Massachusetts Feasibility Study: Lender-Grade SBA and USDA Studies

MMCG Invest, LLC prepares feasibility studies for Massachusetts projects where the underwriting questions reach past the national checklist. Massachusetts's life sciences cluster recorded $8.1 billion in 2023 biotech payroll under NAICS 541714 by the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns, more than twenty times Connecticut's, and a market that size competes with every hotel, assisted living and self-storage project in Cambridge, Boston, Waltham and the Route 128 corridor for the same trades and parcels. The MBTA Communities Act binds 177 communities under Section 3A by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council's own count, so a multifamily study has to state whether the parcel sits inside a compliant as-of-right district or a discretionary permit a town can resist, the difference between a speculative rezoning and a density a lender can underwrite. A 4 percent surtax on income above $1,000,000, which collected $2.987 billion in fiscal year 2025 by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue's own certification, reaches a non-resident's Massachusetts-source capital gains, so every exit of a hotel, car wash, self-storage, RV park or assisted living property above that gain carries the extra 4 percent against net sale proceeds. A Specialized energy code now binds 60 municipalities, including Boston and Worcester, by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources's own count, and a construction budget there has to price the all-electric standard the code layers onto the base energy code before the shell is costed. Massachusetts hosts the nation's first utility-scale offshore wind farm, Vineyard Wind's 800 megawatts and a $2.3 billion financial close, and the New Bedford and Fall River submarkets carry the construction workforce a study there has to model against that capital program rather than a generic clean-energy assumption. Every engagement is calibrated to the project address, the program of record, and the specific lender, CDC or USDA area 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 Massachusetts market overview within one business day of submission.

The U.S. Small Business Administration serves Massachusetts through a single district office, the Massachusetts District Office at 10 Causeway Street, Room 265, Boston, which the agency's own page describes as serving all 14 counties in Massachusetts, under District Director Keegan Shepardson; no Springfield branch appears in the office's January 2026 staff directory. MMCG's computation over SBA's 7(a) and 504 FOIA release as of June 30, 2026, keyed to the project state on each loan record, agrees: 2,033 of the fiscal year 2025 7(a) approvals for Massachusetts projects carried the Massachusetts District Office.

On that release, SBA lenders approved 2,038 7(a) loans for Massachusetts projects in fiscal year 2025 for $596,004,700 in gross approvals, of which 1,605 had been disbursed at the release date, against 1,928 loans for $523,363,000 in fiscal year 2024. SBA's own 7(a) Lender Activity Report for the fiscal year end, filtered to Massachusetts projects, gives the same 2,038 loans and $596,004,700, with $419,583,585 as the guaranteed portion, across 141 distinct lenders. The 504 program is where Massachusetts stands apart: 245 loans for $187,071,000 in fiscal year 2025 and 214 loans for $175,375,000 in fiscal year 2024, supporting an estimated $420,909,750 in total project dollars by the 504 CDC Activity Report's own label, a 504 count that is a larger share of the state's SBA lending than in almost any other state this firm publishes. Through June 30, 2026, fiscal year 2026 stood at 1,102 7(a) approvals for $364,431,600 and 141 504 approvals for $120,142,000.

Massachusetts 7(a) lending is a community bank market. On the FOIA release the most active lenders by fiscal year 2025 approval count were Eastern Bank with 323 loans for $55,962,000, TD Bank, National Association with 241 loans for $27,272,800, Northeast Bank with 156 loans for $22,859,400, Rockland Trust Company with 149 loans for $42,952,100, Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company with 141 loans for $14,775,700, Newtek Bank, National Association with 84 loans for $33,882,500, Salem Five Cents Savings Bank with 75 loans for $14,100,400, Beacon Bank and Trust with 55 loans for $25,061,200, The Huntington National Bank with 47 loans for $21,503,900 and Bristol County Savings Bank with 43 loans for $3,387,000. The Lender Activity Report ranks Live Oak Banking Company first by dollars at $53,313,500 on 41 loans, ahead of Eastern Bank, Rockland Trust Company, Newtek and TD Bank, and names Leader Bank, National Association at $23,041,100 on 30 loans. The pattern a Massachusetts borrower should read from the two lists is the split between the Boston-area savings and trust banks that write many small loans and the national lenders that write the large ones: a hotel, self-storage or car wash file over $2 million is more likely to sit with Live Oak or Newtek, and the study is written to the credit memo that group's underwriters expect.

