Worked Example: SBA 7(a) Assisted Living Feasibility Study in Utah
A worked example of the feasibility study a lender would read for an assisted living project in Utah, financed with an SBA 7(a) loan.
What SBA's own loan files show about lending in the Vernal, UT Micro Area, every asset class together, and what a feasibility study for a project there has to test.
Among metro and micro areas, Vernal ranks 351 of 928 by loans, with 164 approvals over FY2017 to FY2026 and $73.5 million gross. Smaller tickets mark Vernal. The Vernal median of $204,500 is 0.98x the national figure; in Vernal, half of loans span $50,000 to $485,375. The gap between $50,000 and $485,375 in Vernal shows how varied borrowers are. Vernal offers no typical loan in Vernal.
By program, Vernal holds 140 SBA 7(a) loans beside 24 SBA 504 loans. Franchised businesses in Vernal make up 5.5% of loans. In Vernal, UT, classes rank self storage with 7, hotel and motel with 5 and dental office with 5. 120 Vernal loans belong to no tracked class. The 164 total counts them. The Vernal project county is Uintah County, UT alone, at 164 loans in Vernal.
In Vernal, holder lists use agency records of loans a lender keeps or kept in Vernal, per the holder note in Vernal, and claim nothing about requirements. Vernal holders should be read that way. In Vernal, leading SBA 7(a) holders are Zions Bancorporation, National Association with 69 loans worth $25.6 million; Mountain America FCU with 27 loans worth $3.6 million; Grand Valley Bank with 10 loans worth $1.7 million. In the Vernal SBA 504 table, the leading holders are Mountain West Small Business Finance with 15 loans worth $8.2 million. The first holder in Vernal sets the pace. Even so, a Vernal borrower may take a study elsewhere in Vernal.
Cancellation floor, Vernal: 10.5% of FY2017 to FY2024 approvals. Unfunded loans counted as cancelled lift Vernal to a ceiling of 10.5%. For Vernal, the charged-off rate among loans paid out in FY2017 to FY2021 stays withheld, the cohort being small; a Vernal reader should never take it for zero. Vernal approvals peaked in FY2022, at 22 loans. Vernal membership follows each project's county name, matched by the July 2023 delineation, meaning some loan whose county has no match stays out of every area. The 164 loans in Vernal, UT include those in no named class in Vernal.
Start with demand in Vernal. Test the pull of that location, never Vernal at large, and keep the forecast cautious in Vernal. Cost needs care in Vernal. Borrowers see a $204,500 median, however land and building need bids, and contingency kept apart in Vernal. Finally, Vernal debt service coverage. Report coverage on the proposed loan once more on conservative revenue, naming the cushion left in Vernal. Lenders in Vernal also rely on appraisals, so every income assumption has to be defensible in Vernal. Micropolitan Vernal offers a thin base of 164 loans. A Vernal study should disclose borrowed benchmarks. At 0.98x of the national median, a very large Vernal project may look unusual in Vernal. The study should explain its scale for Vernal against $204,500.
| Loans approved, FY2017 to FY2026 | 164 |
|---|---|
| Gross dollars approved | $73.5 million |
| Median loan | $204,500 |
| Middle half of loans, from | $50,000 |
| Middle half of loans, to | $485,375 |
| SBA 7(a) loans | 140 |
| SBA 504 loans | 24 |
| Franchise share of loans | 5.5% |
| Rank among metro and micro areas by loans | 351 of 928 |
| Median loan against the national median | 0.98x |
| Cancelled after approval, FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor) | 10.5% |
|---|---|
| The same, counting loans still undisbursed as cancelled (a ceiling) | 10.5% |
| 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 Vernal, UT Micro Area, by fiscal year
| Fiscal year | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| FY2017 | 19 | $4.6 million |
| FY2018 | 20 | $11.0 million |
| FY2019 | 11 | $2.5 million |
| FY2020 | 18 | $7.4 million |
| FY2021 | 13 | $11.2 million |
| FY2022 | 22 | $6.5 million |
| FY2023 | 17 | $10.1 million |
| FY2024 | 13 | $5.9 million |
| FY2025 | 18 | $9.1 million |
| FY2026 | 13 | $5.2 million |
| Asset class | Loans |
|---|---|
| Not in any of the 39 asset classes | 120 |
| Self storage | 7 |
| Hotel and motel | 5 |
| Dental office | 5 |
| Fitness center | 5 |
Classes with 5 or more loans; smaller ones are withheld, and more where a small one could be derived.
| Lender | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain West Small Business Finance | 15 | $8.2 million |
| Lender | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| Zions Bancorporation, National Association | 69 | $25.6 million |
| Mountain America FCU | 27 | $3.6 million |
| Grand Valley Bank | 10 | $1.7 million |
| America First Federal Credit Union | 7 | $6.3 million |
| U.S. Bank, National Association | 6 | $768,600 |
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 |
|---|---|
| Uintah County, UT | 164 |
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-46860.
A worked example of the feasibility study a lender would read for an assisted living project in Utah, financed with an SBA 7(a) loan.
Loan Analytics prepares the feasibility study a lender reads before it commits: for a commercial project in the Vernal, UT 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.
Contact Us