USDA B&I Feasibility Study Case Study: A Mixed Manufactured Housing and RV Park in Marianna, Florida, Not Feasible as Proposed and Feasible as a Transient Phase

A 27-lot mobile home and RV park on 10 acres at 5250 Johns Lane in Marianna, Jackson County, Florida, in the Panhandle's interior, with 25 lots occupied on monthly leases, listed at $1,500,000 in April 2026, presented for a USDA Business and Industry guaranteed acquisition loan. Every one of the park's occupied lots is leased by the month, its revenue from stays over 30 days is about 98 percent, and under Florida's Chapter 513 six-month line and Chapter 723 its occupants are tenants; the park's primary purpose is independent housing under 7 CFR 5001.118(a), and its modeled income of about $58,000 capitalizes the asking price at under 4 percent. Not feasible as proposed. Resized to a separately owned 48-site transient RV park on the parcel's undeveloped six acres, with the existing lots excluded from the collateral and the cash flow, at a $2,700,000 total project cost, a $2,025,000 guaranteed loan and 25 percent equity, the transient phase covers at 1.59x in Year 3 and 1.80x in Year 5. Determination: not feasible as proposed; feasible as a resized transient phase, conditioned on the parcel split, the lot mix, the sewage permit and the rural map.

Model study prepared by MMCG Invest | Michal Mohelsky, J.D., FMVA | October 2, 2026

MMCG concludes that the acquisition of the 27-lot mobile home and RV park at 5250 Johns Lane in Marianna, Florida is not feasible as proposed under a USDA Business and Industry guaranteed loan, and that a resized transient RV park on the parcel's undeveloped acreage, separately owned and financed, is feasible with conditions. The proposal fails on eligibility and on credit. The park's 25 occupied lots are leased by the month to residents who own their manufactured homes and recreational vehicles and who have occupied the park, on the listing's description of an established income-producing community, for more than the six months after which Florida's Chapter 513 ceases to treat an RV occupant as a transient guest and its Chapter 83 landlord-tenant act applies; if ten or more of the lots are manufactured home lots, Chapter 723 governs them as well. Revenue from stays over 30 days is about 98 percent of the total. That is a residential trailer park where the primary purpose is independent housing, which 7 CFR 5001.118(a) excludes from the program, and no rate card changes it. Separately, the park's modeled revenue of $120,570 and net operating income of $57,874 capitalize the $1,500,000 asking price at 3.9 percent, which supports a loan of about $500,000 at 1.25x coverage against the $1,125,000 the sponsor proposed to borrow.

The resized program is a different business. A 48-site transient RV park on about six undeveloped acres of the ten, owned by a new entity after a parcel split, with a 28-day maximum stay, full hookups and 50-amp service, a bathhouse and an office, draws on the Interstate 10 corridor at exit 142 and on Florida Caverns State Park, prices at $60 nightly between the two Marianna resorts that publish $59 to $85 on their own websites, and earns $550,360 in Year 3 at 47 percent occupancy. At a $2,700,000 total project cost, with 25 percent equity because the guarantee issues before construction is complete and a $2,025,000 loan guaranteed at 85 percent, the phase covers at 1.59x in Year 3 and 1.80x in Year 5, and the $208,540 reserve funds the Year 1 shortfall of $47,062 four times over. The feasibility study is mandatory for the phase because the borrower is a new business and the loan exceeds $1,000,000. The existing 27 lots stay with the seller or with a separate conventional buyer, outside the collateral and the cash flow, which is what keeps the phase a tourist and recreation facility under 7 CFR 5001.105(b)(8).

This is an MMCG model study: a complete feasibility analysis performed on a real, publicly marketed property using public data, prepared to show USDA Business and Industry lenders and sponsors how MMCG applies the independent housing exclusion of 7 CFR 5001.118(a) to a mixed park, why Florida's tenancy framework makes the finding, and how a transient phase can be carved out and financed on its own. It is not a client engagement, MMCG has no relationship with the seller, the listing broker or any prospective buyer, and the analysis does not represent an offer, an appraisal or a recommendation to buy the park. Figures drawn from the listing, the Florida Statutes, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and competing parks' own websites are identified as such. Figures labeled MMCG assumption are underwriting inputs set by MMCG from industry benchmarks, and items that could not be verified from a primary source at the study date are listed in the Conditions and Limitations section rather than estimated silently. In particular, the park's lot mix between manufactured home, park model and RV lots, its rents, rent roll, leases, utilities and financial statements were not stated in the listing and are modeled; the determination's eligibility finding does not depend on the mix, because every occupied lot is leased by the month on the listing's own description, but the Chapter 723 finding and the resized phase's land allocation do, and both are conditions.

