classes. What separates these loans from the class elsewhere is size: the median is $225,000, which is 1.61x the national 7(a) median for therapy clinics. The middle half of loans runs from $74,000 to $764,600, so the same program funds both a small suite build-out and a far larger purchase of an established practice.

Where the loans went and who holds them

Maricopa County accounts for 47 of the loans, with Pima next at 7 and Coconino at 4. Yavapai adds 2, and Gila, Pinal and Yuma one each, so a project outside the Phoenix and Tucson areas has very few local precedents in this program. Among lenders, JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association is the holder of 11 loans valued at $3.2 million; The Bank of Missouri holds 6 worth $509,000, and Enterprise Bank & Trust holds 5 worth $5.4 million. Holder data come from SBA's current records, so these are records of loans these institutions hold or held today, not a statement about how any of them underwrites. Franchise affiliation is rare, at 1.6% of loans.

Timing, cancellations and what is withheld

Annual volume has never been steady. FY2017 brought 7 loans and $1.8 million, FY2019 and FY2020 only 3 each, and FY2023 the peak of 11 loans at $4.1 million. FY2021 is the dollar outlier, with 5 loans totalling $8.2 million, and FY2026 reached 7 loans and $6.4 million. For Arizona therapy clinics, 8.0% is the cancelled-after-approval floor on FY2017 to FY2024 loans; adding the undisbursed loans to the cancelled ones does not move it, so floor and ceiling meet at 8.0%. The cohort of therapy clinic loans that funded in the earliest years has fewer loans than the page needs to publish a loss figure honestly; the rate is withheld, not reported as nothing.

What a feasibility study for this loan has to test

A study behind a 7(a) request for an Arizona therapy clinic should begin with referral demand: how many physicians, surgeons and self-referring patients sit within reach of the proposed address, and how many competing practices already draw on them. Because the loan range is so wide, the study must also fix where the project sits within it, since a leasehold fit-out and an acquisition produce very different debt service. Revenue should be built from visits per clinician, payer mix and realistic reimbursement, then tested against the payment on the requested amount with a slower ramp beside the base case. If the practice is to buy its premises, real estate value and practice cash flow must be reconciled in the study, as a credit officer reads them together.