Michigan Feasibility Study: Lender-Grade SBA and USDA Studies

MMCG Invest, LLC prepares feasibility studies for Michigan projects where the underwriting questions reach past the national checklist. The Detroit Three's Michigan headquarters anchor over 60 percent of U.S. automotive R&D spending, a Michigan Economic Development Corporation figure, so an industrial or workforce multifamily study near Detroit, Dearborn or Auburn Hills has to model demand against the automotive supply chain's own cycle. Michigan's Great Lakes shoreline, 3,224 statute miles by NOAA's count and about four times Wisconsin's, carries the $54.8 billion tourism economy Travel Michigan reported for 2024, so a hotel or marina study on the shore sizes demand on coastline recreation at a scale no neighbor matches. Proposal A uncapping resets a parcel's Taxable Value, capped by MCL 211.27a at the lesser of inflation or 5 percent a year, to full State Equalized Value the year after a sale, so an acquisition pro forma models Year 1 tax against the post-sale bill, not the seller's. The Detroit Land Bank Authority still holds 63,566 structures and vacant lots in inventory, so a reuse study sources the parcel from its deed-restricted sale as often as from a private seller. The Soo Locks, the only lock connecting Lake Superior to the lower Great Lakes, carried 50 percent of about 78 million tons of 2016 Great Lakes iron ore traffic by the Government Accountability Office's count, a risk an industrial study carries by name. 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 Michigan market overview within one business day of submission.

The U.S. Small Business Administration serves the whole state through the Michigan District Office at 477 Michigan Ave., Suite 1819, Detroit, under District Director Laketa Henderson, with a virtual office in Grand Rapids whose stated service area runs from Muskegon, Kent and Ottawa counties down to Berrien, Cass and St. Joseph and up to Leelanau, Benzie and Grand Traverse. The agency's own district page says the office services the entire state of Michigan, and MMCG's computation over SBA's 7(a) and 504 FOIA release as of June 30, 2026 agrees: 2,477 of the fiscal year 2025 7(a) approvals for Michigan projects carried the Michigan District Office, and four carried an out-of-state office.

On that release, SBA lenders approved 2,481 7(a) loans for Michigan projects in fiscal year 2025 for $981,863,500 in gross approvals, of which 1,975 had been disbursed at the release date, against 2,715 loans for $971,126,500 in fiscal year 2024: fewer loans and more dollars. SBA's own 7(a) and 504 Activity Reports for the fiscal year end, summed across the state's 14 congressional districts, put the same year at 2,481 loans and $982.0 million. The 504 program approved 144 loans for $134,900,000 in fiscal year 2025 and 123 loans for $133,606,000 in fiscal year 2024. Through June 30, 2026, fiscal year 2026 stood at 1,139 7(a) approvals for $575,389,900 and 90 504 approvals for $87,481,000.

Michigan's 7(a) market has one dominant lender. On the FOIA release The Huntington National Bank approved 1,080 Michigan loans for $206,749,300 in fiscal year 2025, more than the next nine lenders combined by count; Northeast Bank followed with 154 loans for $23,573,800, Newtek Bank, National Association with 103 loans for $42,164,700, Fifth Third Bank with 85 loans for $44,421,700, Readycap Lending, LLC with 74 loans for $21,533,100, Horizon Bank with 59 loans for $27,478,300, Independent Bank with 50 loans for $36,145,500, Live Oak Banking Company with 48 loans for $70,497,000, the largest average loan size in the ten, Celtic Bank Corporation with 48 loans for $16,248,600 and JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association with 39 loans for $12,605,100. SBA's 7(a) Lender Activity Report for the year, filtered to Michigan projects, ranks the same lenders: Live Oak Banking Company second by dollars at $70.5 million, Comerica Bank at $38.4 million, First Internet Bank of Indiana at $36.3 million and Independent Bank of Grand Rapids, the largest Michigan-headquartered 7(a) lender by dollars, at $36.1 million. A Michigan hotel, car wash or self-storage file over $2 million is written to the credit memo Live Oak, Newtek and Readycap underwriters expect, and a smaller owner-occupied file to Huntington's.

