Maine Feasibility Study: Lender-Grade SBA and USDA Studies

MMCG Invest, LLC prepares feasibility studies for Maine projects where the underwriting questions reach past the national checklist. Maine is the state where a statewide ADU mandate, Title 30-A, section 4364-B of the Maine Revised Statutes, requires that a municipality allow an accessory dwelling unit on any lot in the state where residential use is permitted, backed by the Office of Governor Janet T. Mills' own statewide goal of 84,000 new homes by 2030, a goal the state's 2025 permitting outturn of 7,499 units, about 9 percent above that year's own 6,900 unit goal, is already measured against, so a lender cannot underwrite multifamily or workforce housing against a municipality's own zoning alone; where lobster fishery landings, which the Maine Department of Marine Resources puts at $528,421,645 in 2024 on a $6.14 per pound boat price, concentrate a working waterfront asset's cash flow in a single species whose price and catch volume the operator does not control; where the Bath Iron Works shipyard, one of only two United States yards building the Navy's Arleigh Burke class destroyer according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, is placed by the Maine Department of Labor's Center for Workforce Research and Information in an average monthly employment band of 6,501 to 7,000 workers with no comparable second site in the state; and where Maine's tidal shoreline exposure, 3,478 statute miles by NOAA's Office for Coastal Management's own count, the third longest of any state in the continental United States behind only Florida and Louisiana, touches flood, setback and insurance questions across a wide share of the state's own commercial geography. Every engagement is calibrated to the project address, the program of record, and the specific lender, CDC or USDA 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 Maine market overview within one business day of submission.

The U.S. Small Business Administration serves Maine through a single Maine District Office at 68 Sewall Street, Room 512, Augusta, Maine 04330, under District Director Diane Sturgeon, with additional offices in Portland at 312 Fore Street and in Bangor, covering all 16 Maine counties. MMCG's own cut of SBA's 7(a) and 504 FOIA release, as of June 30, 2026, restricted to Maine project state loans, shows the state's fiscal year 2025 7(a) approvals ran to 411 loans for $104,126,900, up from 371 loans for $86,315,600 in fiscal year 2024, with 190 loans for $67,302,600 approved through the first three quarters of fiscal year 2026; on the 504 side, fiscal year 2025 carried 54 approvals for $43,277,000, against 48 for $31,665,000 in fiscal year 2024. On the fiscal year 2025 7(a) rows this cut reads by district office, all 411 carried the Maine District Office, the only reading in SBA's FOIA data where a state's own fiscal year 2025 7(a) volume shows no cross-border leakage to a neighboring district at all. Maine's own fiscal year 2026 pace, 190 7(a) loans for $67,302,600 and 32 504 loans for $31,449,000 through the first three quarters of the year, sits on track to approach the prior year's full year total once the fourth quarter's own approvals are added, a pattern SBA's FOIA data can update as later data is released.

On SBA's FY2025 FOIA release, the ten most active 7(a) lenders in Maine by count were TD Bank, National Association with 87 loans for $6,823,400, Bangor Savings Bank with 50 loans for $10,997,900, Maine Community Bank with 40 loans for $12,803,900, Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company with 30 loans for $3,362,000, Northeast Bank with 28 loans for $5,714,800, Androscoggin Savings Bank with 20 loans for $4,142,700, Atlantic Regional Federal Credit Union with 17 loans for $1,235,000, Bar Harbor Bank & Trust with 13 loans for $2,314,900, Norway Savings Bank with 11 loans for $4,124,000 and Newtek Bank, National Association with 11 loans for $1,653,000. Bangor Savings Bank's own reporting calls it the leading SBA 504 third party lender in Maine, and on the list above Norway Savings Bank's $4,124,000 across 11 loans carries the largest average loan size of the ten. Northeast Bank, headquartered in Portland, partners with the Chicago based fintech Newity to originate small dollar SBA 7(a) working capital loans on a national scale, a relationship dating to the bank's 2021 Paycheck Protection Program servicing work; within Maine itself the 28 loans for $5,714,800 in the list above are what SBA's FOIA data credits to the bank's in-state file.

