Feasibility Study Consultant in Burlington, VT: SBA and USDA

A feasibility study in Burlington, VT is read by a lender or a Certified Development Company before anyone else. In fiscal year 2025 this metro recorded 78 SBA 7(a) approvals for $29,909,900. One rule a lender meets here: Burlington charges its own city gross receipts tax on hotel and short term rental receipts.

The Burlington-South Burlington, VT metro is home to about 229,445 residents per the U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates, led by Chittenden County at 170,851; Franklin County at 51,066; Grand Isle County at 7,528.

A national template prices this metro on its 229,445 residents and stops there. The rules below come from the City of Burlington, and each one changes a line of the model before a lender reads it.

Burlington charges its own city gross receipts tax on hotel and short term rental receipts. The Burlington Clerk Treasurer's Office administers the City of Burlington's Restaurant, Hotel, and Amusements Tax, also called the Gross Receipts tax. The page states that this tax is paid directly to the City of Burlington and is set by City Ordinance. As of July 1, 2026, it lists Hotel/Motel at 4% and Short Term Rental at 9%. For a lodging project inside the city of Burlington, a model should add the city rate to whatever state tax applies to the same receipts. The page does not state a Vermont state rate, so the modeler must take state taxes from the Vermont Department of Taxes separately. The page covers the City of Burlington and gives no rate for South Burlington or any other town, so a site outside the city needs its own local tax check.

Burlington charges its own city gross receipts tax on meals and alcohol. The City of Burlington Clerk Treasurer's Office publishes the Gross Receipts tax on restaurants, hotels and amusements. As of July 1, 2026, the page lists Alcoholic Beverages at 2.5%, Amusements at 2.5% and Meals at 2.5%. The page also states that all entities doing business in Burlington in the categories governing the tax must pay monthly. For a restaurant, bar or similar food service project inside the city of Burlington, a feasibility model should carry a city tax line on meals and alcohol receipts and a monthly remittance in the cash flow. The page does not state a Vermont state rate, so state taxes must be sourced separately. It covers the City of Burlington and names no rate for South Burlington or any other town.

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 Burlington, VT 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 three counties recorded 78 SBA 7(a) approvals for $29,909,900 and 6 SBA 504 approvals for $7,876,000.

In fiscal year 2025 the 7(a) approvals here came from TD Bank, National Association (19 loans, $1,434,700), Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company (14 loans, $710,000), and Northeast Bank (7 loans, $615,800), listed by approval count with the names as the SBA released them. The 504 approvals that year went through Granite State Economic Development Corporation (6 loans). The SBA's district office field reads Vermont District Office on 78 of the 78 fiscal year 2025 7(a) rows, 100.0%.

Across fiscal years 2010 to 2026 disbursed, the ten asset classes tracked here account for 110 7(a) loans for $20,937,500 and 25 504 loans for $21,665,000 in this metro. In fiscal year 2025 alone those classes took 7 7(a) and 504 approvals for $7,162,500. 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 Burlington, VT the address decides it. The metro spans three counties, from Chittenden County at 170,851 residents to Grand Isle County at 7,528, 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 restaurant feasibility study in Burlington, VT starts from the metro's own SBA record. Across fiscal years 2010 to 2026 disbursed, full and limited service restaurants account for 70 7(a) loans for $14,356,500 and fewer than five 504 loans here, $15,174,500 in all. Hotels and motels come to $8,811,500 over the same years. On the full and limited service restaurants 7(a) loans that have resolved, the charge-off rate is 6.0%.

For a restaurant in this metro the publisher rules above are model lines rather than background: Burlington charges its own city gross receipts tax on meals and alcohol (the City of Burlington).

These are the points an underwriter in Burlington, VT 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 City of Burlington, 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 Burlington, VT 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.