Feasibility Study Consultant for Delaware: Lender-Grade SBA and USDA Feasibility Studies, Calibrated to the First State

MMCG Invest, LLC is a feasibility study consultant and feasibility study firm that produces lender-grade SBA 7(a), SBA 504, USDA Business and Industry, USDA REAP, USDA Community Facilities and conventional feasibility studies for Delaware projects where the analytical questions reach beyond the headline that Delaware closed July 2025 at 1,059,952 residents per Census Bureau Vintage 2025, up 9,829 in a single year (0.9 percent, the sixth-highest growth rate of any state) and up 12.2 percent over the 2015 to 2025 decade against 6.2 percent for the United States. The court-ordered statewide property reassessment under Delawareans for Educational Opportunity v. Carney, the first in Sussex County since 1974, New Castle County since 1983 and Kent County since 1987, which produced reassessed bills in Kent in 2024 and in New Castle and Sussex in 2025 and triggered House Bill 242's split residential and non-residential school tax rates; the corporate franchise economy that houses 66.7 percent of the Fortune 500, more than 2.1 million legal entities and roughly 27 to 30 percent of the state General Fund, now defended by Senate Bill 21 (signed March 25, 2025, upheld by the Delaware Supreme Court in March 2026) against the DExit reincorporation trend; the PJM Interconnection capacity market that cleared the 2025/2026 delivery year at $269.92 per megawatt-day against $28.92 the year before, then at the FERC price cap of $329.17 for 2026/2027, $333.44 for 2027/2028 and $325.00 for 2028/2029, layered on Delmarva Power's third base-rate case in five years (PSC Docket 25-1555, $67.8 million); the lowest mean elevation of any U.S. state at 60 feet, with the Lewes tide gauge recording more than 13 inches of sea level rise since 1900 at nearly double the global rate; and a Sussex County that grew 16.75 percent between the 2020 Census and July 2025 to 277,140 residents, 32.8 percent of them age 65 or older, all reshape how a Delaware deal pencils.

Every engagement is calibrated to the project address, the program of record, and the specific lender, CDC, USDA Rural Development contact or county economic development office carrying the deal. Pricing starts at $4,900 with a 50/50 fee schedule. Delivery in 9 to 16 business days. A complimentary preliminary Delaware market overview within one business day of submission.

Delaware is the smallest state by county count in the country, with three counties and one SBA District Office, and it is one of the few states where five distinct, statute-rooted, structurally Delaware-only variables collectively redefine the underwriting envelope for every commercial real estate, SBA and USDA feasibility study. The state ended July 2025 at 1,059,952 residents, with real GDP of approximately $87.3 billion in 2025 (up 2.3 percent) and GDP per capita of $82,300, among the highest in the nation. Delaware has no state or local sales tax, funds itself instead through a gross receipts tax on sellers of 0.0945 to 1.9914 percent by business activity (up to 2.4218 percent on petroleum products) with no deduction for cost of goods or labor, a flat 8.7 percent corporate income tax, a 6.6 percent top personal income tax rate, and an effective property tax rate near 0.50 percent that ranks among the lowest in the nation. Delaware operates one SBA District Office in Wilmington serving all three counties, one in-state SBA 504 Certified Development Company, and a combined Delaware-Maryland USDA Rural Development State Office in Dover. A feasibility study consultant working in Delaware must therefore calibrate to a market that is simultaneously a national corporate and banking capital in the north and a rural, agricultural and coastal-resort economy in the south.

Five Delaware-specific variables redefine every Delaware deal in 2026 and require state-specific calibration that no national template captures.

First, the court-ordered statewide reassessment and the split-rate school tax regime. Under the Court of Chancery's May 2020 ruling in Delawareans for Educational Opportunity v. Carney (filed January 2018), decades-old valuations were held to violate the True Value Statute and the Uniformity Clause of the Delaware Constitution. All three counties retained Tyler Technologies under June 2021 contracts and conducted their first reassessments since 1974 (Sussex), 1983 (New Castle) and 1987 (Kent). Kent issued reassessed bills in 2024; New Castle and Sussex followed in 2025. Although the exercise was designed to be revenue-neutral in aggregate, individual outcomes in New Castle County ranged from a 3 percent decrease to a 68 percent increase, and counsel at the subsequent Chancery hearing argued that residential burdens rose more than 400 percent while commercial burdens rose more than 250 percent. House Bill 242, passed in August 2025, permitted northern school districts to bifurcate tax rates between residential and non-residential property; the Newark Property Association, the Delaware Apartment Association, the First State Manufactured Housing Association and the Delaware Hotel and Lodging Association challenged the split rates, and the Delaware Supreme Court upheld them. The 2025 measures were expressly temporary, and permanent reform remains before the General Assembly for 2026. Every Delaware commercial pro forma built on pre-2024 assessed values is now stale, and property tax expense must be re-underwritten parcel by parcel from the reassessed value and the applicable split rate rather than trended from historicals.