On the 504 side, Granite State Economic Development Corporation led Maine's fiscal year 2025 approvals with 43 loans for $37,705,000, and Southern Maine Finance Agency followed with 11 loans for $5,572,000, the state's two active Certified Development Companies that year.

The table below is MMCG's own cut of SBA's 7(a) and 504 FOIA release as of June 30, 2026, restricted to loans whose project state is Maine, disbursed, approved in fiscal years 2010 through 2026, and grouped by the NAICS codes of the asset classes this firm studies. The charge-off rate is the share of loans with a terminal outcome that ended in a charge-off, on a count basis, shown only where that resolved cohort holds at least 30 loans. Across all industries, Maine's 4,690 disbursed 7(a) loans for $989,338,000 resolved 3,193 at a 4.9 percent charge-off rate, and its 845 disbursed 504 loans for $429,143,000 resolved 310 at 2.6 percent. Four asset classes clear the 30 loan resolved threshold on the 7(a) side: restaurants, the state's largest count at 379 loans for $95,058,400, resolved 225 at an 8.0 percent charge-off rate, the highest of the four; gas stations and convenience stores, 65 loans for $22,024,800, resolved 49 at 6.1 percent; child day care services, 47 loans for $6,986,600, resolved 32 at 6.2 percent; and fitness and recreational sports centers, 78 loans for $13,420,200, resolved 52 at 1.9 percent, the cleanest rated class in the state's own record. On the 504 side only hotels and motels clear the threshold among the named classes, 68 loans for $67,058,000, resolved 36 at a 0.0 percent charge-off rate, while the state's own 504 total, 310 resolved loans at 2.6 percent, carries the broader rated cohort. Self storage combines 14 7(a) loans for $9,789,700 and 12 504 loans for $8,011,000 without either program clearing the resolved threshold on its own. Marinas are suppressed under 5 loans on the 7(a) side but carry 5 504 loans for $1,980,000, and assisted living and continuing care carries 12 7(a) loans for $5,839,400 alongside 6 504 loans for $3,284,000. The caution that travels with every rate: the June 2026 release collapses every open loan, current or stressed, into the single status EXEMPT, so the rate reads the resolved cohort only. Measured against the state's own $989,338,000 in disbursed 7(a) volume, the $429,143,000 disbursed on the 504 side runs to just under half as much, a smaller share for the state's long term, fixed asset program than several other classes in this firm's own multi-state FOIA cut show.

USDA Rural Development serves Maine from the Maine State Office at 967 Illinois Avenue, Suite 4, Bangor, Maine 04401, under State Director John Butera, appointed in June 2025, through area offices in Presque Isle, Bangor, Lewiston and Scarborough. Business and Industry Guaranteed, Community Facilities, Rural Energy for America Program and Single and Multifamily Housing financing are all active statewide, and REAP is now governed under 7 CFR 5001.

By the Treasury's own USASpending.gov record of place of performance obligations, Maine carried 20 Community Facilities Loans and Grants awards in fiscal year 2025 for $30,890,650 in obligated dollars, up from 18 awards for $22,250,671 in fiscal year 2024. Rural Energy for America Program obligated 58 awards for $3,139,033 in fiscal year 2025, down from 140 awards for $10,480,858 in fiscal year 2024. Water and Waste Disposal obligated 8 awards for $8,093,851 in fiscal year 2025, up from 4 awards for $3,262,368 in fiscal year 2024. Business and Industry Guaranteed Loans obligated no awards in fiscal year 2025, against 4 awards carrying $25,000,000 of guaranteed loan face value and $572,500 in obligated subsidy cost in fiscal year 2024.

The Finance Authority of Maine, the state's own finance authority, administers loan insurance and direct loans alongside the $62 million Grow Maine program, funded under the federal State Small Business Credit Initiative and deployed through more than 30 intermediary lenders including Coastal Enterprises, Inc. in Brunswick, the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments and the Maine Technology Institute. USDA Rural Development's own release credits Director Butera with $134 million directed into homeownership initiatives across all 16 counties since the start of the current administration, $17.9 million announced during a May 2026 Infrastructure Week, and $1.2 million in Value-Added Producer Grants awarded the same month. USDA Rural Development's own regional leadership has separately described the agency investing around $400 million in Maine each year across its housing, business and community programs, a broader figure than the program figures above capture on their own.