On the 504 side, eight Certified Development Companies approved Massachusetts loans in fiscal year 2025 on the release: Granite State Economic Development Corporation with 84 loans for $62,054,000, Bay Colony Development Corporation with 81 loans for $57,502,000, New England Certified Development Corporation with 32 loans for $20,711,000, Worcester Business Development Corporation with 15 loans for $12,041,000, Cape & Islands Community Development, Inc. with 14 loans for $11,885,000, South Eastern Economic Development Corporation with 14 loans for $10,128,000, Ocean State Business Development Authority with 4 loans for $11,227,000 and SomerCor 504, Inc. with one for $1,523,000. Two of the eight are regional CDCs based in Massachusetts, Cape & Islands and Worcester Business Development, and a project on the Cape, the Islands or in central Massachusetts is usually written to one of them.

Two SBA sources say the same thing about the state's year, and the study cites both. The 7(a) Lender Activity Report for the fiscal year end gives 2,038 loans for $596,004,700 with $419,583,585 guaranteed across 141 lenders, the FOIA release gives the same 2,038 loans and $596,004,700 by project state, and the 504 CDC Activity Report gives 245 loans for $187,071,000 supporting an estimated $420,909,750 in project dollars through 8 CDCs, which is the release's 245 and $187,071,000 exactly. Where the two differ is the lender ranking at the margin: the report has Eastern Bank at 290 loans for $43,579,000 where the release, nine months later, has 323 for $55,962,000, while Rockland Trust Company at 149 loans for $42,952,100, TD Bank, National Association at 241 for $27,272,800, Newtek Bank, National Association at 84 for $33,882,500 and Northeast Bank at 156 for $22,859,400 read the same in both. A Massachusetts lender reading the study sees its own numbers in it.

No Massachusetts-specific SBA disaster declaration, district lending record or lender-match notice from fiscal years 2024 or 2025 could be found on the agency's own site, and the page does not claim one. What the district office does run is a resource-partner calendar of trainings and workshops, 18 events at the access date, of which a SCORE Northeast Massachusetts business summit on September 16, 2026 was the nearest.

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 Massachusetts, 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, Massachusetts's 25,220 disbursed 7(a) loans for $5,097,108,400 resolved 18,246 with a 6.4 percent charge-off rate, and its 3,457 disbursed 504 loans for $2,072,259,000 resolved 1,270 at 3.1 percent. The hotel record is a 504 record: 122 504 loans for $194,661,000 against only 61 7(a) loans for $58,458,400, and the 7(a) cohort resolved 41 with none charged off while the 504 cohort resolved 61 at 4.9 percent. Car washes resolved 41 of 51 7(a) loans at 4.9 percent; gas stations and convenience stores resolved 87 of 116 at 1.1 percent; restaurants, the largest count at 1,664 7(a) loans and 310 504 loans, resolved 1,031 at 7.5 percent and 77 at 3.9 percent; fitness centers, 394 loans, resolved 267 at 5.2 percent; child day care, 270 loans for $118,721,800, resolved 170 at 6.5 percent. Assisted living is thin on the SBA side, 13 7(a) loans and 19 504 loans, because the state's senior housing is financed elsewhere, as the MassDevelopment bond program below records. 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.

USDA Rural Development serves Massachusetts from the Southern New England Rural Development State Office at 451 West Street, Amherst, which administers Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island together, under Acting State Director Liz Gariepy by the office's own contacts page, with the Hadley Area Office serving Berkshire, Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden counties, the Berkshires and the Pioneer Valley. The office's Rural Energy for America Program contact is Renewable Energy Coordinator Jonathan Burns, and the program's Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island page stated in January 2025 that the agency was not accepting REAP grant applications at that time, a notice a Massachusetts solar or energy-efficiency file has to read before it plans a REAP round.