Second, the corporate franchise economy and the 1981 Financial Center Development Act banking concentration. Delaware is the legal domicile of 66.7 percent of Fortune 500 companies and more than 2.1 million legal entities, with 289,810 new entity formations in 2024 per the Delaware Division of Corporations. Corporate franchise taxes and related fees generate roughly $1.9 billion annually, about 27 to 30 percent of the General Fund, with corporations paying $1.32 billion in 2025 and LLCs and LPs another $522 million; unclaimed property (escheat) revenue adds more than $500 million per year. Senate Bill 21, signed March 25, 2025, amended Sections 144 and 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law to create safe harbors for conflicted transactions and narrow books-and-records demands, a direct legislative response to reincorporations to Nevada and Texas following rulings such as Tornetta v. Musk; the Delaware Supreme Court upheld SB 21 in March 2026. The Financial Center Development Act of 1981 separately opened Delaware to out-of-state banks that employed at least 100 people and made Wilmington the credit card capital of the country. Finance now accounts for roughly 9 percent of Delaware jobs (nearly double the national share), banks employ more than 37,800 people, and monetary authorities contributed 16.9 percent of state GDP in 2023 against 3.3 percent nationally, anchored by JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Capital One, Barclays US, Citi and Discover. Senate Bill 16, the 2026 Delaware Banking Modernization Act, is the first major revision of Title 5 since 1981. The underwriting implication is a state fiscal base and a Wilmington office market that both depend on domicile and headquarters decisions made outside Delaware.

Third, the PJM capacity market and the Delmarva Power rate trajectory. Delaware sits inside PJM Interconnection. The 2025/2026 Base Residual Auction cleared at a then-record $269.92 per megawatt-day against $28.92 for 2024/2025; the 2026/2027 auction (results July 22, 2025) cleared at the FERC-approved cap of $329.17 in every zone with $16.1 billion of cleared capacity cost; the 2027/2028 auction (December 17, 2025) cleared at $333.44; and the 2028/2029 auction (July 14, 2026) cleared at $325.00. Delmarva Power filed its third base-rate case in five years on December 9, 2025 (PSC Docket 25-1555) seeking a $67.8 million revenue increase, which the Division of the Public Advocate estimated at 16.2 percent for average heating customers; an interim increase took effect July 9, 2026, and Standard Offer Service supply rates rose 18 to 20 percent on June 1, 2026. Delaware commercial customers paid an average 13.39 cents per kilowatt-hour in May 2026, up 8.6 percent year over year. The Project Washington proposal by Starwood Digital Ventures in Delaware City, roughly 6 million square feet on about 580 acres drawing up to 1.2 gigawatts against a statewide load of about 2.4 gigawatts, prompted a February 2026 DNREC Coastal Zone Act ruling against its 516 diesel backup generators (under appeal), Senate Bill 205 and House Bill 233 large-load tariff legislation, and New Castle County data center zoning adopted in March 2026 with a 55 dB(A) noise limit and 1,000-foot residential setbacks. Any Delaware industrial, hospitality, multifamily or cold-storage study that holds utility expense flat understates operating cost.

Fourth, the lowest-elevation state in the country and its coastal exposure. Delaware's mean elevation is 60 feet, the lowest of any state, across 381 miles of shoreline on the Atlantic, Delaware Bay and the inland bays. The Lewes tide gauge shows more than 13 inches of sea level rise since 1900 (0.13 inches per year, nearly double the global rate), DNREC's planning scenarios project 0.52 meters (low), 0.99 meters (intermediate) and 1.53 meters (high) of additional rise by 2100, an additional 9 to 23 inches is expected by 2050, and the state vulnerability assessment estimates 8 to 11 percent of Delaware could be underwater by 2100. Tidal flooding has increased 260 percent in parts of the state since 2000. Delaware carries roughly 29,519 active NFIP policies with an average premium of $767, of which Sussex County alone holds 21,184 policies totaling $15.8 million in annual premium, and the state has 502 multiple-loss properties including 54 severe repetitive loss properties. Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach, Bethany Beach, Fenwick Island, Lewes, Slaughter Beach and the Delaware Bay shore all carry concentrated Special Flood Hazard Area exposure that governs insurability, premium and collateral risk.