The Project, as resized, will operate as a transient RV park on about six acres at 5250 Johns Lane in Marianna, Jackson County, Florida, three miles from Interstate 10 at exit 142 and four miles from Florida Caverns State Park, in the interior Panhandle between Tallahassee and Pensacola. The physical program comprises 48 full-hookup RV sites, 28 of them pull-through sites of 70 feet and 20 back-in sites of 55 feet, all with 50-amp service, gravel pads with concrete patios and picnic tables, together with a bathhouse with laundry and an office of 1,800 square feet, a dog run, a dump station, graveled internal roads and a lighted entry from Johns Lane, on a parcel split from the existing park with its own access, well and on-site sewage system. The park will be operated by the sponsor with a resident manager couple and seasonal workamper staff, open year-round with the office staffed from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and after-hours self check-in, and every site will be rented on a nightly or weekly basis with a 28-day maximum stay. The sponsor will hold the split parcel, its improvements and the business in a new operating entity that is the Business and Industry borrower, separate from the ownership of the existing 27-lot park, with the sponsor's principals providing the personal guarantees the program requires. The Project is positioned at $60 nightly, between the two Marianna resorts that publish $59 to $69 and $60 to $85 on their own websites, as the interstate traveler's and the caverns visitor's full-service stop at the Jackson County exit.

Marketing and Sales Strategy

Pre-opening marketing begins four months before opening from the park's own booking site, with listings on the commercial reservation platforms and the two membership directories that Interstate 10 travelers use. The primary channel is the interstate: exit 142 is the Marianna exit for the Florida Caverns and the midpoint between Tallahassee and the Alabama line, and the study carries signage at the exit and placement on the state's travel information signs. The second channel is Florida Caverns State Park, whose 38-site campground fills on reservation months ahead and whose overflow is the private parks' base; the park's own pages and the state's reservation system are the referral path. The third channel is the Gulf Coast: Panama City Beach is 65 miles south, and the park captures the beach visitor who prefers an inland rate and the storm-season evacuee. Retention runs through a returning-guest program and through weekly rates priced at six nights for seven.

Amenities

The existing park occupies 10 acres at 5250 Johns Lane in Marianna, the seat of Jackson County in the interior Florida Panhandle, and is listed through the Central Panhandle Association of Realtors as an income-producing mobile home park offering 27 lots, 25 of them occupied, on 10 acres, with a 964-square-foot building, an outbuilding and paved parking, built in 1980 and sold as-is at $1,500,000, or $150,000 per acre and $55,556 per lot. Marianna is a city of about 6,200 residents in a county of about 47,000 on the last decennial figures MMCG carried, which were not re-pulled at the study date; it lies on Interstate 10 and U.S. 90, 65 miles west of Tallahassee, and it is rural under the program's 50,000 threshold on its own population and on the county's, with the parcel's map result a condition.

The demand that reaches the resized site is the interstate's and the caverns'. Interstate 10 carries the Panhandle's through traffic between Jacksonville and the Gulf states, and exit 142 is the Marianna exit; a current Florida Department of Transportation count at the exit was not retrieved. Florida Caverns State Park, four miles north, is the Panhandle's only developed cavern tour and operates a 38-site campground that the state's reservation system fills in season, and its overflow and its day visitors are the private parks' base. Hurricane Michael crossed Marianna in October 2018 and the county's tree cover, housing stock and insurance market still carry it; the bound quote is a condition.

The existing park's demand is the county's housing market, which is the point. Jackson County's fair market rents under the Department of Housing and Urban Development's fiscal 2026 schedule are $736 for an efficiency, $814 for one bedroom and $1,068 for two, and a monthly lot rent of $350 to $450 with the resident's own home on it is the county's affordable housing. That is a social good and a stable income, and it is not a tourist and recreation facility.

