Worked Example: SBA 504 Hotel Feasibility Study in Washington
A worked example of the feasibility study a lender would read for a hotel project in Washington, financed with an SBA 504 loan.
What SBA's own loan files show about lending in the Shelton, WA Micro Area, every asset class together, and what a feasibility study for a project there has to test.
Shelton stands 462 of 928 by loans, drawing 103 SBA approvals over FY2017 to FY2026, $65.9 million gross. In Shelton, $300,000 is the median loan, 1.44x the national median. Half of Shelton loans sit between $50,000 and $899,250, larger tickets than the national norm. Lenders working Shelton see tickets from $50,000 to $899,250 most often. A Shelton study should place its project inside that $50,000 to $899,250 range in Shelton.
In Shelton, SBA 7(a) carries 98 loans and SBA 504 carries 5. In Shelton, franchise brands account for 8.7% of the loans. In Shelton, leading classes: gas station and truck stop with 11, limited-service restaurant with in Shelton 9 and hotel and motel with 5. Another 62 approvals fall in no named class, so Shelton totals 103 loans, more than its classes combined. Mason County, WA is the whole Shelton record: 103 approvals.
In Shelton, holder lists use SBA's file view of loans a firm retains or retained, under the holder note, which tells volume, not practice. Shelton holders should be read that way. Heading the Shelton SBA 7(a) list: Columbia Bank (OR) with 22 loans worth $721,700; Hanmi Bank with 8 loans worth $6.2 million; Heritage Bank (WA) with 8 loans worth $3.3 million. No holder in Shelton, WA reaches the 504 table threshold. The Shelton 504 side carries no lender names. In Shelton, the top holder leads the rest. A Shelton borrower may still approach any lender in Shelton.
Among Shelton approvals of FY2017 to FY2024, 10.8% were cancelled after approval, a floor. A Shelton ceiling, counting undisbursed loans as cancelled, is 10.8%. For Shelton, the charged-off rate among the funded loans of FY2017 to FY2021 remains hidden, cohort thin; silence about Shelton is not a claim of zero. Shelton trend: the busiest year is FY2025, at 18 loans. Shelton membership follows the county of the project, matched on the July 2023 delineation, thus the loan whose county fails to match sits in none of the areas. The 103 loans in Shelton, WA include those in no named class in Shelton.
Start with demand in Shelton. Size the real catchment of the site, instead of the micropolitan area, while holding a slow start for Shelton. Cost needs care in Shelton. $300,000 is the median ticket, a guide, even if an outlier needs explaining, with contingency stated openly in Shelton. Finally, Shelton debt service coverage. Test coverage at the requested size alongside a weaker revenue case, to find the Shelton breakeven revenue. The value view meets a Shelton appraisal, so any rent figure must explain any gap in Shelton. Micropolitan Shelton offers a thin base of 103 loans. A Shelton study should disclose borrowed benchmarks. With Shelton at 1.44x the national median, projects run large. The study must justify its project for Shelton against $300,000.
| Loans approved, FY2017 to FY2026 | 103 |
|---|---|
| Gross dollars approved | $65.9 million |
| Median loan | $300,000 |
| Middle half of loans, from | $50,000 |
| Middle half of loans, to | $899,250 |
| SBA 7(a) loans | 98 |
| SBA 504 loans | 5 |
| Franchise share of loans | 8.7% |
| Rank among metro and micro areas by loans | 462 of 928 |
| Median loan against the national median | 1.44x |
| Cancelled after approval, FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor) | 10.8% |
|---|---|
| The same, counting loans still undisbursed as cancelled (a ceiling) | 10.8% |
| 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 loans approved in the Shelton, WA Micro Area, by fiscal year
| Fiscal year | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| FY2017 | 8 | $7.6 million |
| FY2018 | 7 | $4.0 million |
| FY2019 | 14 | $8.0 million |
| FY2020 | 6 | $2.0 million |
| FY2021 | 10 | $3.2 million |
| FY2022 | 6 | $1.9 million |
| FY2023 | 6 | $3.7 million |
| FY2024 | 17 | $6.5 million |
| FY2025 | 18 | $16.9 million |
| FY2026 | 11 | $12.1 million |
| Asset class | Loans |
|---|---|
| Not in any of the 39 asset classes | 62 |
| Gas station and truck stop | 11 |
| Limited-service restaurant | 9 |
| Hotel and motel | 5 |
Classes with 5 or more loans; smaller ones are withheld, and more where a small one could be derived.
| Lender | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| Columbia Bank (OR) | 22 | $721,700 |
| Hanmi Bank | 8 | $6.2 million |
| Heritage Bank (WA) | 8 | $3.3 million |
| KeyBank National Association | 6 | $3.9 million |
| Live Oak Banking Company | 5 | $9.0 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.
| County | Loans |
|---|---|
| Mason County, WA | 103 |
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.
All assets: every 7(a) and 504 approval in the metro, including those outside the 39 asset classes.
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 MT-43220.
A worked example of the feasibility study a lender would read for a hotel project in Washington, financed with an SBA 504 loan.
Loan Analytics prepares the feasibility study a lender reads before it commits: for a commercial project in the Shelton, WA Micro 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.
Start with the data.
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