Maine's own statewide zoning reform reaches every residential lot in the state. Beyond the accessory dwelling unit mandate itself, Title 30-A, section 4364, "Affordable housing density," requires a municipality to allow a qualifying affordable housing development where multifamily dwellings are allowed to build at a density of at least two and a half times the base density otherwise allowed, with no more than two off-street parking spaces required for every three units, per the Maine Legislature's own Office of the Revisor of Statutes. LD 1829, enacted in 2024 and signed by Governor Mills, capped minimum lot size at no greater than 5,000 square feet where a parcel is served by public water and sewer and eased accessory dwelling unit rules further; LD 2173, signed in 2026, extended municipalities' implementation deadline to July 2027, doubled certain minimum lot sizes to 10,000 square feet in non-growth areas served by water and sewer, and clarified that an accessory dwelling unit must be allowed on a lot already carrying two or three units, under guidance the Maine Office of Community Affairs issued in March 2026.

Maine levies both a state income tax and a state sales tax, a combination that reaches a commercial pro forma differently than a state with only one or neither. Maine Revenue Services' Homestead Exemption reduces a primary residence's taxable value by $25,000, and the state's Business Equipment Tax Exemption relieves eligible business personal property placed in service on or after April 1, 2008 of property tax entirely, both material to a multifamily, industrial or retail file's own tax line. Older equipment, placed in service between April 1, 1995 and April 1, 2007, instead falls under the Business Equipment Tax Reimbursement program, whose own cost Maine Revenue Services' tax provisions overview shows declining from $24.9 million in fiscal year 2019 to a forecast $16.8 million in fiscal year 2026 as the grandfathered property it covers depreciates. USDA's own Rural Energy for America Program is now governed under 7 CFR 5001, the same regulatory citation a Business and Industry or Community Facilities market study is written to.

A Maine credit committee reads the study in the order of the programs above. For a 7(a) or 504 file it wants the market area drawn to the parcel, the demand case built from public series the underwriter can check, the stabilized year cash flow at the required coverage, and confirmation that the county's own loans carry the Maine District Office rather than a neighboring state's. For a Business and Industry, Community Facilities or REAP file the Bangor office reviews, it wants the rural area determination at the address, the guarantee percentage and fee the current OneRD notice sets, and a market study to the standard in 7 CFR Part 5001. For every Maine file it wants the state layer set out above in the lender's own vocabulary: whether the parcel's own municipality has implemented the accessory dwelling unit and density mandate under Title 30-A, section 4364-B and section 4364, whether a coastal parcel's own flood, setback and insurance posture reflects Maine's 3,478 statute miles of tidal shoreline, and whether the asset's own tax line reflects the Homestead Exemption or the Business Equipment Tax Exemption where either applies. Where the project sits within commuting distance of the Bath Iron Works shipyard or depends on lobster fishery landings for its own throughput, the credit memo also wants the employer's own contract backlog or the fishery's own dockside value folded into the demand case directly, not assumed from a generic regional trend. For a Single or Multifamily Housing file, the same Bangor office confirms income eligibility and the property's own rural area determination before a construction or purchase guarantee is underwritten. A study that carries each of those with the source named in the sentence is the study a Maine underwriter can lift into the memo without a second round.

Maine's underwriting file runs past the standard district office and reassessment checklist. A statewide statute that overrides municipal zoning for housing density, a single species fishery whose dockside value the state's own regulator tracks to the dollar, a naval shipyard with no second site in the state, and a tidal coastline longer than all but two states in the continental country each move a Maine deal in a way no national template accounts for, ranked below by the money or the exposure each one attaches to the deal.