Fifth, the Sussex County retiree in-migration and coastal seasonality. Sussex County grew from the 2020 Census to 277,140 residents in July 2025, a 16.75 percent gain of roughly 40,000 people at five times the national rate, and Delaware leads all states with a 23 percent increase in its 65-and-older population since 2020. Sussex residents age 65 and older make up 32.8 percent of the county against 21.8 percent statewide and about 18 percent nationally; the county's median age is 53.2, nearly 14 years above the national figure; owner-occupancy is 81.6 percent; and the housing market shows 3.7 months of supply, 168 average days on market and a $575,000 median list price. The same coastal economy that absorbs this demand runs on a compressed summer window: Bethany Beach short-term rentals recorded an annualized occupancy of only 29.6 percent on a $461 average daily rate and $152 revenue per available night. A single-season absorption or occupancy assumption does not translate to coastal Delaware, and a Delaware feasibility study must model the summer peak and the off-season floor separately.

The SBA Delaware District Office is located at 1105 North Market Street, Suite 401 (I.M. Pei Building, lobby level), Wilmington, Delaware 19801, under District Director Michelle Harris, and serves all three counties. From fiscal year 2020 through December 31, 2025, SBA approved 1,167 7(a) loans in Delaware totaling $443.0 million, an average of approximately $380,000 per loan, concentrated in New Castle County and led by full-service restaurants, limited-service restaurants, broiler and meat operations, landscaping and child day care. Nationally, fiscal year 2025 was a record year with 84,400 combined 7(a) and 504 approvals for $44.8 billion, including 77,600 7(a) loans for $37 billion and 6,750 504 loans for $7.8 billion.

The Delaware 7(a) lender bench is thin and bifurcated. M&T Bank leads by loan count (387 loans over the period) and WSFS Bank (Wilmington Savings Fund Society, the state's largest locally headquartered bank) leads by dollars at $57.6 million across 72 loans, holding the number-one 7(a) position in Delaware by dollars financed on SBA approval data for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025. TD Bank, Northeast Bank, PNC Bank, Wells Fargo, Newtek Bank, Huntington National Bank, BayFirst National Bank and Fulton Bank complete the active top ten. Delaware-based and regionally active relationship lenders include WSFS, Artisans' Bank, County Bank (Rehoboth Beach), M&T, TD, PNC, Fulton, Del-One Federal Credit Union, the CDFI True Access Capital and Community Bank Delaware. An out-of-state sponsor cannot assume the deep national-lender bench found in larger markets.

The in-state SBA 504 lender is the Delaware Community Development Corporation (DCDC), operated by the Wilmington Economic Development Corporation at 100 West 10th Street, Suite 214, Wilmington, and active since 1978 across New Castle, Kent and Sussex counties. Regional CDCs reaching into Delaware include Business Finance Group (Fairfax, Virginia) and The 504 Company (Philadelphia).

USDA Rural Development maintains its combined Delaware-Maryland State Office at 1221 College Park Drive, Suite 200, Dover, Delaware 19904, under State Director Paul D. Ellington (appointed August 2025) and Deputy State Director Letitia Nichols, running Business and Cooperative Programs, Community Facilities, Single Family Housing and Water and Environmental Programs, with area office support from Hagerstown, Maryland. Wilmington, Newark and most of northern New Castle County fall outside USDA rural eligibility; most of Kent and Sussex counties and their small towns qualify, which makes USDA Business and Industry, REAP and Community Facilities lending in Delaware predominantly a Kent and Sussex phenomenon tied to poultry, agriculture, healthcare and small coastal communities. Recent USDA rounds include $4.5 million in REAP awards to 30 Delaware and Maryland recipients (October 2024), $1.6 million in REAP awards to 12 recipients (April 2024), $3.6 million in water and wastewater investments (February 2024), and a Delaware REAP round funding Coastal Car Wash, Beach Babies Child Care and Lazy Boy Farm.