The existing park is an operating mobile home and RV park and its continued use requires no entitlement; the City of Marianna's or Jackson County's zoning for the parcel and the rules for splitting it were not retrieved at the study date, and the parcel split with separate access is the first condition on the resized phase. Jackson County's land development code governs the new RV park's approval as a conditional or permitted use on the split parcel, and the study carries a conditional use process with a public hearing in the schedule.

Florida's tenancy framework makes the eligibility finding. Section 513.01(12) defines a transient guest as a guest registered for six months or less; the House staff analysis of CS/CS/HB 647 of 2020 states that the Residential Landlord Tenant Act applies to a guest occupying an RV in an RV park for more than six months; Section 83.42(3) excludes transient occupancy in a mobile home park from Part II, so that non-transient occupancy is inside it; and Section 723.002(1) applies the Mobile Home Act to any residential tenancy in which a mobile home is placed on a rented lot in a park where ten or more lots are offered for rent. A park whose 25 occupied lots are leased by the month to residents who own their homes is a park of tenants, with the eviction procedure, notice periods and, where Chapter 723 applies, the prospectus, the rent increase notice and the homeowners' association rights that go with tenancy. The resized phase avoids all of it by construction: a 28-day maximum stay keeps every guest a transient under Chapter 513 and outside Chapters 83 and 723.

Florida's Department of Health permits the on-site sewage system for a park under Rule 64E-6, which sizes the design flow at 75 gallons per day per RV site with hookups, or 3,600 gallons per day for 48 sites, within the Department's jurisdiction for systems under 10,000 gallons per day; the permit is the third condition. A well serving 48 sites serves an average of at least 25 individuals daily for 60 or more days a year and is a transient non-community water system under the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's rules, with the monitoring that classification carries.

The existing park's utilities, whether city water or well and whether city sewer or septic, were not stated in the listing and are a condition. The resized phase is carried on its own well and a new on-site sewage system sized at 3,600 gallons per day, at $260,000 in the budget, with electrical distribution and 50-amp pedestals at $230,000, or $4,792 per site, on the 2023 National Electrical Code basis. Property tax on the phase is carried at $14,000 in Year 1, or $292 per site, as an MMCG assumption reflecting Jackson County's combined millage on an assessed value near the improved cost, escalating 2 percent per year. Jackson County's tourist development tax applies to transient stays and is collected from the guest.

The trade area for the existing park is Jackson County's rental market, and for the resized phase it is the interstate and the state park. Jackson County is a rural county of about 47,000 residents with a median household income near $45,000 on the last American Community Survey figures MMCG carried, a prison and a state hospital among its employers, and a rental market whose fair market rents of $736 to $1,068 sit well above the park's $350 to $450 lot rents; that gap is why the existing park is full and why its tenants stay. The resized phase's guest is not local: the interstate traveler, the caverns visitor, the Gulf Coast overflow and the storm-season evacuee, counted through the corridor and the competing parks' demonstrated occupancy rather than through the county's statistics.

The demand model for the resized phase counts Marianna's private transient supply and the subject's share. The two private resorts in Marianna hold about 140 RV sites on their own and their booking platforms' counts, and the two state parks within 20 miles hold about 68; the subject's 48 sites are about 25 percent of the private supply, and at 47 percent occupancy the phase needs about 23 occupied sites a night across the year.

The penetration test is the resorts' own published cards. Florida Caverns RV Resort publishes premium sites at $80 to $85 and standard sites at $60 to $65, with standard monthly sites at $800 and deluxe at $950 in the winter season only, and Stay n Go RV Resort publishes $69 for pull-throughs and $59 for back-ins with weekly and monthly rates beneath them; a market that supports a $950 winter monthly and an $85 premium nightly on 89 sites supports a $60 nightly on 48. MMCG carries the phase at 47 percent occupancy at stabilization, below the 68 percent full-hookup benchmark for the months a park is open and near the national platform average, because Marianna is a corridor and overflow market rather than a destination, and the sensitivity table carries 42 and 38 percent.

MMCG identified five parks in Marianna and the surrounding state park system. Three publish rate cards on their own websites and are quoted; one is a state park at published fees; one was located through an aggregator and is flagged.