Maine's Title 30-A, section 4364-B requires that a municipality allow an accessory dwelling unit on any residential lot in the state, per the Maine Legislature's own Office of the Revisor of Statutes, and section 4364 requires that a qualifying affordable housing development be allowed to build at two and a half times the local base density with reduced parking minimums. The Office of Governor Janet T. Mills states the accompanying goal is 84,000 new homes by 2030, and that Maine communities permitted an estimated 7,499 new housing units in 2025, exceeding the state's own 2025 goal of 6,900 units by about 9 percent; the Greater Portland Council of Governments' own executive director is quoted in the same release saying progress needs to accelerate to reach the 2030 goal. A lender underwriting multifamily or workforce housing in Maine is underwriting against a statewide density override no municipality can zone around, so the entitlement risk a lender would ordinarily test parcel by parcel against local zoning is instead set by state law, with the state's own production pace a live benchmark to test a project's pro forma against.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources states that Maine's commercial harvesters earned $709,509,984 in 2024 landings value, with lobstermen taking home $528,421,645 on the strength of a $6.14 per pound price, despite a catch that declined by more than 10 million pounds. The same release names Maine's next four fisheries by value: softshell clams at $15,461,017, oysters at $14,852,101, menhaden at $13,203,602 and elvers at $12,201,545, with Governor Janet Mills calling 2024 a year shaped by unprecedented storms and damage to Maine's working waterfronts. A lender underwriting a marina, cold storage or seafood processing asset anywhere on the Maine coast is underwriting against a fishery whose dockside value the state's own regulator puts at $709,509,984, close to three quarters of it a single species landed at a near record price, so the collateral's cash flow is tied to a boat price and a catch volume the operator does not control, and the state's own account of storm damage to the working waterfront is a live physical risk to the collateral itself, not only to the catch it handles.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office states that Bath Iron Works and Ingalls Shipbuilding have built the Navy's Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer since 1985 and 1987 respectively, the only two United States shipyards that build it, and that the two yards collectively earned $391 million under destroyer construction contracts in incentive payments; the GAO's own report states Bath Iron Works did not respond to requests to validate company information for public release, so the report omits the company's own workforce figures. The Maine Department of Labor's Center for Workforce Research and Information instead places Bath Iron Works Corp Gen Dynamics fourth among Maine's private employers by average monthly employment in the first quarter of 2026, in a band of 6,501 to 7,000 workers, with no comparable second site in the state. A lender underwriting hospitality, workforce housing or self storage product near Bath should model demand against that single, concentrated shipyard employer rather than a county wide employment trend, since the yard's production cadence is set by a Navy shipbuilding program rather than by regional market demand, and absorption and wage assumptions in the submarket should be tied to the yard's own contract backlog.

NOAA's Office for Coastal Management states Maine's own shoreline mileage as 3,478 statute miles, measured to the head of tidewater or to a point where tidal waters narrow to a width of 100 feet, the third longest tidal shoreline of any state in the continental United States behind only Florida, at 8,436 statute miles, and Louisiana, at 7,721. A lender underwriting coastal hospitality, residential or working waterfront collateral in Maine is underwriting against that 3,478 statute mile exposure, so flood insurance, setback and coastal buildout questions that a lender could treat as a narrow, site specific issue in a short coastline state instead touch a wide share of Maine's own commercial geography; the same Department of Marine Resources account of storm damage to the working waterfront cited above is a concrete instance of that exposure reaching working waterfront collateral, not only open coastline.

