Feasibility Study Consultant in Fargo, ND: SBA and USDA

A feasibility study in Fargo is read by a lender or a Certified Development Company before anyone else. In fiscal year 2025 this metro recorded 71 SBA 7(a) approvals for $41,955,900, and its residents split North Dakota 75.0% and Minnesota 25.0% across a state line that changes the inputs. One rule a lender meets here: Fargo combined sales tax rate on general sales, lodging and restaurant food.

The Fargo, ND-MN metro is home to about 267,793 residents per the U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates, led by Cass County, ND at 200,945; Clay County, MN at 66,848. North Dakota counties hold 200,945 of them, 75.0% of the metro; Minnesota counties 66,848, 25.0%.

A national template prices this metro on its 267,793 residents and stops there. The rules below come from the North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner, and each one changes a line of the model before a lender reads it.

Fargo combined sales tax rate on general sales, lodging and restaurant food. The North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner, which administers the City of Fargo sales, use and gross receipts tax by contract, publishes the combined state and city rates within the city limits of Fargo. Its notice lists the general sales and use tax at 7.75% (5% state + 2.25% city + 0.5% county). Hotel, motel, and tourist court accommodations are listed at the same 7.75%, and so are restaurants, concession stands, and mobile food trucks selling food and non-alcoholic beverages. Alcoholic beverages are listed at 9.75% (7% state + 2.25% city + 0.5% county). The notice also states that the City of Fargo imposes a local lodging tax that is administered locally. For a hotel or restaurant inside the city limits, the feasibility model should use these stacked rates on taxable receipts and add the local lodging tax from the city as a separate line. The notice, revised 4/23/2025, sets these rates effective April 1, 2025, so any later change should be checked on the Commissioner's site.

Fargo per-sale tax cap and contract bid rule. The North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner administers the City of Fargo sales, use and gross receipts tax under a contract with the city. Its notice sets the city rate at 2.25% starting April 1, 2025, and states a maximum tax (refund cap) of $56.25 per sale. It adds that tax imposed applies to contract bids submitted on or after the effective date and that a limited exemption for contractors does apply. For a project in Fargo that buys large equipment or building materials, such as a car wash tunnel, a gas station canopy or storage buildings, the cap bears on the tax cost of a single large sale, and the bid-date rule decides which rate a construction contract carries. The notice does not describe how the cap is applied to the combined rate or what the contractor exemption covers, so the Commissioner's local tax guideline should be read before the cap is built into a construction budget.

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 Fargo 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 two counties recorded 71 SBA 7(a) approvals for $41,955,900 and 23 SBA 504 approvals for $23,524,000.

In fiscal year 2025 the 7(a) approvals here came from Choice Financial Group (7 loans, $2,810,000), Old National Bank (6 loans, $6,248,600), Bell Bank (6 loans, $2,946,200), Town and Country CU (6 loans, $1,695,000), and Bravera Bank (6 loans, $563,400), listed by approval count with the names as the SBA released them. The 504 approvals that year went through Dakota Business Lending (10 loans), Lake Agassiz Certified Development Company (9 loans), and Midwest Business Finance Corporation (2 loans). The SBA's district office field reads North Dakota District Office on 58 of the 71 fiscal year 2025 7(a) rows, 81.7%, and Minnesota District Office on 13.

Across fiscal years 2010 to 2026 disbursed, the ten asset classes tracked here account for 96 7(a) loans for $35,933,800 and 55 504 loans for $50,295,000 in this metro. In fiscal year 2025 alone those classes took 13 7(a) and 504 approvals for $11,831,500. 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 Fargo the address decides it. The metro spans two counties in two states, from Cass County, ND at 200,945 residents to Clay County, MN at 66,848, 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 Fargo starts from the metro's own SBA record. Across fiscal years 2010 to 2026 disbursed, hotels and motels account for 7 7(a) loans for $16,148,200 and 10 504 loans for $14,763,000 here, $30,911,200 in all. Full and limited service restaurants come to $23,136,100 over the same years.

For a hotel in this metro the publisher rules above are model lines rather than background: Fargo combined sales tax rate on general sales, lodging and restaurant food (the North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner).

These are the points an underwriter in Fargo 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 state, 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 North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner, 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 Fargo 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.