Competitor Number 1 Florida Caverns RV Resort This resort, formerly Arrowhead Campground, is located in Marianna, FL and comprises 89 RV sites, 11 cabin and lodging units and 5 tent sites per its booking platform. Its own website publishes premium sites at $80 Sunday through Wednesday and $85 Thursday through Saturday, standard sites at $60 and $65, deluxe monthly sites at $950 from September 15 to February 15 only, standard monthly sites at $800 for RVs of 2005 or newer, and park model rentals at $130 daily, $700 weekly and $1,100 to $1,250 monthly. It is the top of the Marianna market.

Competitor Number 2 Stay n Go RV Resort This resort is located in Marianna, FL and is listed by aggregators at 51 to 52 sites. Its own website publishes $69 nightly for pull-through sites and $59 for back-in sites, $414 and $354 weekly, and $950 monthly for pull-throughs and $695 to $795 for back-ins, with a second page of the operator's listing back-in monthly sites at $650 to $750.

Competitor Number 3 Florida Caverns State Park This state park is located at 3345 Caverns Road, Marianna, FL 32446, four miles north of the subject, and operates a 38-site campground with 32 full-hookup sites, 3 equestrian RV sites and 3 primitive sites at $20 per night plus tax, a $7 utility fee and a $6.70 reservation fee per the Florida State Parks fee page. It is the subject's demand generator and its lowest-priced competitor.

Competitor Number 4 Three Rivers State Park This state park is located at 7908 Three Rivers Park Road, Sneads, FL 32460, 20 miles east of the subject on Lake Seminole, and operates about 30 campsites at $16 per night plus tax, a $7 utility fee and a $6.70 reservation fee per the Florida State Parks fee page.

Competitor Number 5 Dove Rest RV and Mobile Home Park This park is located in Marianna, FL and is listed by an aggregator at $42 nightly. Its site count and its own rate card were not retrieved. It is a mixed park like the subject and competes for the subject's monthly tenants rather than for the resized phase's transient guest.

No RV park approved or under construction in Jackson County was identified at the study date.

The resized phase's rate card is set inside the two published cards. At $60 nightly the phase sits at Florida Caverns RV Resort's standard weekday rate and between Stay n Go's $59 back-in and $69 pull-through, which is the correct position for a new park with 50-amp service and a bathhouse but no pool, cabins or park models. Weekly rates are priced at six nights for seven, and the phase carries no monthly, seasonal or annual product, because the 28-day maximum is what keeps it a tourist and recreation facility. Rates escalate 3 percent per year, and other income, which comprises laundry, propane, the store and fees, is carried at 5 percent of site revenue.

The existing park's rents are modeled at $350 for a manufactured home lot and $450 for an RV lot, inside the Panhandle's affordable range and below the county's fair market rents; the listing states no rents, and the rent roll is a condition.

The parcel split and the conditional use approval run through 2027, construction runs eight months, and the phase opens in the spring of 2028.

The Year 1 shortfall against debt service of $47,062 is funded from the reserve.

Location: 5250 Johns Lane, Marianna, FL 32448 (split parcel, about 6 acres) Sites: 48

Source: Marshall & Swift CoreLogic, MMCG

Total project cost of $56,250 per site, with hard cost of $37,405 per site, sits at the basic new-build end of MMCG's reference set, which is where a 48-site corridor park with a bathhouse, gravel roads and no pool belongs; the on-site sewage system and the well are the lines that a city-served site would not carry. Land is allocated at $400,000 for about six acres, or $66,667 per acre, as an MMCG assumption against the listing's $150,000 per acre for the whole parcel with its income; the split's survey and the seller's negotiation set the figure. The reserve of $208,540 funds the Year 1 shortfall of $47,062 with $161,000 of margin, which is generous and deliberate for a corridor market without a destination anchor of its own.

Loan Assumptions (resized)

As presented, the sponsor proposed a $1,125,000 loan at 75 percent of the $1,500,000 price on the existing park; the existing park's modeled cash flow of about $55,800 after reserves supports about $500,000 at 1.25x coverage at the same rate and term, and the eligibility finding makes the point moot.

The existing park is not an eligible Business and Industry purpose. 7 CFR 5001.118(a) excludes residential trailer parks and other residential housing where the primary purpose is independent housing, and a park whose 25 occupied lots are leased by the month to residents who own their homes, with revenue from stays over 30 days at about 98 percent, is such a park on any reading; Florida's Chapters 513, 83 and 723 confirm the tenancy character. The resized phase is an eligible purpose under 7 CFR 5001.105(b)(8), a tourist and recreation facility, a resort trailer park and campground operated as a commercial enterprise, because every site is transient under a 28-day policy and the phase carries no monthly, seasonal or annual product; the separate ownership and the parcel split keep the existing lots out of the borrower, the collateral and the cash flow, which is the condition on which the eligibility of the phase rests.