The state's Rural Development volume is small and it is not a Business and Industry market. By place of performance, from the USASpending.gov data the Treasury publishes under the DATA Act, Massachusetts recorded no Business and Industry guarantee in fiscal year 2025 and none in fiscal year 2024; 35 Rural Energy for America Program awards obligating $5,502,340 in fiscal year 2025 against 32 awards and $3,689,344 in fiscal year 2024; nine Community Facilities awards obligating $10,050,000 in fiscal year 2025 against seven and $1,626,506 the year before; and two Water and Waste Disposal awards obligating $1,160,428 in fiscal year 2025 against 11 and $15,020,204 in fiscal year 2024. A Massachusetts borrower who reaches USDA does so through Community Facilities for a nonprofit or public project in the western counties or on the Cape and the Islands, or through REAP for an energy improvement on a farm or a rural business, and the study is written to that program's standard rather than to a B&I file the state office has not guaranteed in two years.

The rural-area test is the same 50,000-resident line the program applies everywhere, and the eligibility map's own welcome page states that a final determination of property eligibility is made by Rural Development on a complete application, not by the map. The Hadley Area Office's four-county territory is the agency's own statement of where its Massachusetts work sits, and the study documents eligibility at the parcel rather than by county.

The cabinet agency is the Executive Office of Economic Development, and the finance arm a commercial real estate borrower deals with is the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency, MassDevelopment, the Commonwealth's quasi-public finance and real estate development agency. MassDevelopment's Commercial Real Estate loan finances facility acquisition, renovation, construction and permanent financing up to $10 million; its Mortgage Insurance Guarantee bridges a bank's maximum advance rate up to 100% of property value with a maximum guarantee of $4 million per loan; its Brownfields Redevelopment Fund, created in 1998 and codified at 946 CMR 3.00, offers interest-free site assessment financing of up to $250,000 per site and remediation loans of up to $750,000 per site through the Community One Stop for Growth; and its tax-exempt bond program finances real estate and equipment for manufacturers, 501(c)(3) entities, affordable rental housing developers, solid waste and recycling facilities and, by the agency's own page, assisted living and long-term care facility developers, which is why the state's senior housing is thin on the SBA record above.

The Economic Development Incentive Program, administered by the Massachusetts Office of Business Development with awards approved by the Economic Assistance Coordinating Council under sections 3A to 3H of chapter 23A of the General Laws, awards tax credits and local property tax incentives for 5 to 20 years to businesses committing to job creation, retention and private investment; the most recent annual report the State Library holds, for fiscal year 2019, records 36 projects approved that year with $495 million in leveraged private investment, 5,699 anticipated new jobs and 8,480 retained, and 231 projects approved since 2015 with almost $5 billion leveraged, 18,055 potential new jobs and 36,370 retained.

Massachusetts was awarded $168,591,178 under the federal State Small Business Credit Initiative, announced December 6, 2022, for programs at MassDevelopment, the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation and MassVentures: MassDevelopment's Enhanced Economic Development Loans, direct loans for no more than 50% of a real estate, equipment or leasehold improvement debt package, and Enhanced Loan Guarantees of up to 50% of a bank loan on the same assets; and the Growth Capital Corporation's Commercial Lending Program, companion loans for no more than 50% of total financing, and Community Loan Fund Guarantee, guarantees of up to 50% of principal at an average of $250,000 on loans originated by community banks and nonprofit lenders. MassDevelopment's own SSBCI brochure now lists real estate acquisition, construction and renovation loans up to $10 million, improvement and working capital loans up to $2 million, equipment loans from $100,000 to $3 million and guarantees of up to 50% of the loan, each requiring a private bank or credit union loan at least equal to the SSBCI exposure. One change since 2022 decides which door a borrower knocks on: under the Mass Leads Act, the nearly $4 billion economic development bill signed in November 2024, the Growth Capital Corporation merged into MassDevelopment effective February 18, 2025 and operates as its Growth Capital Division, and its former site redirects to MassDevelopment's. A study that still names MGCC as a separate lender is out of date.

