Model Case Study: USDA Business and Industry Financing for an Owner-Operated Storage Facility at Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri

A 250-space owner-operated storage facility on eight acres near Camdenton, Missouri, proposed for a USDA Business and Industry guaranteed loan. The feasibility study found that demand is deep and competition thin, that verified local rates do not carry a turnkey build at 80% loan to cost, and that the project is financeable through its covered-with-power and enclosed mix, a phased build tied to pre-leasing, and an operating plan written to the regulation's control test.

This is a model case study prepared by MMCG Invest to show how a lender-grade feasibility study resolves the questions a USDA Rural Development state office and a guaranteed lender ask of a self-storage credit. The market, the competitive survey, the demographics and the regulatory text are real and were verified in October 2026. The sponsor, the site and every cost, income and loan figure are MMCG model assumptions, not client data.

The sponsor proposed to build and operate a storage facility on an eight-acre site on the US 54 corridor in unincorporated Camden County, Missouri, within 15 miles of Camdenton, serving the boat, trailer, RV and household storage demand generated by Lake of the Ozarks. The program was 250 spaces and units across three tiers: open fenced storage, covered canopy spaces with 30- and 50-amp power, and enclosed units for wake boats, large pontoons and Class A motorhomes, with an on-site office, a wash bay and an RV dump station. Total project cost was estimated at $3.5 million to $4.6 million. The sponsor sought a USDA Business and Industry guaranteed loan at 80% of cost through a community bank. Because the loan exceeds $1 million and the borrower is a new business, 7 CFR 5001.306 requires a feasibility study by an independent qualified consultant, and MMCG prepared the study to the content guide in Appendix A to Subpart D of Part 5001.

The study answered four questions. Whether the facility is an eligible operating business under the regulation rather than excluded commercial rental. Whether the trade area supports 250 spaces at the proposed mix. What rate the competitive set supports by tier. And what loan the resulting income supports at the lender's coverage standard.

Camden County had 44,047 residents in 2025, up 3.1% since 2020, with a median household income of $66,387, an owner-occupied rate of 82.5% and a median owner-occupied home value of $305,400. The county issued 419 residential building permits in 2025. The figure that matters most to a vehicle storage facility is not the resident population but the gap between housing units and resident households: the county counts about 41,000 housing units against about 17,900 households, a seasonal and second-home base of more than 20,000 units that the resident count does not capture. Camdenton itself is a town of about 4,000 people, well inside the program's rural definition.

Missouri registered 282,983 boats in 2024, and Lake of the Ozarks, with more than 1,100 miles of shoreline, is the state's principal boating destination. The state tourism office's survey counted about 3.4 million overnight visitors to the lake region in 2024. The structural driver for trailer and vehicle storage is specific to this market and was documented from the competitors' own websites: owners who keep boats on lifts at their docks year-round still need a secured place for the trailer, and the lakefront subdivisions that permit lifts restrict driveway and side-yard parking of trailers and RVs.

The study defined the trade area as the US 54 and MO-5 corridors within about 15 road miles of Camdenton, extended beyond a conventional self-storage ring because vehicle storage customers drive to the facility nearest the ramps and marinas they use rather than nearest their residence.

MMCG surveyed every operator storing vehicles within the trade area and read rates directly from each operator's own website on the survey date. The survey found four facilities in the core trade area and three regional benchmarks.

Competitor Number 1. Big Oak Self Storage, 485 W US Highway 54, Camdenton. The facility offers a fenced paved open lot with spaces up to 40 feet, covered spaces, premium covered spaces with electric service, a wash bay and an RV dump station. Open spaces from 8 by 16 through 12 by 40 feet rent at $50 per month. Covered 12 by 32 spaces rent at $150 and 12 by 42 at $175. Premium covered spaces with electric rent at $200 for 12 by 38 and $225 for 14 by 45. All rates were read from the operator's site and are primary-verified. Big Oak is the only facility in the core trade area offering power at covered spaces and the only one offering wash and dump services.

Competitor Number 2. Lake Breeze Storage, 735 N MO-7, Camdenton. The facility operates 54 outdoor spaces accommodating units up to 50 feet and longer, and 10 enclosed barn stalls of 10 by 28 feet with gravel floors. Open spaces rent at $25 for units up to 10 by 30 and $30 for units up to 10 by 40. Enclosed stalls rent at $55. A $15 administrative fee applies and prepayment discounts of 5% for six months and 10% for twelve are offered. Rates are primary-verified. The operator's own site documents the lift-kept-boat trailer storage use case.