The phase's borrower is a new business and the loan exceeds $1,000,000, so the feasibility study is required under 7 CFR 5001.306(a)(3)(i), prepared by an independent qualified consultant acceptable to the Agency and following Appendix A to Subpart D. Equity is 25 percent under 7 CFR 5001.105(d) because the guarantee is requested before construction is complete. The guarantee is 85 percent at a 3.0 percent initial fee and a 0.55 percent annual fee under the fiscal 2026 notice, and the term may run to 40 years limited by useful life with no balloon. Marianna and Jackson County are rural on population; the parcel's map result is a condition. The phase's cash flow is seasonal in the Panhandle's pattern, with spring and fall peaks and a summer that the Gulf Coast absorbs, and the lender's analysis should include quarterly projections under 7 CFR 5001.202(b)(6)(v); the study's annual figures are built from a quarterly curve of 38, 56, 44 and 50 percent at stabilization.

The Year 3 operating budget at 47 percent occupancy is built by line for an owner-operated 48-site park in the interior Panhandle.

The expense ratio of 46.9 percent is below the 54 to 56 percent MMCG carries for a stabilized park from Newmark's expense analysis because the park is owner-operated with no management fee and because Jackson County's tax and utility lines are light; payroll at 15.0 percent of revenue matches the Newmark average, and insurance is carried at $380 per site in Year 1, escalating 6 percent per year, in a Panhandle market with the 2018 hurricane in its loss history, where the bound quote may run higher and the sensitivity table carries a 10 percent expense overrun.

The Year 1 shortfall is funded from the reserve. The phase covers at 1.26x in Year 2, 1.59x in Year 3 and 1.80x by Year 5, and its Year 3 yield on total project cost of 10.8 percent sits above Newmark's 9.00 percent Class C capitalization rate, which values the stabilized phase at about $3,250,000 against a cost of $2,700,000.

For comparison, the existing park as presented earns modeled revenue of $120,570 from 15 manufactured home lots at $350 and 12 RV lots at $450 at 93 and 92 percent occupancy, a net operating income of $57,874 at a 52 percent expense ratio, and cash flow of $55,849 after a $75 per lot reserve, which covers the proposed $1,125,000 loan's $99,764 of annual debt service at 0.56x.

At Year 3 rates, the resized phase's fixed operating cost is $201,819 including the replacement reserve, and its variable cost is 11.5 percent of revenue for marketing, reservation and administrative lines.

The 1.25x threshold sits six points under the forecast and the 1.0x threshold ten points under it, a margin appropriate to a corridor park with a generous reserve and no destination anchor of its own.

The resized phase holds coverage above 1.25x in every single-factor case except a stabilized occupancy of 38 percent, and the combined case holds 1.06x. The last row records the structure the sponsor presented.

The determination of not feasible as proposed and feasible as a resized transient phase is subject to the following conditions precedent on the phase:

The following items could not be verified from a primary source at the study date and are disclosed: the existing park's lot mix, rents, rent roll, leases, utilities, financial statements, net operating income and cap rate, in place of which the study carries a modeled 15 manufactured home and 12 RV lot mix at $350 and $450; the current listing status as of October 2, 2026; the parcel's zoning and the county's split and conditional use procedures; Dove Rest's site count and rates from its own website; Florida Caverns RV Resort's site count from its own website, carried from its booking platform; Three Rivers State Park's site count from the state's own page; Stay n Go's back-in monthly rate, which the operator's two pages state differently; a current Florida Department of Transportation count on Interstate 10 at exit 142; the Vintage 2025 population estimates and American Community Survey figures for Marianna and Jackson County; Jackson County's combined millage; and HUD's May 21, 2026 revised fair market rents for the county.

This model study applies the methodology described on MMCG's RV park feasibility study and USDA B&I feasibility study pages. MMCG prepares RV park and campground feasibility studies for SBA 7(a) and 504, USDA Business and Industry and REAP, and conventional lenders nationwide, with engagements from $4,900 and delivery in 9 to 16 business days.