Assisted living is certified, not licensed and not gated by Determination of Need. Chapter 19D of the General Laws, titled Assisted Living, and 651 CMR 12.00, Certification Procedures and Standards for Assisted Living Residences, govern certification by the executive office formerly named Elder Affairs and renamed the Executive Office of Aging & Independence in January 2025. Section 12.14 of 651 CMR 12.00, Inapplicability of Certain Laws and Regulations to Assisted Living Residences, states in its own words that a certified residence is exempt from the determination of need process applicable to health care facilities set out in M.G.L. c. 111, §§ 25B through 25H. Determination of Need itself, at M.G.L. c. 111, § 25C, bars substantial capital expenditure on a health care facility without a Department of Public Health finding of need, and it reaches hospitals and licensed health facilities, not a chapter 19D residence.

A hotel or inn is licensed locally as an innholder under M.G.L. c. 140, § 6, which requires the applicant to file a plan of the proposed rooms, beds and bedding with the local licensing authority, and a lodging house letting rooms to four or more persons is licensed under §§ 22 to 31 of the same chapter. The room occupancy excise is imposed under M.G.L. c. 64G; a city or town may adopt a local option excise under § 3A up to 6%, or 6.5% in Boston; chapter 337 of the Acts of 2018 extended the excise to short-term rentals for occupancies on or after July 1, 2019, with no excise where the rent is less than $15 per day under § 3C and a local community impact fee of up to 3% on professionally managed short-term rental units under § 3D; the implementing regulation is 830 CMR 64G.1.1.

Massachusetts does not license a car wash as such; the gates are water. Under the Water Management Act, M.G.L. c. 21G, and 310 CMR 36.00, the Department of Environmental Protection requires a withdrawal permit for any withdrawal exceeding an annual average of 100,000 gallons per day or 9 million gallons in any three-month period; MassDEP issues a general permit under 314 CMR 5.00, the Ground Water Discharge Permit Program, for privately owned treatment facilities that discharge only commercial car wash wastewater on the premises; and a wash discharging more than 25,000 gallons per day to a sewer authority without an approved pretreatment program needs a sewer connection permit under 314 CMR 7.00.

An RV park or family campground is licensed by the local board of health under M.G.L. c. 140, § 32B, applying 105 CMR 440.00, State Sanitary Code Chapter VI, Minimum Standards for Developed Family Type Camp Grounds, under the Department of Public Health's authority at M.G.L. c. 111, § 127A. The children's camp chapter, 105 CMR 430.00, is a different regulation and does not reach a commercial campground, a distinction the study states because a lender's checklist often cites the wrong one.

A Massachusetts credit committee reads the study in the order of the programs above. For a 7(a) or 504 file under SOP 50 10 8 it wants the market area drawn to the parcel and the competitive set named, the demand case built from public series the underwriter can check, the stabilized-year cash flow at the required coverage, and the equity and collateral mechanics stated, including where MassDevelopment's Mortgage Insurance Guarantee or an SSBCI Enhanced Loan Guarantee of up to 50% fills the gap between the bank's advance rate and the price. For the state's large 504 market it wants the CDC named and the project written to its debenture standard. For a Community Facilities or REAP file the Amherst office reviews, it wants the rural-area determination at the address and the program's standard met, and it wants the study to say plainly that the state has recorded no B&I guarantee in two fiscal years. For every Massachusetts file it wants the state layer set out above in the lender's own vocabulary: the chapter 19D certification and the 651 CMR 12.14 exemption, the innholder licence and the room occupancy excise stack, the withdrawal and discharge permits a car wash carries, the campground licence under the right chapter of the Sanitary Code, the classified commercial rate the city sets under Proposition 2½, and the project's construction cost against the public benchmarks the Commonwealth publishes. A study that carries each of those with the source named in the sentence is the study a Massachusetts underwriter can lift into the memo without a second round.