Each engagement builds out the sections a Maine lender's own file expects. The opening scope page fixes the program of record, whether SBA 7(a), SBA 504, USDA Business and Industry, REAP, Community Facilities or conventional, and names the lender, CDC or, for a USDA file, the Bangor state office and the nearest of its four area offices. A site description places the parcel in its county and municipality and records whether that municipality has already implemented the accessory dwelling unit and affordable housing density mandate under Title 30-A, sections 4364 and 4364-B, since a project's own unit count can shift once the local density override is applied. The demand analysis draws on the Maine Department of Labor's own employment and wage series, the population figures the Census Bureau publishes for the parcel's county or metro, the SBA FOIA release cut to the same NAICS code, and, for a coastal or gateway hospitality file, the Maine Office of Tourism's own visitor spending series and the National Park Service's own visitation count where a property sits near Acadia. Licensing and regulatory review carries the exemption or credit the asset qualifies for, the Homestead Exemption or the Business Equipment Tax Exemption among them, and, for a shoreline parcel, the setback and flood posture Maine's own 3,478 miles of tidal coastline puts in play. The financial analysis builds the stabilized year, the lease up or ramp period, operating expenses, replacement reserves and a discounted cash flow to the lender's required coverage, with the property tax line reflecting whichever exemption or assessment class actually applies to the parcel. A risk section names the exposure specific to the asset, a working waterfront file's exposure to the lobster fishery's own price and catch swings, a Bath area file's exposure to a single shipyard employer, or a coastal file's own storm history, and records how the sponsor has addressed it. The report closes with the comparable lending evidence drawn from the FOIA cut and a statement of the professional standards the engagement followed, USPAP among them, with the income, sales comparison and cost approaches reconciled to one supportable conclusion and every comparable sale or lease traced to its own recorded source. The market study section for a hospitality or short term rental file draws on the Maine Office of Tourism's own visitor spending series and, where the property sits near Acadia, the National Park Service's own visitation count, rather than a single statewide seasonal assumption. Where the sponsor is applying for a Finance Authority of Maine loan insurance product or the Grow Maine allocation alongside the SBA or USDA program, that state layer is documented in its own subsection with the administering intermediary named.

Maine's own population reached 1,405,012 on July 1, 2024, and a more recent vintage puts the 2025 estimate at 1,414,874, the U.S. Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program reports. Maine's own economic geography organizes around three metropolitan areas, Portland-South Portland, Bangor and Lewiston-Auburn, while Bar Harbor's own Hancock County and the balance of the state's 16 counties sit outside any metropolitan core, the rural geography this page's USDA Rural Development section addresses directly. Maine's Department of Labor reported a statewide unemployment rate of 3.1 percent in May 2026, and a record annual average of 660,700 total nonfarm jobs in 2025. Per capita personal income reached $71,662 in 2025, the Maine State Economist's own release states, and median household income ran $74,733 over the 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey period, the Census Bureau reports. Growth is uneven across the state's 16 counties: the Census Bureau's own Vintage 2024 population estimates show Cumberland County, home to Portland, growing fastest at 0.82 percent from 2023 to 2024, while Aroostook County in the far north declined the most, at 0.56 percent, over the same year.

Maine's own tourism sector adds a demand layer the FOIA record and the employment data alone do not carry: the Maine Office of Tourism's 2025 annual report puts direct visitor spending at $9.37 billion statewide, up 1.4 percent over 2024, and Acadia National Park alone drew 3.96 million visits in 2024, the National Park Service's own count shows, a near record year. A Maine feasibility study is written to place a subject property in the metro, gateway or rural geography it actually sits in, rather than assume a single statewide pattern across a state where the largest metro, the state's naval shipyard, its lobster fleet and its interior counties each carry a different demand story.

Portland anchors the Portland-South Portland metropolitan area, whose population the Census Bureau and Federal Reserve Economic Data series put at 573,465 in 2024 and 577,635 in 2025, with the city of Portland itself at 68,854 residents on the Census Bureau's own 2024 American Community Survey estimate. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts Portland metro unemployment at 2.3 percent in June 2026, not seasonally adjusted, below the statewide rate. Portland is home to two of the ten most active Maine 7(a) lenders in the FOIA record above, Maine Community Bank and Northeast Bank, and to one of the SBA Maine District Office's own additional locations, at 312 Fore Street. Portland's International Marine Terminal, operated with the shipping line Eimskip, is Maine's only container terminal and anchors the working waterfront collateral this page's lobster fishery landings condition addresses directly. Portland's own municipality was among the first in the state to implement Maine's accessory dwelling unit and affordable housing density mandate under Title 30-A, and its downtown sits closer than any other Maine metro to the Bath Iron Works shipyard, a commutable distance that folds the shipyard's own 6,501 to 7,000 employees into the metro's own workforce housing demand. Portland's own hotel development policy, approved in November 2025, requires a developer to provide one income-restricted rental unit for every 19 hotel rooms built, or pay a fee of approximately $9,500 per room into the city's own housing trust fund, a local inclusionary requirement a hospitality file in the city has to model alongside the statewide accessory dwelling unit mandate.