The state economic development stack runs through the Delaware Division of Small Business, the Delaware Prosperity Partnership (the public-private lead economic development organization), the Council on Development Finance and the Delaware Economic Development Authority. Delaware received $60.9 million in federal State Small Business Credit Initiative funding, deployed $14,433,971.99 between April 27 and December 18, 2025 to unlock its next tranche, and runs four SSBCI programs: the Delaware Loan Participation Program, the Delaware Capital Access Program, the Delaware Accelerator and Seed Capital Program and the Early-Stage Venture Capital Program, with Del-One Federal Credit Union, True Access Capital and Community Bank Delaware as lending partners. The Delaware Strategic Fund provides grants and low-interest loans through the Council on Development Finance ($12.5 million proposed for fiscal year 2026 alongside a $9.5 million Site Readiness Fund). The Downtown Development Districts rebate program has paid $39.2 million in rebates that leveraged $574.7 million in private investment across the 12 designated districts, with Wilmington alone accounting for $24 million in rebates and more than $400 million in private investment over the program's first decade. The New Business Facility Tax Credit, the New Economy Jobs Tax Credit, the Blue Collar Jobs Tax Credit and the Delaware Research and Development credit, together with Kent County, Sussex County and New Castle County economic development offices, round out the stack.

The single most analytically distinctive Delaware capital-markets variable that out-of-state lenders consistently misprice is the concentration of the state's fiscal base in incorporation revenue: roughly $1.9 billion, or 27 to 30 percent of the General Fund, comes from franchise taxes and fees tied to domicile decisions made by companies with no physical Delaware presence, plus more than $500 million in escheat. Out-of-state lenders tend to model Delaware as a stable, AAA-adjacent jurisdiction while under-weighting this revenue concentration, the impaired downtown Wilmington office market (peak-day occupancy near 60 percent and below 40 percent on Mondays and Fridays), the reassessment shock and the PJM cost trajectory now hitting operating expenses. The second most distinctive variable is the 4 percent combined realty transfer tax, the highest state-level transfer tax in the nation, which must be capitalized into total project cost on every acquisition. MMCG models both at intake on every Delaware commercial real estate engagement.

New Castle County closed July 2025 at 588,026 residents per Census Bureau Vintage 2025 (up 3.03 percent since 2020), the largest of Delaware's three counties and the Delaware component of the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metropolitan statistical area. It is the state's corporate, banking, life sciences and logistics center, anchored by ChristianaCare, DuPont, Chemours, JPMorgan Chase (whose Wilmington operations serve as the firm's consumer banking technology hub with more than 1,200 technology professionals), Bank of America, Capital One, Barclays US, AstraZeneca, Incyte, W.L. Gore, the University of Delaware in Newark and the University's STAR Campus life sciences cluster. Average weekly wages in New Castle County reached $1,740 in the first quarter of 2025, above the $1,589 national average, and county unemployment stood at 4.8 percent in June 2026 (Wilmington city 6.3 percent).

Wilmington office vacancy stood at 17.3 percent in the first quarter of 2026 per Newmark, 30 basis points below the prior quarter, with roughly 85,000 square feet leased in the quarter; brokerage figures range from 15.8 percent (Colliers) to 28.4 percent (CBRE) depending on market definition. Colliers has tracked New Castle County office vacancy near 17.2 percent, with downtown Wilmington at 16.8 percent and the suburbs at 18 percent, after Incyte's purchase of two buildings at the former Bank of America and MBNA Bracebridge campus. Incyte has since reduced its downtown headquarters expansion, and Buccini/Pollin Group is converting the planned office component into apartments. Downtown utilization remains structurally impaired at roughly 60 percent of pre-pandemic occupancy on peak days and below 40 percent on Mondays and Fridays.

New Castle County industrial is the tightest property sector in the state. Northern Delaware industrial vacancy ran 7.4 to 7.8 percent across the most recent reported quarters, with nearly 60 percent of the vacant space concentrated in three speculative buildings completed in late 2023 along the Interstate 95, Route 1 and Delaware City corridor. The Port of Wilmington, operated by Enstructure under concession with the state's Diamond State Port Corporation, broke ground on September 14, 2026 on the Edgemoor container terminal, a $635 million public-private project (approximately $669 million with more than $110 million of state funds) after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reissued permits in April 2026; at full build the terminal roughly quadruples container capacity to 1.2 to 1.6 million TEUs and supports nearly 6,000 jobs including more than 3,100 direct positions, with Phase One targeted for 2028 to 2029. The proposed Project Washington data center near Delaware City, with refinery owner PBF Energy as co-developer, is the largest single load proposal in state history.

