Self storage lending in St. Louis: where the area stands

Behind 38 SBA approvals worth $63.5 million between FY2017 and FY2026, St. Louis, MO-IL stands 5 of 513 among metro and micro areas. Counting self storage loans, St. Louis stands at 2.17x of the national share: St. Louis favors the class heavily. Inside St. Louis, the class ranks 9 of 39, a top-tier line. This St. Louis area spans IL and MO, a multi-state market.

The median St. Louis loan comes to $1.4 million, with its middle half between $670,000 and $2.4 million. The local median is 1.49x the median nationally for the class, so St. Louis tickets run bigger. 30 loans use SBA 7(a) and 8 use SBA 504, a first question. A 504 loan in St. Louis finances buildings and machinery. The franchise share for St. Louis is held back on thin counts, and St. Louis brand status stays open.

St. Louis holders and counties for self storage

Under 7(a) in St. Louis, SBA names as holders 17 loans worth $40.8 million at Live Oak Banking Company; and 5 loans worth $2.3 million at Bank Five Nine. The 504 table for St. Louis is empty. St. Louis rows are SBA records. St. Louis lenders hold or held these loans. St. Louis figures show files, not conduct. No St. Louis row says what a lender requires. St. Louis place by place: 12 loans sit in Madison County, IL, then St. Louis County, MO (7) and St. Charles County, MO (5).

SBA prints these yearly approvals for St. Louis: FY2017: 8 loans, $11.0 million, FY2021: 5 loans, $9.3 million, FY2023: 5 loans, $10.9 million, FY2025: 7 loans, $9.4 million and FY2026: 0 loans, $0. FY2018 through FY2020, FY2022 and FY2024 stay blank for St. Louis on thin counts, and a St. Louis blank is never a zero. FY2017 to FY2024 approvals in St. Louis were cancelled once approved, a floor of 16.1%. Undisbursed loans counted too, the ceiling is 16.1%. For St. Louis, no charge-off floor is printed. Thin St. Louis cohorts mean unpublished, not none. Counts for St. Louis use the July 2023 delineation, where St. Louis loans are placed by county, while St. Louis leaves out unplaced counties. Storage for recreational vehicles and boats is not separable from ordinary self storage, so the St. Louis counts take in both kinds of facility.

What a St. Louis self storage study must prove

St. Louis: this self storage record sets context; a study supplies proof. St. Louis reviewers will check stabilized income in the appraisal. For St. Louis, the study should address storage supply per household nearby. In St. Louis, underwriters will ask the study to address street rates and occupancy at competitors. The St. Louis file should document rate increases on existing tenants. Lenders in St. Louis will look for months of lease-up before stabilization. For St. Louis: demand, cost, coverage, value. St. Louis lenders receive a file to examine.

SBA self storage loans in the St. Louis, MO-IL Metro Area

Loans approved, FY2017 to FY2026	38
Gross dollars approved	$63.5 million
Median loan	$1.4 million
Middle half of loans, from	$670,000
Middle half of loans, to	$2.4 million
SBA 7(a) loans	30
SBA 504 loans	8
Franchise share of loans	withheld
Rank among metro and micro areas for self storage loans	5 of 513
Rank of self storage among the classes in this area	9 of 39
Location quotient (share of loans against the national share)	2.17x
Median loan against the national median for the class	1.49x

Cancellation and charge-off

Cancelled after approval, FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor)	16.1%
The same, counting loans still undisbursed as cancelled (a ceiling)	16.1%
Charged off to date, FY2017 to FY2021 disbursed loans (a floor)	withheld

Both rates are floors. SBA withholds the status of open loans, so a loan counts as charged off only once SBA reports it; a rate needs at least 30 loans in its cohort and is otherwise not reported.

SBA self storage loans approved in the St. Louis, MO-IL Metro Area, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	Loans	Dollars
FY2017	8	$11.0 million
FY2018	withheld	withheld
FY2019	withheld	withheld
FY2020	withheld	withheld
FY2021	5	$9.3 million
FY2022	withheld	withheld
FY2023	5	$10.9 million
FY2024	withheld	withheld
FY2025	7	$9.4 million
FY2026	0	$0

Most active SBA lenders

SBA 7(a): lenders by loans approved (the current holder of each loan, as SBA reports it)
Lender	Loans	Dollars
Live Oak Banking Company	17	$40.8 million
Bank Five Nine	5	$2.3 million

Lenders with 5 or more loans here; a lender with fewer is not listed, and loans SBA or a receiver holds are counted but never listed as a lender.

Where the loans are, by county

County	Loans
Madison County, IL	12
St. Louis County, MO	7
St. Charles County, MO	5

Counties with 5 or more loans; smaller ones are not listed.

Metro is the CBSA (metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area) of the loan's project county, July 2023 delineation (OMB Bulletin 23-01). The county is matched by name (manifests/ld2/county-cbsa-map.csv); a loan whose county cannot be placed in a 2023 CBSA is left out of every metro.

RV and boat storage cannot be separated from self storage.

Shared code: RV and boat storage has no own code; it is self storage (531130) or other warehousing (493190).

A value marked withheld rests on fewer than 5 loans, or is withheld so that such a figure cannot be derived from other published figures.

Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, 7(a) and 504 loan-level FOIA files (data.sba.gov), as of 2026-09-30; areas from the U.S. Census Bureau CBSA delineation, July 2023 (OMB Bulletin 23-01); Loan Analytics metro cell MA-41180-C04.

Related feasibility study pages

Loan Analytics prepares the feasibility study a lender reads before it commits: for a self storage project in the St. Louis, MO-IL Metro Area, financed under SBA 7(a), SBA 504, USDA Business and Industry or a conventional bank loan. Tell us the project and the lender's deadline, and we reply with scope, timeline and fee.

Daniel Smith, MAI

Self Storage Feasibility Study in the St. Louis, MO-IL Metro Area