Bangor anchors Penobscot County, whose population Census Bureau estimates put at approximately 154,710 on the 2024 American Community Survey and approximately 157,967 in a 2025 estimate. Bangor hosts USDA Rural Development's own Maine State Office, at 967 Illinois Avenue, the office that reviews every Business and Industry, Community Facilities and Rural Energy for America Program file this page's USDA section describes, and Bangor Savings Bank, whose own reporting calls it the leading SBA 504 third party lender in Maine and whose 50 loans for $10,997,900 led every Maine bank by count in the FOIA record's fiscal year 2025 cut. Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center, a 411 bed Level II trauma center, serves more than 40 percent of the state by Northern Light Health's own account, and anchors the medical office and senior care demand a Bangor area feasibility study is underwritten against. Bangor International Airport served approximately 860,000 total passengers in 2025, Federal Aviation Administration statistics show, and the University of Maine's flagship Orono campus sits just north of the city. Bangor's own position at the junction of Interstate 95 and Interstate 395 supports the region's own logistics and distribution base, a corridor this firm's site suitability work for an industrial or truck stop file maps directly.

Lewiston and Auburn together form Maine's third metropolitan area, whose population the Census Bureau and Federal Reserve Economic Data series put at 115,600 in 2024 and 116,487 in 2025. Lewiston hosts one of USDA Rural Development's four Maine area offices, placing Business and Industry, Community Facilities and REAP review close to Androscoggin County's own mill town economy. Central Maine Healthcare, headquartered in Lewiston, employed between 2,501 and 3,000 workers as of the fourth quarter of 2025, the Maine Department of Labor's own count shows, anchoring the metro's medical office and senior care demand. Lewiston's own former mill buildings and its downtown residential stock sit squarely inside the reach of Maine's statewide accessory dwelling unit and affordable housing density mandate under Title 30-A, and the metro's position on Interstate 95 places a gas station, truck stop or industrial file there against a corridor this firm's site suitability work maps directly. Auburn, across the Androscoggin River from Lewiston, shares the same metropolitan labor market and the same reach of USDA Rural Development's own Lewiston area office. Lewiston and Auburn also carry a significant New Mainer and immigrant population, a distinct labor force and household formation dimension a multifamily or retail feasibility study in this metro documents alongside the population and employment series above.

Bar Harbor sits on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, at the gateway to Acadia National Park, which the National Park Service's own count shows drew 3.96 million visits in 2024, up from 3.88 million in 2023 and among the park's highest totals on record. The Jackson Laboratory, a biomedical research institution headquartered in Bar Harbor, anchors a genomics and biotechnology cluster distinct from the rest of coastal Maine's own tourism and fishing economy. Hancock County's own working waterfront sits inside the lobster fishery landings this page's underwriting realities describe, and Bar Harbor's own coastline is part of the 3,478 statute miles of tidal shoreline NOAA's Office for Coastal Management counts for the state as a whole, so a lodging, marina or residential file here carries both the fishery's own price exposure and the flood and setback questions the state's shoreline length raises broadly. Bar Harbor's own town ordinance has cut cruise ship visits to the island by roughly half in recent years, local reporting shows, a regulatory constraint that shifts overnight demand toward land based lodging rather than the day-trip cruise visitor a shorter coastline market might instead depend on. Hancock County's own economy sits split between Bar Harbor's own tourism season and the lobster fishing communities along its own mainland coast, two demand drivers a Maine feasibility study underwrites separately rather than blending into one countywide figure.

