Feasibility Study Consultant in Miami, FL: SBA and USDA

A feasibility study in Miami has to answer questions a national template never asks. The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro holds 6,457,988 people by the U.S. Census Bureau's 2024 estimate, led by Miami-Dade County at 2,838,461, Broward County at 2,037,472 and Palm Beach County at 1,582,055, and a lender underwriting a project here is pricing conditions that a national cost guide or a generic pro forma does not carry. Property insurance leans on Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the state's insurer of last resort, with its statutory power to assess most Florida policyholders after a storm deficit. Senate Bill 4-D requires milestone structural inspections at 30 years of age, or 25 years within three miles of a coastline, for condominium and cooperative buildings three or more stories tall. The High-Velocity Hurricane Zone sets a 175 mph ultimate design wind speed in Miami-Dade and requires a Miami-Dade County Notice of Acceptance on exterior products. The county plans against a Unified Sea Level Rise Projection of 10 to 17 inches above 2000 levels by 2040. And the state levies no personal income tax. MMCG Invest, LLC is a feasibility study company serving borrowers, SBA lenders, Certified Development Companies and USDA lenders across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. We prepare the independent feasibility study a lender or CDC asks for when an SBA 7(a), SBA 504, USDA or conventional loan funds new construction, an expansion, a change of use or the acquisition of a special-purpose property, and we write it to the standard the file will be reviewed against: SBA SOP 50 10 8 for SBA credits, 7 CFR Part 5001 for USDA guarantees, and USPAP for the analytical conduct behind every projection. Every study opens from the project address, so the flood zone, the wind-design exposure, the insurance posture and, where the program is in play, the USDA rural determination are established at the parcel before a single projection is built. The result is a report a credit committee can check line by line against the public record rather than a template with the city name changed. Fees start at $4,900. Standard delivery runs 9 to 16 business days, rush delivery is available at 5 business days, and every inquiry receives a response within 12 business hours.

The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL metro is home to about 6,457,988 residents per the U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates, led by Miami-Dade County at 2,838,461; Broward County at 2,037,472; Palm Beach County at 1,582,055.

Five conditions rooted in Florida statute, the Florida Building Code and Miami-Dade County policy move the underwriting envelope for any project in the metro. Each is stated here at the level its primary source supports, and each is carried into the model rather than noted in passing.

Property insurance market and Citizens assessment risk. Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, created by the Legislature in 2002 as the state's insurer of last resort, absorbs policies private carriers decline to write, and Florida law requires it to levy assessments on most Florida policyholders after a devastating storm leaves it in deficit. That makes insurance a volatile line in any Miami budget. In December 2022 the Legislature passed SB 2-A, eliminating one-way attorney fees for property-insurance suits and prohibiting assignment of post-loss benefits, to stabilize rates.

Milestone inspections and reserve studies under SB 4-D. Enacted in 2022 after the Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside, it requires condominium and cooperative buildings of three or more stories to undergo a milestone structural inspection at 30 years, or 25 years within three miles of a coastline, and every 10 years after. Associations must also complete a structural integrity reserve study every 10 years and can no longer waive reserves. For Miami's aging coastal condominium stock, deferred maintenance is now a capital call to price.

High-Velocity Hurricane Zone building code. The Florida Building Code designates Miami-Dade and Broward counties as the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, strengthened after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. In Miami-Dade the ultimate design wind speed for Risk Category II buildings is 175 mph, and exterior products such as windows, doors, shutters and roofing must carry a Miami-Dade County Notice of Acceptance confirming impact and pressure testing. The rules raise hard costs and lengthen procurement, so national cost templates understate Miami envelope and re-roofing costs; our models load HVHZ compliance into budgets and reserves.

Sea-level rise and flood elevation standards. Miami-Dade County relies on the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Compact's Unified Sea Level Rise Projection, which puts sea levels 10 to 17 inches above 2000 levels by 2040. County flood criteria set minimum lot and finished-floor elevations, and the Florida Building Code requires freeboard above base flood elevation in special flood hazard areas. Much of the metro lies in FEMA flood zones with mandatory flood insurance, and rising groundwater and king-tide flooding lift foundation costs, so Miami budgets carry flood-proofing beyond national norms.

No state personal income tax. Florida levies no personal income tax, as the Florida Department of Revenue states, and its corporate income tax rate is 5.5 percent. For commercial real estate, SBA and USDA underwriting this matters because pass-through and individual investors retain more after-tax cash flow than in high-tax states, which supports continued in-migration of residents and businesses. The absence of a state income tax is a durable feature of Florida's regime, so a Miami model reflects that after-tax premium rather than a national tax baseline.

An SBA 504 feasibility study for a Miami project is written for two readers at once: the Certified Development Company and the participating lender, both reviewing the file under SBA SOP 50 10 8. A 7(a) study answers to the lender under the same SOP. In both cases the report has to show that the project can service the proposed debt from its own operations, on assumptions the reader can trace to a source, with Miami's own construction, insurance and elevation conditions built in rather than averaged away. Nationally, the SBA closed fiscal year 2025 having guaranteed 84,400 7(a) and 504 loans for $44.8 billion, comprising 77,600 7(a) loans for $37 billion and 6,750 504 loans for $7.8 billion, per SBA News Release 25-83 dated September 30, 2025. Miami's share of that record is computed in-house from the SBA 7(a) and 504 FOIA release, by county membership across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, never read from an SBA district total.

