Feasibility Study Consultant in Charleston, SC: SBA and USDA

A feasibility study in Charleston, SC is read by a lender or a Certified Development Company before anyone else. In fiscal year 2025 this metro recorded 213 SBA 7(a) approvals for $108,858,600. One rule a lender meets here: South Carolina lodging tax layers on room charges.

The Charleston-North Charleston, SC metro is home to about 869,940 residents per the U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates, led by Charleston County at 431,001; Berkeley County at 264,276; Dorchester County at 174,663.

A national template prices this metro on its 869,940 residents and stops there. The rules below come from the South Carolina Department of Revenue, and each one changes a line of the model before a lender reads it.

South Carolina lodging tax layers on room charges. The South Carolina Department of Revenue states that accommodations are subject to a 5% Sales Tax and a 2% Accommodations Tax, plus any local Sales and Use Tax that the department collects on behalf of counties. It also states that local governments can charge up to an additional 3% in Accommodations Tax. For a hotel, RV park or other lodging project in the Charleston-North Charleston metro, these layers are added to the room charge the guest pays. The state layers are set by the department, while the local accommodations layer is set by the county or municipality where the property sits. A feasibility model should therefore confirm the exact local rate for the parcel's jurisdiction, show guest-paid tax as a pass-through rather than as revenue, and test occupancy and daily-rate assumptions against the all-in price a guest sees at booking.

South Carolina county local sales taxes add to the state rate. The South Carolina Department of Revenue states that, in addition to the statewide 6% Sales Tax, counties and municipalities can impose additional local taxes if voters in that county approve. Its lists of authorized counties put Charleston County and Berkeley County under the Local Option Sales and Use Tax, under the Education Capital Improvement Tax, described as a 1% tax used for schools, and under the Transportation Tax, where Charleston is shown at 0.5%. Dorchester County appears on the Transportation Tax list and on neither of the other two. For a gas station, restaurant, car wash or self-storage project, the taxable sale carries the state rate plus whichever local layers apply in the county of the site, so a feasibility model should build the retail tax rate from the department's county lists rather than apply a single rate to every site.

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 Charleston, SC 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 213 SBA 7(a) approvals for $108,858,600 and 6 SBA 504 approvals for $15,497,000.

In fiscal year 2025 the 7(a) approvals here came from The Huntington National Bank (35 loans, $17,300,400), Northeast Bank (27 loans, $4,280,700), and TD Bank, National Association (19 loans, $8,369,200), listed by approval count with the names as the SBA released them. The 504 approvals that year went through Provident Business Financial Services, Inc. (4 loans) and Certified Development Corporation of South Carolina (2 loans). The SBA's district office field reads South Carolina District Office on 213 of the 213 fiscal year 2025 7(a) rows, 100.0%.

Across fiscal years 2010 to 2026 disbursed, the ten asset classes tracked here account for 225 7(a) loans for $234,821,700 and 35 504 loans for $48,889,000 in this metro. In fiscal year 2025 alone those classes took 30 7(a) and 504 approvals for $38,678,900. 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 Charleston, SC the address decides it. The metro spans three counties, from Charleston County at 431,001 residents to Dorchester County at 174,663, 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 Charleston, SC starts from the metro's own SBA record. Across fiscal years 2010 to 2026 disbursed, full and limited service restaurants account for 112 7(a) loans for $81,677,900 and 14 504 loans for $16,715,000 here, $98,392,900 in all. Hotels and motels come to $86,479,000 over the same years. On the full and limited service restaurants 7(a) loans that have resolved, the charge-off rate is 3.4%.

These are the points an underwriter in Charleston, SC 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 South Carolina 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 Charleston, SC 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 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.