Read against the SBA record above, fitness and recreational sports centers resolve cleanest, 78 7(a) loans for $13,420,200 at a 1.9 percent charge-off rate, the class SBA's FOIA data rates best in the state. Hotels and motels follow on the 504 side at a 0.0 percent charge-off rate across 68 loans for $67,058,000, the class Maine's own gateway markets, Bar Harbor and Portland among them, support most directly, while the 7(a) side's 36 loans for $22,036,100 have not yet resolved a large enough cohort to rate. Restaurants carry the state's largest loan count, 379 7(a) loans for $95,058,400, at the highest rated charge-off rate in the table, 8.0 percent. Child day care services, 47 7(a) loans for $6,986,600 and 27 504 loans for $8,728,000, sit against Maine's own Community Facilities program, a case this page's USDA section already documents at $30,890,650 in fiscal year 2025 obligations. Self storage, 14 7(a) loans for $9,789,700 and 12 504 loans for $8,011,000, tracks the in-migration and housing churn the statewide accessory dwelling unit and density mandate is designed to accelerate. Gas stations and convenience stores, 65 loans for $22,024,800 at a 6.1 percent charge-off rate, follow the interstate corridors, Interstate 95 the length of the state and Interstate 295 through Portland, that this firm's site suitability work maps against traffic and competitive position rather than a single statewide figure. Marinas, suppressed under 5 loans on the 7(a) side but carrying 5 504 loans for $1,980,000, follow the lobster fishery's own working waterfront rather than a statewide figure, and assisted living and continuing care, 12 7(a) loans for $5,839,400 and 6 504 loans for $3,284,000, follows the county level population figures named for each metro above. RV parks and campgrounds, 12 7(a) loans for $8,322,600 and too few resolved to rate, track the same summer visitor economy the Maine Office of Tourism's own spending series and Acadia's own visitation count describe above, and car washes, 10 7(a) loans for $5,976,000, follow the same interstate corridors as gas stations and convenience stores.

Beyond the classes above, MMCG produces SBA, USDA and conventional grade feasibility studies for the full range of commercial property types financed in Maine. Multifamily and workforce housing files follow the statewide accessory dwelling unit and affordable housing density mandate directly, and the Bath Iron Works shipyard's own workforce housing demand in the Midcoast. Industrial and flex files follow Maine's ports and the working waterfront infrastructure the lobster and broader fisheries economy supports, alongside the state's forest products sector, which the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development estimates generates more than $8 billion in direct and indirect annual impact even as the sector's own output fell by nearly $1 billion and shed 7 percent of its employees between 2019 and 2024, with roughly 22 mills closing and an estimated 13,000 jobs lost statewide; the Forest Opportunity Roadmap, a state public-private initiative, set a goal of growing the sector to $12 billion by 2025 from about $8.5 billion in 2018, a contraction and a target an industrial feasibility study for a wood products or mass timber conversion project is underwritten against together. Maine's own Renewable Portfolio Standard rises to 90 percent by 2030 under 2025 legislation, with a Clean Energy Standard targeting 100 percent clean electricity by 2040, a policy backdrop relevant to an industrial or data processing file's own energy sourcing plan. Medical facility files follow the hospital systems named above, Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, MaineGeneral Health and Central Maine Healthcare in Lewiston, each a Maine Department of Labor named top private employer in its own right. Retail files follow Hannaford Bros, a Maine associated grocery chain the Maine Department of Labor counts among the state's largest private employers at between 9,001 and 9,500 workers, and the population and wage figures named for each metro above. RV park, campground and glamping files are underwritten against the Maine Office of Tourism's own $9.37 billion visitor spending series and the National Park Service's own Acadia visitation count, both concentrated in a short summer season this firm's site-specific demand work accounts for directly. Community Facilities Program files for a hospital, clinic, water system or childcare borrower follow USDA's own $30,890,650 in fiscal year 2025 Maine Community Facilities obligations and the $8,093,851 in Water and Waste Disposal obligations the same fiscal year, both named above.

Beyond the tourism, population and income figures above, Maine's own public records carry the built-asset market layer a lender reads across the state's metros. The U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns count 6,039 retail trade establishments statewide in 2023, the small-format tenancy base a shopping center or downtown retail asset is underwritten against, alongside 1,700 manufacturing establishments the same source counts for the state's mills, yards and plants and 938 accommodation establishments across its hotels, motels and inns. The Census Bureau's Building Permits Survey recorded 6,979 new housing units authorized statewide in 2025, 4,764 of them single-family, the residential pipeline the statewide accessory dwelling unit and density mandate above is designed to accelerate. Read together, the establishment counts and the permit pipeline place a subject property against the actual density of competing tenancy and the pace of new supply in its own county rather than a single statewide assumption, the same discipline the metro sections above apply to population and employment. A retail or lodging file in Cumberland County reads a different establishment base and permit pace than one in Penobscot or Androscoggin, so the county the property sits in, not the statewide total, sets the competitive denominator this firm builds the demand case on.