Wilmington multifamily asking rents averaged approximately $1,595 per month in August 2025. The active pipeline is concentrated in Buccini/Pollin Group projects: The Press (243 units, opened summer 2025), Humble Park (opened late 2024) and Justison Landing on the Riverfront (164 units, opening summer 2026). The Wilmington Riverfront remains the county's principal mixed-use growth district. A feasibility study firm working in New Castle County must run separate office, industrial and multifamily models rather than a single county absorption assumption, because the three sectors are moving in opposite directions.

Kent County, coterminous with the Dover metropolitan statistical area, closed July 2025 at 194,786 residents per Census Bureau Vintage 2025 (up 7.11 percent since 2020). The county economy is anchored by government, military and healthcare employment: the State of Delaware as capital-city employer, Dover Air Force Base, Bayhealth, Delaware State University, the Kraft Heinz Dover plant, Dover Motor Speedway and Bally's Dover casino. Average weekly wages in Kent County were $1,126 in the first quarter of 2025, below the national average, and county unemployment stood at 5.4 percent in June 2026 (Dover city 6.6 percent).

Dover Air Force Base is the county's single largest economic anchor. Per the 436th Comptroller Squadron economic impact statement for fiscal year 2023, the base generated $891 million of total economic impact supporting an estimated 8,969 jobs, employed 6,096 people (5,457 military and 639 civilians) with annual payroll in excess of $382 million, supported 2,418 military dependents and carried 36 construction projects valued at $186 million. Kent County is also the seat of the USDA Rural Development Delaware-Maryland State Office and the state's poultry and agricultural supply chain north of Sussex, and most of the county outside Dover qualifies for USDA rural programs. Kent County feasibility work for hotels, retail, self-storage, RV storage and medical office is underwritten against a base-driven, government-driven demand profile with lower seasonality than the coast and lower wage levels than New Castle County.

Sussex County closed July 2025 at 277,140 residents per Census Bureau Vintage 2025, up 16.75 percent since 2020 and the fastest-growing county in Delaware, with the Delaware portion of the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware metropolitan statistical area and a demographic profile unlike any other county in the mid-Atlantic: 32.8 percent of residents are age 65 or older, the median age is 53.2, owner-occupancy is 81.6 percent, and the 2020 to 2024 median owner-occupied home value was $382,600 against a current median list price of $575,000. Average weekly wages were $1,097 in the first quarter of 2025 and county unemployment stood at 4.7 percent in June 2026, the lowest of the three counties.

The coastal resort corridor from Lewes through Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach, Bethany Beach, South Bethany and Fenwick Island, together with the inland bays around Millsboro, Long Neck and Ocean View, drives the county's hospitality, retail and second-home economy. Southern Delaware Tourism recorded 7.6 million visitors to Sussex County in 2021 spending $270 million on hotel accommodations, more than $421 million on food and beverage and $274 million on tax-free shopping. Statewide, tourism contributed $4.7 billion to Delaware GDP in 2023 with 9.9 million overnight visitors, 29.3 million total visitors, approximately $7 billion in visitor spending, 55,240 jobs (the state's fourth-largest private employer), $724 million in tax revenue and $1,826 in tax relief per household; sports tourism added $257.9 million in direct spending. Coastal short-term rentals at Bethany Beach run on rate rather than occupancy, with average annual revenue of $22,043 per listing on 29.6 percent annualized occupancy, a $461 average daily rate and $152 revenue per available night.

Healthcare and senior housing form the second demand engine. Beebe Healthcare (Lewes) and TidalHealth (Seaford and the Salisbury system) are the expansion anchors, and Sussex County currently holds six state-licensed assisted living facilities totaling roughly 613 beds (Brandywine Fenwick Island, Brandywine Seaside Pointe in Rehoboth, OakBridge at Manor House in Seaford, Peach Tree in Harbeson, The Lodge at Historic Lewes and The Moorings at Lewes) within about 37 licensed assisted living facilities statewide, an inventory that is thin against a 65-and-older population that leads the nation in growth. Route 1 and Route 113 through Georgetown, Milford, Millsboro and Seaford carry the county's commercial growth, and Sussex remains the largest broiler-chicken-producing county in the United States, anchoring the USDA Business and Industry pipeline documented in the next section.

Beyond the three-county framework, a Delaware feasibility study consultant covers the full asset class spectrum from the Interstate 95 and Route 1 logistics corridor in northern New Castle County, through the Route 13 state-capital corridor at Dover, to the Route 1 and Route 113 coastal and agricultural corridors of Sussex County.

