Feasibility Study Consultant in Birmingham, AL: SBA and USDA

A feasibility study in Birmingham is read by a lender or a Certified Development Company before anyone else. In fiscal year 2025 this metro recorded 204 SBA 7(a) approvals for $102,219,800. One rule a lender meets here: Alabama state lodgings tax varies by county, with local lodgings taxes added.

The Birmingham, AL metro is home to about 1,192,583 residents per the U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates, led by Jefferson County at 664,744; Shelby County at 235,969; St. Clair County at 96,927; Walker County at 65,260.

A national template prices this metro on its 1,192,583 residents and stops there. The rules below come from the Alabama Department of Revenue, and each one changes a line of the model before a lender reads it.

Alabama state lodgings tax varies by county, with local lodgings taxes added. The Alabama Department of Revenue states the state lodgings tax rate is 5% in a listed group of counties and 4% in all other counties. Blount County is on the 5% list. Jefferson County is not on that list, so the 4% line applies to it. The department adds that counties and municipalities may levy local lodgings taxes, ranging in rate between 1% and 13%, and that some are collected by the department or by third party administrators while others are self-administered. For a hotel feasibility study in the Birmingham, AL metro, the occupancy tax line is the state rate for the county plus the local rate for the exact city and county. For an RV park or marina, the page excludes marine slips and spaces for tent camping, motor homes, travel trailers, campers, or RVs supplied for a period of 90 continuous days or more, for transactions entered into on or after October 1, 2019.

Alabama state sales and use tax rates by category. The Alabama Department of Revenue publishes a state sales and use tax schedule by category: General at 4%, Food/Grocery at 2% effective 9/1/2025, Automotive at 2%, and Amusement Sales and Use at 4%. The same page links a Local Cities and Counties Tax Rates Text File, so city and county rates are published separately from the state schedule. For a restaurant or convenience store study in the Birmingham, AL metro, the 4% General line is the state component of the sales tax input. A model for a specific site should then pull the local rate for the exact city and county from the local file. Food and grocery sales carry a separate state line, so a convenience store revenue split between categories needs each line modeled on its own rate.

Nationally, the U.S. Small Business Administration closed fiscal year 2025 having guaranteed 84,400 7(a) and 504 loans for $44.8 billion. This page computes the Birmingham share from the SBA's own 7(a) and 504 FOIA release, as of June 30, 2026, by member county rather than by district office: in fiscal year 2025 the metro's seven counties recorded 204 SBA 7(a) approvals for $102,219,800 and 20 SBA 504 approvals for $25,641,000.

In fiscal year 2025 the 7(a) approvals here came from The Huntington National Bank (26 loans, $11,510,900), Newtek Bank, National Association (26 loans, $9,671,000), and Northeast Bank (18 loans, $4,113,600), listed by approval count with the names as the SBA released them. The 504 approvals that year went through Southern Development Council (8 loans), Florida Business Development Corporation (6 loans), and Birmingham Citywide Local Development Company (4 loans). The SBA's district office field reads Alabama District Office on 204 of the 204 fiscal year 2025 7(a) rows, 100.0%.

Across fiscal years 2010 to 2026 disbursed, the ten asset classes tracked here account for 278 7(a) loans for $254,244,800 and 63 504 loans for $58,046,000 in this metro. In fiscal year 2025 alone those classes took 49 7(a) and 504 approvals for $46,012,200. The table sets out each class; a cell under five loans is not shown, and a charge-off rate is printed where 30 or more loans have resolved and left blank below that.

USDA Business and Industry and USDA Community Facilities credit runs on a statutory geography rather than on a county line. Under 7 U.S.C. 1991(a)(13)(A) the terms rural and rural area mean any area other than a city or town that has a population of greater than 50,000 inhabitants and any urbanized area contiguous and adjacent to such a city or town. The test turns on the subject address and the urbanized-area boundary around it, not on the name of a county or a metro. For a project in Birmingham the address decides it. The metro spans seven counties, from Jefferson County at 664,744 residents to Bibb County at 22,258, and an urbanized-area boundary follows the census map rather than any county line. MMCG checks the subject address against the USDA Rural Development eligibility map at intake, before work on the study begins, and this page names no town as eligible.

A hotel feasibility study in Birmingham starts from the metro's own SBA record. Across fiscal years 2010 to 2026 disbursed, hotels and motels account for 43 7(a) loans for $103,214,000 and 14 504 loans for $22,908,000 here, $126,122,000 in all. Full and limited service restaurants come to $91,042,700 over the same years.

For a hotel in this metro the publisher rules above are model lines rather than background: Alabama state lodgings tax varies by county, with local lodgings taxes added (the Alabama Department of Revenue).

These are the points an underwriter in Birmingham reads before the rest of the file. Each traces to a government publisher or to the SBA's own file.

MMCG starts from the project address, the asset class and the lender or Certified Development Company contact. The address settles the county and the rules set out above; the asset class sets which part of the SBA record applies.

The report names its sources the way this page does: the Alabama Department of Revenue, the SBA FOIA release, and the Census Bureau's population estimates. The method is set out in full in MMCG's feasibility study methodology.

MMCG Invest, LLC is a feasibility study consultancy that specializes in SBA and USDA feasibility studies for lenders, Certified Development Companies, USDA Rural Development guaranteed lenders and the borrowers they serve, with Birmingham among the markets it covers. The practice is led by Michal Mohelsky, J.D., FMVA, Practicing Affiliate of the Appraisal Institute. Reports are prepared under SBA SOP 50 10 8.1 for 7(a) and 504 files and under 7 CFR Part 5001 for USDA files, and each one states which schedule, rate and boundary it relied on so a credit officer can check the work. Pricing starts at $4,900, standard delivery runs 9 to 16 business days, a rush track delivers in 5 business days, and every inquiry receives a response within 12 business hours.