Massachusetts changes five lines in a feasibility study a national template treats as one: a life sciences payroll more than twenty times Connecticut's, a statewide multifamily mandate the Supreme Judicial Court upheld, a surtax on capital gains above $1,000,000, a third-tier energy code binding the state's two largest cities, and a named capital program on the SouthCoast.

Massachusetts's life sciences cluster recorded $8.1 billion in 2023 biotech payroll under NAICS 541714 in the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns, more than twenty times Connecticut's $402,993,000. A cluster that size draws the same construction trades and the same land a hotel, assisted living or self-storage developer in Cambridge, Boston, Waltham or the Route 128 corridor is bidding for, so a national construction-cost template misprices every one of those asset classes in Greater Boston.

The MBTA Communities Act, Chapter 40A Section 3A, binds 177 communities to zone at least one as-of-right multifamily district near transit, a count the Metropolitan Area Planning Council carries and the Supreme Judicial Court upheld in Attorney General v. Town of Milton on January 8, 2025. A multifamily study in one of the 177 communities has to state whether the parcel sits inside a compliant as-of-right district or a discretionary permit a town can resist, the difference between a speculative rezoning and a density a lender can underwrite.

A 4 percent surtax on taxable income above $1,000,000, added to the Massachusetts Constitution and reaching a non-resident's Massachusetts-source capital gains, collected $2.987 billion of the Commonwealth's fiscal year 2025 revenue by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue's own certification. Because it reaches the sale of a hotel, car wash, self-storage, RV park or assisted living property at a gain above $1,000,000, the study's exit modeling carries the extra 4 percent against net sale proceeds.

A Specialized energy code now binds 60 municipalities, including Boston and Worcester, with 33.41 percent of the state's population living under it by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources's own count, a third tier the 2021 Next-Generation Roadmap climate statute created above the Base and Stretch codes. A construction budget in one of the 60 municipalities has to price the all-electric standard the Specialized Code layers onto the base code before the shell can be costed.

Vineyard Wind, 800 megawatts from 62 turbines off the coast, reached financial close on September 15, 2021 with $2.3 billion of senior debt, one of the largest renewable energy investments in the country by the developer's own release. The New Bedford and Fall River submarkets carry the construction workforce a hotel, self-storage or industrial study in the SouthCoast region has to model against this named program, and against the 2024 turbine blade failure and the federal suspension order Vineyard Wind challenged in January 2026 as real risk.

A Massachusetts study runs to the sections a lender's file expects, each calibrated to the state. The engagement letter and scope name the program of record, the lender or CDC, the Massachusetts District Office and, for a USDA file, the Amherst office and the Hadley Area Office where the western counties apply. The site and market area section places the parcel in its county and its city's classified rate, and draws the trade area from the road network rather than a radius. The demand section builds from the public series this page cites: the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimates for population and its components, the Bureau of Labor Statistics for jobs, the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism for visitors and spending, the Cape Cod Commission for the year-round population of the Cape, County Business Patterns for the competitive stock and the SBA FOIA release for the state's own lending record in the asset class. The competitive set section names the operating properties, their scale and their position. The regulatory section carries the certification, licence and permit sequence with the statute and regulation cited, and the room occupancy excise stack for a lodging property. The financial section runs the stabilized year, the ramp, the operating expenses, the reserves and the discounted cash flow at the lender's coverage, with the property tax line built from the city's commercial rate and the construction cost checked against the public bid benchmarks. The risk section names what could move the numbers, the negative domestic migration, the seasonal Cape and Islands market, the closed REAP window, the local licensing authority's calendar, and says what the sponsor has done about each. The lender package closes with the comparable-loan evidence from the FOIA release and a statement of the standards the study was prepared under.