Agriculture, Poultry and Food Processing. The Delmarva chicken industry raised 613 million chickens, produced 4.6 billion pounds and generated $4.8 billion in sales in 2024 (up 3.4 percent), with a $17.4 billion direct and induced economic impact, $1.1 billion in state and local taxes, $1.3 billion in feed purchases, $902 million in wages and $327 million in grower contract payments across 1,206 farm families and 17,947 company employees at Perdue Farms, Mountaire Farms, Allen Harim, Amick Farms and Tyson. Sussex County is the largest broiler-producing county in the nation. USDA Business and Industry, REAP and Food Supply Chain financing for growers, integrators, feed, rendering, cold storage and value-added processing is underwritten against integrator contract terms, reassessed farm parcel values and Delaware's gross receipts tax rather than a sales tax.

Hotels and Resort Hospitality. The Lewes to Fenwick Island corridor, the Wilmington Riverfront and the Dover base and speedway market form three distinct hotel demand profiles. Coastal hospitality is underwritten against the summer window and the shoulder-season floor documented in Section 5, with the 2026 national outlook per CoStar and Tourism Economics of a slight occupancy decline to 62.1 percent, 1 percent ADR growth and 0.6 percent RevPAR growth as the base case.

Self-Storage, RV Storage and Boat Storage. Concentrated demand tracks the Sussex second-home corridor, the inland bays and Indian River Inlet boating population, the Route 1 and Route 113 retiree communities, and the Newark and Middletown growth corridors in New Castle County. Coastal storage feasibility must explicitly model NFIP zone exposure and wind and flood deductible structure at the parcel level.

RV Parks, Campgrounds, Glamping and Cabins. Public camping at Cape Henlopen, Delaware Seashore, Trap Pond, Killens Pond and Lums Pond State Parks competes with private campgrounds across Sussex and Kent counties. Demand is driven by the mid-Atlantic drive market from Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington and northern New Jersey and is highly seasonal.

Healthcare, Assisted Living, Memory Care and Medical Office. ChristianaCare, Bayhealth, Beebe Healthcare, TidalHealth, Nemours Children's Health and the Wilmington VA Medical Center anchor the statewide system. USDA Community Facilities financing remains available for non-profit operators in rural-eligible Kent and Sussex counties, and the Delaware Division of Health Care Quality licensing framework governs assisted living and skilled nursing capacity.

Retail, Office and Mixed-Use. Delaware's tax-free shopping draws regional retail demand to Christiana Mall, Concord Pike, the Rehoboth Beach outlets and the Route 1 corridor. Acme, Giant, ShopRite, Food Lion, Weis, Aldi, Lidl, Sprouts, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Wegmans and Costco anchor the grocery-anchored set. Wilmington office and the Riverfront mixed-use district are underwritten against the vacancy and utilization figures in Section 3.

Gas Stations, Convenience Stores, Travel Centers and QSR. Delaware sits at the intersection of Interstate 95 (the Delaware Turnpike and the Delaware Memorial Bridge), Route 1 (the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway to the beaches), Route 13 (the DuPont Highway to Dover and the lower Delmarva Peninsula), Route 113 and Route 9. Wawa and Royal Farms dominate the convenience corridor, with Sheetz, 7-Eleven and Dash In active. Delaware's motor fuel tax is 23 cents per gallon (22 cents for special fuel), and fuel retailers pay gross receipts tax rather than collecting sales tax, both of which change the margin model relative to neighboring states. Fueling station, car wash and QSR feasibility incorporates DelDOT annual average daily traffic on the specific corridor, the beach-season traffic swing on Route 1, and the Delaware Memorial Bridge and I-95 through-traffic flow.

Car Washes. Express and flex-serve car wash demand tracks the Middletown, Newark, Bear and Glasgow growth corridors in New Castle County, the Dover and Smyrna corridor in Kent, and the Lewes, Millsboro and Milford corridors in Sussex, with USDA REAP eligibility for energy-efficient equipment in rural-eligible locations.

Wedding Venues, Marinas and Childcare. Historic New Castle, the Brandywine Valley estates, the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal corridor, and the Lewes and Rehoboth coastal venues anchor a premium wedding segment. The inland bays (Rehoboth Bay, Indian River Bay, Little Assawoman Bay), Indian River Inlet, the Delaware Bay shore, the Nanticoke River and the Christina River anchor the marina pipeline. Childcare demand across rural Kent and Sussex counties, supported by Delaware's Purchase of Care program and USDA Community Facilities financing for non-profit operators, is one of the state's most consistently under-supplied asset classes and appears among the leading SBA 7(a) use cases in Delaware.