Competitor Number 3. LOZ Boat and RV Storage, 4165 State Road A, Montreal, about six miles from Camdenton. The facility offers open, covered and interior units with power, with a building added in 2023. Open 12 by 30 spaces rent at about $30 and 12 by 50 at about $50; covered 12 by 50 spaces at about $175; enclosed 12 by 30 units with power at about $185 to $195. These figures are carried from listing sites that agree with one another.

Competitor Number 4. Anchor Storage, 8977 MO-5, Greenview, about nine miles north of Camdenton. The facility, built in 2021 and 2022, offers covered, enclosed and uncovered parking. Embedded page data showed a 14 by 40 space at $195 and a 10 by 20 at $95, unit type unspecified and listed as out of stock. These figures are secondary.

Three regional benchmarks sit outside the core trade area, about 20 road miles away at Lake Ozark and Osage Beach. Lake Ozark Self Storage publishes open 10 by 36 spaces at $50, covered 13 by 48 spaces with electric at $180, and enclosed units from $150 for 12 by 24 to $275 for 13 by 36 and 13 by 46, primary-verified. U-Haul Moving and Storage at Lake of the Ozarks, announced in April 2024 with 170 covered RV, boat and vehicle spaces on more than 30 acres on Highway 54, opened in 2026 and publishes covered 11 by 31 spaces at $119.95 and covered 12 by 45 spaces with electric at $249.95, primary-verified. Patriot Storage in Osage Beach announced covered 12 by 48 spaces in 2023 without published rates.

The survey's conclusion is stated as a finding. Open storage in the core trade area is priced at $25 to $50 per month, or about $0.08 to $0.13 per square foot, and the supply of cheap open storage is deep. Covered storage is priced at $150 to $225, about $0.29 to $0.44 per square foot, and only one core-area operator offers power. Enclosed storage in the region is priced at $185 to $285, about $0.46 to $0.51 per square foot. The gap in the market is premium covered spaces with power for 40- to 50-foot units and service-led storage, and the arrival of 170 national-brand covered spaces 20 miles away sets a regional ceiling of about $250 for a 45-foot covered space with electric.

The study estimated demand from four sources: the state boat registration base allocated to the lake region by shoreline and marina share, the recreational vehicle ownership rate applied to the county's resident and seasonal households, the seasonal housing stock, and the parking covenants of the lakefront subdivisions within the trade area. Against that demand the study counted existing supply by tier, including the outdoor rows at the self-storage facilities, and the announced new supply.

The conclusion was that the trade area supports the 250-space program at the proposed mix, with the demand concentrated in the covered-with-power and enclosed tiers where supply is thinnest, and that the open tier would fill last because it competes with the deepest existing supply. Physical stabilization at 85% was underwritten at 24 to 36 months, consistent with the largest storage operator's own disclosures for new facilities, with pronounced seasonality: move-ins cluster at fall haul-out and at the start of the boating season in spring. Economic occupancy was underwritten three to five points below physical occupancy because half-price and free first months are standard in the trade area.

The program MMCG modeled is 250 spaces on eight acres: 120 to 150 open spaces sized 12 by 25 to 12 by 45 feet on a fenced, lit and gated gravel-and-asphalt lot; 80 to 110 covered canopy spaces sized 12 by 30 to 14 by 50 with 30- and 50-amp outlets for battery tending; and 20 to 30 enclosed units sized 12 by 30 to 14 by 50 for wake boats, large pontoons and Class A motorhomes. A 900 square foot office with on-site management, a wash bay, an RV dump station and a propane fill complete the plan.

Land was modeled at $50,000 per acre, or $400,000, between the county's all-land listing average of about $41,000 per acre and a listed 25-acre commercial tract at about $110,000 per acre; the study recommends county assessor sales data replace listing evidence before closing. Canopy structures were costed at $30 to $36 per square foot turnkey and enclosed buildings at $40 to $75 per square foot, consistent with published builder benchmarks. Site work, surfacing, fencing, gate and access control, lighting, the office, the wash bay and the dump station were modeled at $800,000 to $900,000, with soft costs and contingency at about 12%. Total project cost was $3.5 million to $4.6 million depending on the enclosed count and the surfacing specification.