A Massachusetts study is honest about the public record's gaps, because a lender will find them too. No public commercial construction cost index exists for Boston, Worcester or Springfield; the Massachusetts School Building Authority's bid data, from $434 to $671 per gross square foot, is the state's only per-square-foot series with a publisher, and it is institutional; the newest Economic Development Incentive Program annual report the State Library holds is for fiscal year 2019, so the program's current pipeline is not on this page. Boston's Article 80 review timelines are not cited here, and the classification and Proposition 2½ facts on this page come from the Boston and Worcester assessors' own pages and the chapter 19D, c. 140 and c. 64G citations from the agency's site, the State Library's repository and the Code of Massachusetts Regulations mirrored by a law school library. The study says which figure came from which door, uses the city's own rates and the state's own bids, and states plainly where a national template would have invented a number. The Amherst office's territory, the Hadley Area Office's four counties and the Cape Cod Commission's year-round population are the Massachusetts geography a lender can check; the parcel is where the study tests eligibility, cost and rate.

Massachusetts counted 7,154,084 residents on July 1, 2025 by the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimates, up from 7,138,560 a year earlier, an increase of 15,524 or 0.22 percent, and the components are the story a lender needs: natural change added 8,419 (68,055 births against 59,636 deaths), international migration added 40,240, and domestic migration subtracted 33,340, for net migration of 6,900. The state is losing residents to other states and replacing them from abroad, which is a demand case for workforce housing, assisted living and the visitor economy and not for a population-growth pro forma.

The labor market is large and health-heavy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Massachusetts Economy at a Glance table reports total nonfarm employment of 3,712.5 thousand for July 2026, seasonally adjusted, an unemployment rate of 4.4 percent, leisure and hospitality employment of 362.0 thousand and education and health services employment of 863.8 thousand.

Tourism is the second engine. The Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism reported, in its release of March 16, 2026, that the state welcomed more than 52 million visitors in calendar 2024 who spent over $24 billion, supporting more than 155,000 jobs and generating more than $2 billion in state and local tax revenue. The Cape Cod Commission's Data Cape Cod portal puts Barnstable County's year-round population at over 231,000 by the 2024 American Community Survey five-year estimates, from 1,708 in Truro to 49,568 in Barnstable, with more than 60 percent of the county's population over 45 years old, which is the demographic the Cape's assisted living, lodging and self-storage files are written to.

Boston is the market with the most public numbers and the highest costs. The City of Boston Assessing Department's fiscal year 2026 rates are $12.40 per $1,000 for residential property and $26.96 for commercial, industrial and personal property, and its own explanation of the classification system says the city may charge different rates because it operates under a classification system that Proposition 2½ caps at the levy. The Massachusetts School Building Authority's bid data puts the Boston Arts Academy at $102,921,915 for 153,476 gross square feet, $671 per gross square foot, the public benchmark for what institutional construction costs inside the city. The Massachusetts District Office at 10 Causeway Street is in the city; Eastern Bank, Rockland Trust Company, Salem Five Cents Savings Bank and Beacon Bank and Trust write the region's small 7(a) files and Bay Colony Development Corporation and New England Certified Development Corporation its 504 files, 81 and 32 approvals in fiscal year 2025. A Boston lodging property collects the state room occupancy excise under M.G.L. c. 64G plus the city's local option at 6.5%, the highest local rate the statute allows, and a short-term rental under chapter 337 of the Acts of 2018 adds a community impact fee of up to 3% where the city has adopted it.

Boston is also the address of the cluster and the mandate that reach every asset class in the city. The $8.1 billion in 2023 biotech payroll the U.S. Census Bureau counts under NAICS 541714 statewide concentrates in Cambridge, Boston, Waltham and the Route 128 corridor, so a hotel, assisted living or self-storage developer here bids against lab developers for the same trades and land. Boston is one of the 177 communities the MBTA Communities Act binds to an as-of-right district under Section 3A, and one of the 60 municipalities on the Specialized Code the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources counts.