Standard delivery is 9 to 16 business days from data receipt, and rush turnaround is available from 5 business days. The seven steps below are what happens in that window, from the project brief to lender review.

MMCG delivers Maine 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 and conventional lender file submission and incorporate the analytical layers Maine credit committees expect: the state's own FOIA cohort by asset class, the Bangor state office's guarantee terms and the rural area determination on a USDA file, the accessory dwelling unit and affordable housing density mandate's own reach into the project's municipality, the Homestead Exemption or Business Equipment Tax Exemption where either applies, and the flood and setback posture of a shoreline parcel against Maine's own tidal coastline. Sponsor inquiries that involve a coastal site inside a flood hazard area, a working waterfront file tied to the lobster fishery, or a Bath area workforce housing file typically require the upper end of the standard range.

Engagements typically begin with the project address, asset class, capital stack, sponsor experience, and the specific lender, Certified Development Company or USDA office carrying the deal. From there, MMCG calibrates scope to the program of record, whether SBA 7(a), SBA 504, USDA Business and Industry, REAP, Community Facilities or conventional.

Send the project address. Receive a free Maine market overview within one business day. Pricing starts at $4,900 with a 50/50 fee schedule. Delivery in 9 to 16 business days. A senior analyst responds within 12 business hours.

MMCG Invest, LLC is a commercial real estate feasibility consulting firm specializing in SBA and USDA feasibility studies across asset classes including hotels, assisted living, marinas, self storage, RV parks, gas stations, restaurants and working waterfront properties. Our analyses serve lenders, CDCs, investors and developers seeking institutional quality market intelligence for underwriting and investment decisions. 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 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 business days. A senior analyst responds to proposal requests within 12 business hours from the firm's San Francisco office.

Every state page MMCG publishes is listed on the state index; the neighbouring states are linked at the end of this page. The Maine cities and counties served:

Greater Portland and Cumberland County: Portland, South Portland, Westbrook, Scarborough, Falmouth, Yarmouth, Freeport.

Biddeford, Saco and York County: Biddeford, Saco, Kennebunk, Sanford, Wells, York, Kittery.

Lewiston, Auburn and Androscoggin County: Lewiston, Auburn.

Bangor and Penobscot County: Bangor, Orono, Brewer.

Midcoast, Bath and Sagadahoc County: Bath, Brunswick, Rockland, Camden, Belfast.

Bar Harbor, Mount Desert Island and Hancock County: Bar Harbor, Ellsworth, Southwest Harbor.

Aroostook County: Presque Isle, Caribou, Houlton, Madawaska.

Western Maine mountains: Rumford, Farmington, Bethel.

Washington County and Down East: Machias, Calais, Eastport.

Counties this page's research names: Cumberland, York, Androscoggin, Penobscot, Sagadahoc, Knox, Waldo, Hancock, Aroostook, Franklin, Oxford, Washington.

Each region carries its own file. A Greater Portland or York County engagement is scoped against the Maine District Office's own Portland location and the accessory dwelling unit and affordable housing density mandate's early adoption in the metro. A Midcoast or Down East file, Bath and the working waterfront towns from Rockland to Eastport among them, is scoped against the Bath Iron Works shipyard's own employment band, the lobster fishery's own landings value, and Maine's 3,478 statute miles of tidal shoreline. An Aroostook County or western mountains file is scoped against USDA Rural Development's own Presque Isle area office and the rural area determination that office applies, rather than the metro level data a Portland, Bangor or Lewiston file draws on first.

The firm's engagement team works from the district and area office network named above, the Maine District Office's own Augusta headquarters and its Portland and Bangor locations for an SBA file, and the Bangor state office and its Presque Isle, Lewiston and Scarborough area offices for a USDA file, so a Maine sponsor's file is scoped from the start to the office that will actually underwrite it.