In fiscal year 2025 the Miami metro recorded 2,551 7(a) approvals for $1,116,881,600 and 209 504 approvals for $229,908,000, filed almost entirely through the SOUTH FLORIDA DISTRICT OFFICE. TD Bank, National Association led 7(a) approvals by count with 420 loans for $52,963,200, followed by Northeast Bank with 300 loans, Newtek Bank, National Association with 297 loans for $121,997,500, Readycap Lending, LLC with 181, The Huntington National Bank with 109, JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association with 107, BayFirst National Bank with 97 and Bank of America, National Association with 89. On the 504 side, Florida Business Development Corporation approved 107 loans for $106,780,000 and Florida First Capital Finance Corporation, Inc. approved 99 loans for $121,061,000, with Sunshine State Economic Development Corporation and Independent Development Services Corporation completing the year at 2 loans and 1 loan. Across the ten asset classes in the SBA table, the metro's FY2010 to FY2026 disbursed record stands at 1,308 7(a) loans for $974,888,100 with a 13.1% charge-off rate and 199 504 loans for $264,027,000 with a 0.0% charge-off rate; restaurants account for 600 of those 7(a) loans at an 18.6% charge-off rate, which is why a Miami restaurant study is built with particular care around the debt-service test. The full asset-class table and every source sit in the Miami feasibility market research post.

A USDA feasibility study Miami borrowers ask about is a question of geography before it is a question of numbers. USDA Business and Industry and the other Rural Development programs serve rural areas, which under 7 CFR Part 5001 generally means places of 50,000 or fewer people that are not inside an urbanized area contiguous and adjacent to a city or town of more than 50,000. The Miami metro is overwhelmingly urban and the coastal core does not qualify; Florida City and Homestead, at the metro's southern edge, fall within or adjacent to the Miami urbanized area and are excluded as well. The metro's western interior is different. The agricultural Glades region of Palm Beach County around Lake Okeechobee holds small communities far below the threshold, and its small communities are the places where a USDA guarantee becomes plausible for a project in this metro, subject to verification at the address.

Eligibility is verified at the subject address at intake, not assumed from a county name, because the rural determination is made at the property. Where the address qualifies, the study is written to 7 CFR Part 5001 so that the USDA lender receives an independent analysis of the project's ability to service the guaranteed debt on documented assumptions, with the Glades' agricultural economy and the metro's insurance, wind and flood conditions carried into the model. Where the address does not qualify, we say so at intake and route the project to the SBA 504 or 7(a) path instead of writing a study the program cannot use.

A hotel feasibility study Miami lenders can rely on has to reconcile the metro's hospitality demand with the costs Florida's regime attaches to a coastal building. The SBA record shows the asset class is financed here: across fiscal years 2010 to 2026 disbursed, hotels and motels in the Miami metro drew 49 7(a) loans for $99,574,500 and 26 504 loans for $80,057,000, cohorts too small for a charge-off rate to be shown. What those projects share is an envelope and an operating budget shaped by the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone: a 175 mph ultimate design wind speed for Risk Category II buildings in Miami-Dade, a Miami-Dade County Notice of Acceptance on the windows, doors, shutters and roofing, and, for a coastal site, finished-floor and freeboard requirements set against a sea level projected to be 10 to 17 inches above 2000 levels by 2040. Property insurance for a hotel in this market is written in the shadow of Citizens Property Insurance Corporation and its assessment power, so the study carries insurance as a modeled, sensitivity-tested line rather than a national average. The projection section builds room-night demand from the property's own segmentation and the lender's underwriting schedule, and the whole report is formatted for SBA 504, 7(a) and conventional review.

These are the conditions a Miami file is tested against in committee. A study that leaves any of them to a national assumption is the study that comes back with questions.

The engagement begins with three things: the project address, the asset class and the name of the lender or CDC contact who will receive the report. From the address we establish the parcel's FEMA flood zone, its position relative to the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone and the coastline, its county flood-criteria elevation, its property-insurance posture and, where the program is in play, its USDA rural determination under 7 CFR Part 5001. From the asset class we set the analytical frame and the SBA charge-off context the lender will already have in mind. From the lender or CDC contact we confirm the submission standard before drafting, whether SBA SOP 50 10 8 for a 7(a) or 504 credit, 7 CFR Part 5001 for a USDA guarantee, or the lender's own conventional template, so the report arrives in the form the file needs rather than being reformatted after the fact.

Fees start at $4,900 and are quoted in writing after intake against the asset class, the program and the depth of market work the lender requires. Standard delivery runs 9 to 16 business days from receipt of the project documents; rush delivery at 5 business days is available when a commitment date is fixed. Every inquiry receives a response within 12 business hours. The delivered report is formatted for SBA, CDC, USDA and conventional submission, carries a sources list a reviewer can check against the public record, and includes a revision round in which the lender's questions are answered in the document itself. Send the project address, the asset class and the lender or CDC contact to begin.

MMCG Invest, LLC specializes in SBA and USDA feasibility studies for borrowers, lenders and Certified Development Companies, and serves Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties to the same standard applied to every engagement. The practice is led by Michal Mohelsky, J.D., FMVA, Practicing Affiliate of the Appraisal Institute, and every report is prepared under USPAP for analytical conduct, SBA SOP 50 10 8 for SBA 7(a) and 504 credits, and 7 CFR Part 5001 for USDA guarantees. Each study draws its figures from named primary sources, states the assumption behind every projection, and is written so the lender's reviewer can check it rather than take it on trust.