Central and western Massachusetts carry the state's lower costs and its USDA work. Worcester's fiscal year 2026 rates are $29.06 per $1,000 for commercial, industrial and personal property and $13.28 for residential, and its own page explains the split-rate mechanics as the class's share of the levy divided by the class's assessed value. The School Building Authority's Worcester bids run from $477 per gross square foot at South High Community School in 2019 to $633 at Doherty Memorial High School in 2022, the clearest public series of construction inflation in the state, and its Springfield bids at $434 and $493 per gross square foot at Brightwood and DeBerry mark the western cost floor. In dollars, the file's Worcester bids are $171,720,000 for South High Community School and $267,008,356 for Doherty Memorial, and its Springfield bids $65,363,435 for Brightwood's 150,500 gross square feet in September 2019 and $76,956,270 for DeBerry's 155,990 in November 2021, the four public construction contracts a western Massachusetts lender can check against a sponsor's budget. Worcester Business Development Corporation approved 15 504 loans for $12,041,000 in fiscal year 2025, and the Hadley Area Office of USDA Rural Development serves Berkshire, Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden counties, where the state's Community Facilities and REAP files sit. A Springfield or Pittsfield lodging, senior housing or campground study is written to the local board of health's licence, the classified commercial rate of its city and the Community Facilities standard where a nonprofit or public borrower applies.

Worcester is also one of the 60 municipalities on the Specialized Code the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources counts, carrying the same all-electric standard Boston's construction budgets do.

The seasonal market is where the state's smallest classes live. County Business Patterns counts 48 RV parks and campgrounds in the whole state and the FOIA release carries eight 7(a) campground loans, so a Cape or Islands campground study leans on the Cape Cod Commission's year-round population of over 231,000 in Barnstable County and the Office of Travel and Tourism's 52 million visitors rather than on an SBA cohort that is too small to read. Cape & Islands Community Development, Inc. approved 14 504 loans for $11,885,000 in fiscal year 2025 and South Eastern Economic Development Corporation 14 for $10,128,000, the two CDCs a lodging, marina or self-storage file south of Boston is usually written to; Bristol County Savings Bank's 43 7(a) approvals mark the South Coast's community bank. Every campground here is licensed by the town's board of health under M.G.L. c. 140, § 32B and 105 CMR 440.00, every inn under M.G.L. c. 140, § 6, and every short-term rental has collected the room occupancy excise since July 1, 2019.

The South Coast also carries Vineyard Wind's 800 megawatts and its $2.3 billion financial close, so a study in New Bedford or Fall River has to model the construction workforce that capital program carries, and disclose the 2024 turbine blade failure and the suspension order Vineyard Wind challenged in January 2026 as real risk.

North and west of Boston the state's community banks write the small files and the state's largest 504 lender writes the large ones. Salem Five Cents Savings Bank's 75 7(a) approvals for $14,100,400 and Eastern Bank's 323 for $55,962,000 are the North Shore and Merrimack Valley's owner-occupied loans; Granite State Economic Development Corporation, the New Hampshire CDC that led the state with 84 504 approvals for $62,054,000, writes the debentures along Interstate 93 and Route 495 from Lawrence and Lowell to Haverhill, and New England Certified Development Corporation's 32 loans for $20,711,000 follow the same belt. Gloucester and the Cape Ann harbors are the state's marina market, ten 7(a) loans for $2,375,000 on the FOIA release, written to the harbor and the season. The 445 car washes County Business Patterns counts statewide are densest along Route 1, Route 28 and Interstate 495, and every one of them answers to the Water Management Act's 100,000 gallons per day line and the 314 CMR 5.00 discharge permit. A North Shore or Valley study is written to the city's classified commercial rate, to the innholder licence and the room occupancy excise for a lodging property, and to the CDC that carries the corridor.

Census County Business Patterns for 2023, the latest year published, counts 812 hotels and motels in Massachusetts (NAICS 721110), 445 car washes (811192), 330 self-storage operators (531130), 246 assisted living facilities for the elderly (623312), 104 continuing care retirement communities (623311) and 48 RV parks and campgrounds (721211), and the same file gives the employment behind the counts: 27,225 in hotels and motels, 22,407 in car washes, 9,036 in self-storage, 2,022 in RV parks and campgrounds, 112,907 in assisted living facilities for the elderly and 106,040 in continuing care retirement communities. Read against the SBA record above, three classes stand out. Hotels pair 812 establishments with the state's 504 record, 122 loans for $194,661,000, a 7(a) cohort with no charge-off among 41 resolved, and a visitor economy of more than 52 million visitors and over $24 billion; the study for one is a debenture file written to the CDC. Assisted living pairs 246 establishments and 104 continuing care communities with 863.8 thousand education and health services jobs, a Cape population more than 60 percent over 45, the chapter 19D certification with no Determination of Need and MassDevelopment's bond route, which is why the class is thin on the SBA record and strong on the state's own. Car washes are a larger class here than the population suggests, 445 establishments, with a 4.9 percent charge-off rate on 41 resolved 7(a) loans that a saturation test has to answer and a water regime that adds a permit line. Self-storage is the smallest class of the three by count at 330 and the one the negative domestic migration bears on most directly: 33,340 residents left for other states in the Census year, and a storage study is written to household turnover and the Cape's seasonal population rather than to growth.