The study concluded stabilized rates by tier from the survey. Open spaces at $45 to $50, at the top of the core-area range and matched to Big Oak. Covered spaces with power at an average of $185 to $200, inside Big Oak's $150 to $225 band and below the national operator's $249.95 for a 45-foot space with electric 20 miles away. Enclosed units at an average of $250 to $285, matched to the regional enclosed benchmarks at Lake Ozark.

Gross potential rent at those rates and the modeled mix was $346,000 to $432,000 per year. At 85% occupancy, with $25,000 to $30,000 of service revenue from the wash bay, dump station, propane and winterization coordination, and an expense ratio of 32%, stabilized net operating income was about $217,000 to $270,000. That is a yield on cost of about 5.9% to 6.2%.

The sponsor's proposed structure was a Business and Industry guaranteed loan at 80% of cost, which at the midpoint of the cost range is about $3.2 million. At an illustrative 7.5% rate and 25-year amortization, annual debt service on that loan is about $248,000 to $326,000 across the cost range, and the stabilized income above produces coverage of about 0.83 to 0.87 times. The project does not cover its debt at the proposed leverage.

At the lender's 1.20 times coverage standard, the income supports a loan of about $2.3 million at the low end of the rate conclusion and about $2.5 million at the high end. That is 55% to 60% of total project cost, not 80%. The study resolved the gap through four levers, each documented so the lender and the state office can see which apply. Contributed land or cash equity of $1.0 million to $1.8 million depending on phasing and rate. A phased build in which the open lot, the office and 50 to 60 covered spaces with power open first, with the enclosed buildings and the balance of the canopies drawn against pre-leasing at 80% occupancy of the first phase, which lowers the first-phase cost to the low end of the range. Premium pricing on the covered-with-power and enclosed tiers at the high end of the rate conclusion, justified by services no core-area competitor except Big Oak offers. And an interest and operating reserve sized to carry the facility through a 24 to 36 month lease-up with seasonal cash flow.

The guarantee itself was modeled at the program's published terms: 85% of the loan amount because the loan is under $5 million, a 3% initial guarantee fee and a 0.55% annual renewal fee, with the loan term matched to the useful life of the canopy and enclosed improvements.

The regulation does not name self-storage, mini-warehouses or vehicle storage in either its eligible or its ineligible lists, so eligibility is at the discretion of the Missouri Rural Development state office. Two provisions govern. Section 5001.115 excludes properties used primarily for commercial rental when the borrower has no control over tenants and services, and it excludes speculative real estate investment. Section 5001.126 requires that the borrower operate, manage and retain control of the facility at all times.

The study documented the operating role so the business reads as an operating enterprise. The borrower entity operates the facility directly with no master lease to a third-party manager. Customer agreements are operator-controlled storage licenses with facility rules, not real estate leases. The office is staffed with published hours, the principal's role is named, and access is controlled by individual codes with audit logs, cameras and lighting. The services are owner-delivered and carry their own revenue and labor lines: the wash bay and dump station, battery tending at powered spaces, winterization and shrink-wrap coordination, propane, and a concierge launch and retrieval service that tows units from storage to the public ramps. The study recommended a pre-application meeting with the state office in Columbia and written eligibility confirmation before the lender's commitment.

Coverage at the proposed leverage was the central risk, and the study showed the lender the loan the income supports and the equity, phasing and pricing that close the gap. New regional supply was the second: the national operator's 170 covered spaces at Lake Ozark and the announced Osage Beach project were mapped by drive time against the trade area, and the study concluded that the core-area demand within 15 miles of Camdenton is served by four facilities, two of which publish open rates of $25 to $30. Eligibility was the third, resolved through the operating plan above. Lease-up seasonality was the fourth, resolved through the reserve.

Two items were flagged for completion before closing: the two competitors whose prices are from listing sites should be confirmed by phone, and the land basis should be replaced with county assessor sales.

The study concluded that the facility is feasible as an owner-operated business at Lake of the Ozarks, that the trade area supports the 250-space program with demand concentrated in the covered-with-power and enclosed tiers, and that the project should be financed at about 55% to 60% of cost under the Business and Industry guarantee with the balance in contributed land and equity, built in two phases against pre-leasing, and underwritten to a 24 to 36 month lease-up with a seasonal reserve. The sponsor's original 80% loan-to-cost request was not supportable at verified rates, and the study said so.

MMCG prepares USDA Business and Industry feasibility studies for self-storage and vehicle storage facilities nationally, written to the content guide in Appendix A to Subpart D of 7 CFR Part 5001. Request a proposal from the self-storage feasibility study page.