Feasibility Study Consultant in Las Vegas, NV: SBA and USDA

A feasibility study in Las Vegas is read by a lender or a Certified Development Company before anyone else, and this market breaks a national template in an unusual way. Most metros tax every business the same and vary by geography. Here the geography is one county, and it is the industry that varies. **The state tax rate depends on what the operator does.** Nevada's commerce tax takes a different rate on the same dollar of Nevada gross revenue above $4,000,000 depending on the NAICS business category the operator is assigned to: accommodation at 0.2 percent, food services and drinking places at 0.194 percent, real estate and rental and leasing at 0.25 percent, other services at 0.142 percent. A template that carries one state rate for every borrower is carrying the wrong one for most of them. **The payroll is taxed rather than the profit.** The modified business tax runs at 1.17% of quarterly gross wages less employee health care benefits for general business, with the first $50,000 of wages non-taxable, and at 1.554% for financial institutions with no wage exemption. A labour-intensive asset class carries a state tax line that a profit-based model does not anticipate. **And there is a date in the statute that sits inside a 2026 study's own window.** On and after January 1, 2027, Colorado River water distributed by the Southern Nevada Water Authority or one of its member agencies may not be used to irrigate nonfunctional turf on any parcel not used exclusively as a single-family residence. Since June 6, 2023 no new septic system may be installed on such a served parcel, and non-single-family parcels with 20,000 square feet or more of turf carry mandatory irrigation-efficiency monitoring.

The Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV metro is home to about 2,398,871 residents per the U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates, led by Clark County at 2,398,871.

This metro is 2,398,871 residents in a single county, Clark. That makes it unusual among large metros: there is no county-line arbitrage to model. What varies instead is the industry the borrower is in and the water the project needs.

The commerce tax is written category by category. Nevada's statute sets out a separate section per business category, each with its own rate on Nevada gross revenue after subtracting $4,000,000. Accommodation sits at 0.2 percent, food services and drinking places at 0.194 percent, real estate and rental and leasing at 0.25 percent, and other services at 0.142 percent. Several of MMCG's asset classes fall across those categories, and the assignment is the operator's NAICS category rather than a description of the building. This page does not assert which category a car wash or a self-storage facility belongs to: the statute does not say so, and a category assignment is a filing position rather than something to be inferred on a web page.

The modified business tax is a payroll tax. It runs on gross wages less employee health care benefits, per calendar quarter, at 1.17% for general business with the first $50,000 of wages non-taxable, and at 1.554% for financial institutions with no exemption. For a restaurant, a hotel or a day care, where payroll is the dominant operating line, this is a materially different exposure from a profit-based state tax.

The water rule has a date on it. The Conservation of Colorado River Water Act bars the use of SNWA-distributed Colorado River water to irrigate nonfunctional turf on any parcel not used exclusively as a single-family residence, on and after January 1, 2027. It also bars a new septic system on such a served parcel since June 6, 2023, and requires irrigation-efficiency monitoring for non-single-family parcels carrying 20,000 square feet or more of turf. A study written in 2026 for a project opening after that date has to model the landscape and the irrigation on the post-2027 rule, not on what the comparable next door currently does.

And new private land arrives by federal statute. Under the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act of 1998 the Secretary of the Interior may dispose of Bureau of Land Management land in Clark County within a boundary generally depicted on a map dated April 10, 1997, with selection made jointly with local government and consistent with local zoning, and the disposal lands withdrawn from mining location and entry. Five percent of proceeds go to Nevada education and ten percent to the Southern Nevada Water Authority. Supply of developable ground in this valley is therefore partly a federal administrative process rather than purely a market one.

And one market figure, named and bounded. Retail vacancy across the Las Vegas market compressed to 5.3 percent during the second quarter of 2026, with monthly triple net asking rents at $2.19 a square foot, on Cushman and Wakefield's count. Two things bound it. The asset class is retail, which is not one of the ten asset classes counted in this record, so it speaks to the metro rather than to the building in front of the lender. And the report attributes its underlying data to third parties rather than to its own research, which the companion post prints in the publisher's own words rather than leaving in a footnote. The rest is on the research post.

Nationally, the U.S. Small Business Administration closed fiscal year 2025 having guaranteed 84,400 7(a) and 504 loans for $44.8 billion. The Las Vegas metro cut is computed here from the SBA 7(a) and 504 FOIA release by county membership across Clark County, never read from a district office total.

In fiscal year 2025 the metro recorded 654 7(a) approvals for $291,884,500 and 64 504 approvals for $89,417,000. The most active 7(a) lenders that year by approval count were U.S. Bank, National Association with 92 loans, Zions Bank with 85 and Northeast Bank with 81. On the 504 side Nevada State Development Corporation led with 27 loans, ahead of Mortgage Capital Development Corporation with 25.

Across fiscal years 2010 to 2026 disbursed, the ten asset classes in this record account for 630 7(a) loans and 96 504 loans here. Restaurants carry the largest 7(a) dollar total by a wide margin at $199,320,400 over 418 loans. The full table is on the Las Vegas feasibility market research post.

USDA Business and Industry and 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 of more than 50,000 inhabitants and any urbanized area contiguous and adjacent to such a city or town. The Las Vegas urbanized core is therefore out. The 50,000 inhabitant test is the statute's general rule; the statute sets a different, lower threshold for community facility direct loans and grants, so which programme is being used matters as much as where the site is. MMCG's work here is for guaranteed lenders.

Clark County is geographically large and the urbanized area occupies a small part of it, so ground outside the valley can sit well beyond the urbanized boundary. The test still turns on the subject address and that boundary rather than on the name of the town, so MMCG verifies eligibility at the address on the USDA Rural Development eligibility map at intake. No town is named on this page as eligible on a model's say-so.

A hotel feasibility study Las Vegas lenders can underwrite starts from the metro's own SBA record and from the operator's tax category. Across fiscal years 2010 to 2026 disbursed, hotels and motels in the Las Vegas MSA drew 21 SBA 7(a) loans for $44,805,000, the resolved cohort being too small for a charge-off rate to be shown, and 6 SBA 504 loans.

On the tax side the accommodation category carries a commerce tax rate of 0.2 percent on Nevada gross revenue above $4,000,000, and payroll carries the modified business tax. Clark County's own guide states that the combined transient lodging tax rate in the unincorporated county ranges between 10.5% and 13.38% depending on whether the establishment is a resort, its distance from the Las Vegas Convention Center, and whether it sits inside the Primary Gaming Corridor and the Stadium District. That guide is dated July 2021 and the per-property listing it references is as of April 1, 2021, so the structure is current County publishing but the rate for a specific property is confirmed before a study is signed.

These are the points a Las Vegas underwriter checks first. Each but the last 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 asset class matters more here than in most metros, because it drives the commerce tax category. The address settles whether the site sits in the unincorporated county or in a city, which affects the lodging tax picture for a hotel, and whether the parcel is served by SNWA-distributed water, which brings the 2027 turf rule and the septic bar into the model.

The report names its sources the way this page does. The commerce tax categories and rates come from the Nevada Revised Statutes as published by the Legislature. The modified business tax comes from the Department of Taxation. The water rule comes from the Act itself as published in the Statutes of Nevada. The land disposal frame comes from the public law as published by the Government Publishing Office. The SBA record is computed in house from the FOIA release.

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 Las Vegas 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 Business and Industry and Community Facilities files, and each one states which schedule, rate and boundary it relied on so a credit officer can check the work rather than take it on trust. 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.