Beyond the classes above, MMCG produces SBA, USDA and conventional-grade feasibility studies for the full range of commercial property types financed in Massachusetts. Restaurants are the largest count in the table, 1,664 7(a) loans for $392,674,900 and 310 504 loans for $162,284,000, and resolved 1,031 at 7.5 percent, which is why a Massachusetts restaurant study is written to a saturation test rather than a traffic count. Gas stations and convenience stores, 116 loans for $38,109,500 at 1.1 percent, carry one of the cleanest records in the table along Interstate 90, Interstate 495 and Route 3. Fitness and recreational sports centers, 394 loans for $118,778,300 at 5.2 percent, and child day care services, 270 loans for $118,721,800 at 6.5 percent, follow the suburban rings of Boston and Worcester. Industrial and logistics files follow the Interstate 495 belt and the Port of Boston; medical office files follow the 863.8 thousand education and health services jobs; retail and multifamily files follow MassDevelopment's brownfield fund and the Economic Development Incentive Program's local property tax incentives; glamping and short-term rental files carry the same room occupancy excise as a hotel and the campground chapter of the Sanitary Code; marinas from Gloucester to New Bedford are a small SBA class, ten 7(a) loans for $2,375,000, written to the harbor and the season; and Community Facilities Program files for nonprofit and public borrowers are written to the Amherst office's standard, on the pattern of the nine awards it obligated in fiscal year 2025.

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 Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts credit committees expect: the Massachusetts District Office's roster and the state's own FOIA cohort by asset class, the state's 504 market and its eight CDCs, the Amherst office's Community Facilities and REAP standards, the MassDevelopment loan, guarantee, brownfield and bond layer and the SSBCI programs it now holds, the chapter 19D certification and its Determination of Need exemption, the innholder licence and the room occupancy excise stack, the water permits on a car wash, the Sanitary Code chapter on a campground, the classified commercial rate under Proposition 2½ and the Commonwealth's own construction cost benchmarks. Sponsor inquiries that involve a chapter 19D residence, a brownfield site or a seasonal Cape or Islands property 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 Community Facilities, REAP or conventional.

Send the project address. Receive a free Massachusetts 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, car washes, self-storage, RV parks, gas stations, restaurants and agritourism. 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 Massachusetts cities and counties served:

Greater Boston: Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Quincy, Newton, Waltham, Woburn, Burlington, Lexington, Framingham, Natick, Marlborough, Peabody, Salem, Beverly, Gloucester, Lynn, Lawrence, Lowell, Haverhill, Brockton, Plymouth, Weymouth, Braintree, Dedham.

Central and western Massachusetts: Worcester, Shrewsbury, Auburn, Leominster, Fitchburg, Springfield, Chicopee, Holyoke, Westfield, West Springfield, Northampton, Amherst, Hadley, Greenfield, Pittsfield, North Adams, Great Barrington, Lenox, Williamstown.

The Cape, the Islands and the South Coast: Barnstable, Hyannis, Falmouth, Sandwich, Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich, Chatham, Orleans, Provincetown, Nantucket, Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Vineyard Haven, New Bedford, Fall River, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Wareham, Taunton, Attleboro.

Counties: Barnstable, Berkshire, Bristol, Dukes, Essex, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, Middlesex, Nantucket, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk, Worcester.