Manufacturing, Life Sciences and Data Centers. The University of Delaware STAR Campus, the Chemours Discovery Hub, the Incyte and AstraZeneca campuses, Kraft Heinz Dover, the Delaware City Refinery, the Edgemoor port terminal and the proposed Project Washington data center define the industrial and advanced-manufacturing pipeline. Every large-load project is now underwritten against the PJM capacity trajectory, the pending Delaware large-load tariff legislation, the New Castle County data center ordinance and the Coastal Zone Act.

Seven state-specific underwriting realities differentiate a defensible Delaware feasibility study from a templated, out-of-state report. Each is non-optional in 2026.

First, the post-reassessment property tax base and the split-rate school levy. All three counties completed court-ordered reassessments under Delawareans for Educational Opportunity v. Carney, replacing 1974, 1983 and 1987 base years with 2024 and 2025 values. House Bill 242 allowed school districts to split residential and non-residential rates for the 2025 tax year, the Delaware Supreme Court upheld the bifurcated rates, and permanent 2026 legislation remains pending. Property tax expense in every Delaware study is built from the reassessed parcel value, the county rate, the school district's applicable non-residential rate and any municipal levy, never from a trended historical bill.

Second, the PJM capacity price and Delmarva rate trajectory. Three consecutive Base Residual Auctions cleared at or near the FERC price cap ($329.17, $333.44 and $325.00 per megawatt-day), Delmarva's $67.8 million base-rate case is pending with an interim increase already in effect, supply rates rose 18 to 20 percent in June 2026, and Delaware commercial electricity averaged 13.39 cents per kilowatt-hour in May 2026, up 8.6 percent year over year. Utility expense is trended upward in every Delaware operating pro forma, and any tenant or use above the large-load threshold is modeled against pending tariff legislation.

Third, coastal flood and insurance exposure. Delaware carries roughly 29,519 NFIP policies at an average $767 premium, with Sussex County holding 21,184 of them, 502 multiple-loss properties and 54 severe repetitive loss properties statewide, more than 13 inches of measured sea level rise at Lewes since 1900, and DNREC coastal construction regulation governing the beach and bay shore. Every coastal Delaware study identifies the FEMA flood zone, the base flood elevation, the Risk Rating 2.0 premium and the wind and flood deductible structure at the parcel level.

Fourth, coastal seasonality. The Sussex resort economy runs on a summer window: annualized short-term rental occupancy at Bethany Beach is 29.6 percent, and hotel, restaurant and retail cash flow is compressed into roughly one third of the year. Coastal DSCR is stress-tested on a monthly cash flow with an explicit off-season floor rather than an annualized occupancy average.

Fifth, the Coastal Zone Act. The 1971 Coastal Zone Act bans new heavy industry in the coastal zone along the Delaware River, Delaware Bay and Atlantic shore. The 2017 Coastal Zone Conversion Permit Act (House Bill 190, signed August 2, 2017, regulations at 7 DE Admin Code 101 effective September 2019) permits new or alternative heavy-industry uses only at 14 grandfathered sites and only through a DNREC conversion permit; oil refineries and cellulosic pulp-paper mills remain prohibited outright. DNREC's February 2026 ruling against Project Washington's backup generation demonstrates that the Act constrains data center and logistics siting, not only traditional heavy industry.

Sixth, the 4 percent realty transfer tax. Delaware's combined realty transfer tax is 4 percent of purchase price, the highest state-level transfer tax in the nation, comprising a 3 percent state rate that drops to 2.5 percent where a county or municipality levies the full 1.5 percent local rate (as most do), customarily split 2 percent buyer and 2 percent seller; first-time buyers receive a 0.5 percent reduction capped at $2,000 on the first $400,000 of value. On an acquisition or land purchase the transfer tax is one of the largest single closing line items and is capitalized into total project cost in every Delaware study.

Seventh, the labor market. Delaware's minimum wage reached $15.00 per hour on January 1, 2025 and remains $15.00 for 2026 with a $2.23 tipped cash wage and no further scheduled increase. Statewide unemployment was 4.9 percent seasonally adjusted in June 2026 (New Castle 4.8 percent, Kent 5.4 percent, Sussex 4.7 percent; Wilmington 6.3 percent, Dover 6.6 percent), and first-quarter 2025 average weekly wages ran $1,740 in New Castle, $1,126 in Kent and $1,097 in Sussex. Labor expense for hospitality, car wash, QSR, childcare and assisted living operations is built on the county wage base and the coastal seasonal labor shortage, not on a national average.

