Recent Retail and Mixed-Use Case Studies
SBA 504 Feasibility Study Case Study: An Owner-Occupied Restaurant and Inline Retail Building on the MLK Boulevard Corridor in New Bern, North Carolina, Feasible as Resized and Recapitalized
- Type
- Model study
- Program
- SBA 504, new construction
- Location
- New Bern, Craven County, North Carolina
- Determination
- Not feasible as proposed; feasible as resized and recapitalized
A new owner-occupied retail building proposed on a C-3 outparcel on the Dr.
SBA 504 Feasibility Study Case Study: A Main-Street Mixed-Use Acquisition and Historic Rehabilitation on Washington Street in Columbus, Indiana, Ineligible as Proposed and Feasible as Restructured
- Type
- Model study
- Program
- SBA 504, acquisition and rehabilitation of an existing building
- Location
- Columbus, Bartholomew County, Indiana
- Determination
- Ineligible as proposed; feasible as restructured
A restaurant and taproom operator proposes to buy a three-level commercial block on Washington Street in the Columbus Historic District of Columbus, Indiana, occupy the storefront and convert the upper floor to four apartments, financed under SBA 504 in a downtown that has lost 22 percent of its daily visitors and 41 percent of its daily employees since 2019 and whose own 2025 strategic plan names apartments as its strongest short-term demand.
USDA B&I Feasibility Study Case Study: Reopening a Closed Rural Grocery Store in Plains, Kansas, Not Feasible as Proposed and Feasible as Restructured
- Type
- Model study
- Program
- USDA Business and Industry guaranteed loan to a community-owned for-profit corporation
- Location
- Plains, Meade County, Kansas
- Determination
- Not feasible as proposed; feasible as restructured
A community-owned corporation proposes to buy and reopen Grand Avenue Market, a 9,300 SF purpose-built grocery store in Plains, Kansas, a Meade County town of about 1,000 people on US-54, that opened in December 2021 after a twenty-year effort, cost $2,073,000, and closed on March 31, 2026 after voters rejected the half-cent sales tax meant to repay its loan.
SBA 7(a) Feasibility Study Case Study: Acquiring a Specialty Retail Business and Its Washington Street Building in Columbus, Indiana Under Appendix 15, Not Feasible as Proposed and Feasible as Restructured
- Type
- Model study
- Program
- SBA 7(a)
- Location
- Columbus, Bartholomew County, Indiana
- Determination
- Not feasible as proposed; feasible as restructured
A buyer proposes to acquire a 22-year-old independent bicycle, fitness and outdoor retailer with a service department together with the 4,375 SF building it occupies at the north end of Washington Street in Columbus, Indiana, financed with a single SBA 7(a) loan, in a change-of-ownership transaction that SOP 50 10 8.1 Appendix 15 classifies as an Initial Acquisition and tests on historical, not projected, debt service coverage.
Conventional Loan Feasibility Study Case Study: A Speculative Strip Center and Pad Sites on the Neuse Boulevard Corridor in New Bern, North Carolina, Not Feasible as Proposed and Feasible as Restructured Around the Pads
- Type
- Model study
- Program
- Conventional bank construction-to-permanent loan
- Location
- New Bern, Craven County, North Carolina
- Determination
- Not feasible as proposed; feasible as restructured
An investor proposes a 12,000 SF speculative unanchored strip center with one quick-service pad on 3.2 acres of a 13.54-acre tract rezoned to C-3 at 3530 Neuse Boulevard in New Bern, North Carolina, financed by a bank construction-to-permanent loan at 65 percent of cost.