MMCG turns around Delaware feasibility studies in 9 to 16 business days from data receipt, with a complimentary preliminary market overview within one business day of submission. Pricing starts at $4,900 with a 50/50 fee schedule. Reports are formatted for SBA, CDC, USDA Rural Development, Delaware Division of Small Business, county economic development office and conventional lender file submission and incorporate the analytical layers Delaware credit committees expect, including the reassessed parcel value and split-rate school tax analysis, the PJM capacity and Delmarva rate trajectory in the operating pro forma, the FEMA flood zone and NFIP premium analysis for coastal collateral, the monthly seasonality model for coastal hospitality and retail, the Coastal Zone Act and county zoning screen for industrial and large-load uses, the 4 percent realty transfer tax in total project cost, the county wage base and $15.00 minimum wage in labor expense, the SBA SOP 50 10 8 compliance review, the 7 CFR Part 5001 USDA rural eligibility determination, and the Delaware Strategic Fund, SSBCI, Downtown Development Districts and tax credit applicability analysis. Sponsor inquiries involving coastal Sussex hospitality, large-load industrial or data center site control, or agricultural processing under USDA Business and Industry typically require the upper end of the 9 to 16 business day range to accommodate the additional regulatory and engineering modeling.

Engagements typically begin with the project address, asset class, capital stack, sponsor experience, and the specific lender, CDC, USDA Rural Development contact or county economic development office carrying the deal. From there, MMCG is a feasibility study consultant that calibrates each study's scope to the specific program of record, whether SBA 7(a), SBA 504, USDA Business and Industry, USDA REAP, USDA Community Facilities, or other lender and agency financing programs. MMCG's work has been cited in Forbes, The Washington Post, The Independent, Albany Business Review, and Commercial Observer.

START YOUR DELAWARE ENGAGEMENT Send the project address. Receive a free Delaware market overview within one business day. Pricing starts at $4,900 with a 50/50 fee schedule. Delivery in 9 to 16 business days. Email info@mmcginvest.com or call (628) 225-1110. Book a 30-minute meeting.

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New Castle County: Wilmington, Newark, Middletown, Bear, Glasgow, Hockessin, Pike Creek, Claymont, Brandywine Hundred, Greenville, Centreville, Elsmere, Newport, Stanton, Marshallton, Christiana, New Castle, Delaware City, St. Georges, Port Penn, Odessa, Townsend, Smyrna (northern portion). Kent County: Dover, Smyrna, Clayton, Cheswold, Camden, Wyoming, Magnolia, Frederica, Felton, Viola, Harrington, Farmington, Houston, Milford (northern portion), Little Creek, Leipsic, Bowers Beach, Kenton, Hartly, Woodside. Sussex County Coastal: Lewes, Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach, Bethany Beach, South Bethany, Fenwick Island, Ocean View, Millville, Selbyville, Frankford, Dagsboro, Millsboro, Long Neck, Harbeson, Nassau, Angola, Slaughter Beach, Milton. Sussex County Inland: Georgetown, Seaford, Laurel, Blades, Bridgeville, Greenwood, Delmar, Bethel, Ellendale, Lincoln, Milford (southern portion). Counties (3 total): New Castle, Kent, Sussex.

MMCG Invest, LLC is a commercial real estate feasibility consulting firm specializing in SBA and USDA feasibility studies across asset classes including retail, hospitality, gas stations, RV parks, wedding venues, and agritourism. Our analyses serve lenders, CDCs, investors, and developers seeking institutional-quality market intelligence for underwriting and investment decisions.

Michal Mohelsky, J.D., | Principal | mmcginvest.com Contact: michal@mmcginvest.com Phone: (628) 225-1110

Engagements are led by Michal Mohelsky, J.D., Practicing Affiliate of the Appraisal Institute. Feasibility studies are prepared under USPAP discipline, aligned with SBA SOP 50 10 8 for 7(a) and 504 loans and with 7 CFR Part 5001, Appendix A to Subpart D for USDA Business and Industry, REAP, and Community Facilities financing. Engagements start at $4,900 with fixed-fee scoping. Standard delivery is 9 to 16 business days, with rush turnaround available from 5 days. A senior analyst responds to proposal requests within 12 business hours from the firm's San Francisco office at 27 Maiden Lane, Suite 625. Request Feasibility Study Proposal