On the 504 side, five Certified Development Companies approved Michigan loans in fiscal year 2025 on the release: Michigan Certified Development Corporation of East Lansing led by count with 65 loans for $58,853,000, Great Lakes Commercial Finance of Grandville led by dollars with 58 loans for $61,463,000, Oakland County Business Finance Corporation of Waterford approved 15 loans for $12,670,000, Business Development Corporation (BDC) of South Bend, Indiana approved 5 loans for $1,298,000 and West Central Partnership, Inc. of Perrysburg, Ohio approved one for $616,000. Michigan Certified Development Corporation states on its own site that it has projects in over 90% of Michigan counties, has helped over 1,000 small businesses since its 1982 founding and has contributed over $551 million to the Michigan economy.

Two SBA sources say the same thing about Michigan's year, and the study cites both. SBA's Congressional District Approvals Report for the fiscal year end, summed across the 14 districts, puts fiscal year 2025 at 2,481 7(a) loans and $982.0 million and fiscal year 2024 at 2,715 loans and $971.1 million; the FOIA release cut by project state gives the same counts and $981,863,500 and $971,126,500, the small dollar difference being changes between the September 30, 2025 report date and the June 30, 2026 release date. The Lender Activity Report's Michigan rows sum to the same 2,481 loans, and its ranking of The Huntington National Bank first at 1,060 loans and $197.8 million against the release's 1,080 and $206,749,300 is the same lender with nine months of additional approvals recorded. A Michigan lender reading the study sees its own numbers in it.

The state-specific SBA notices of the last two fiscal years are agricultural. SBA activated its Economic Injury Disaster Loan program for drought under declaration 24-260 on August 9, 2024, naming Barry, Ionia and Midland counties as primary and Allegan, Bay, Calhoun, Clare, Clinton, Eaton, Gladwin, Gratiot, Isabella, Kalamazoo, Kent, Montcalm and Saginaw as adjacent, with loans up to $2 million at 4% for small businesses and 3.25% for private nonprofits and a filing deadline of March 31, 2025; a second drought declaration covered 41 northern Lower Peninsula and Upper Peninsula counties with a September 26, 2024 deadline, and a third covered Alger, Cheboygan, Chippewa, Emmet, Luce, Mackinac and Schoolcraft for drought and excessive heat between May 10 and October 16, 2023. A rural lodging, campground or agritourism file in one of those counties carries a working-capital history the lender will ask the study to read.

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 Michigan, 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, Michigan's 30,987 disbursed 7(a) loans for $10,518,830,600 resolved 19,888 with a 5.7 percent charge-off rate, and its 2,614 disbursed 504 loans for $1,556,541,000 resolved 1,173 at 1.9 percent. Hotels and motels resolved 229 of 362 7(a) loans at 1.3 percent and 43 of 94 504 loans with none charged off; self-storage resolved 41 of 67 7(a) loans with none charged off; assisted living and continuing care resolved 52 of 104 at 1.9 percent; car washes, a larger class in Michigan than in most states at 164 7(a) loans for $115,539,800, resolved 104 at 3.8 percent; gas stations and convenience stores resolved 104 of 176 at 2.9 percent; restaurants, the largest count at 2,050 loans, resolved 1,122 at 5.3 percent; and fitness and recreational sports centers, 402 loans, resolved 246 at 8.9 percent, the weakest class in the table. 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's Michigan Rural Development State Office sits at 3001 Coolidge Rd., Suite 200, East Lansing, under State Director Dom Restuccia, and works the state through eight area offices: Gladstone at 2003 Minneapolis Ave. and Sault Ste. Marie at 2847 Ashmun in the Upper Peninsula, Traverse City at 1501 Cass St., Suite A, West Branch at 543 Progress St., Caro at 1075 Cleaver Rd., Grand Rapids at 3200 Eagle Park Dr., Suite 100 B, Mason co-located with the state office in East Lansing, and Flint at 1525 North Elms Rd. Two Upper Peninsula offices out of eight is the agency's own statement that the peninsula is a year-round market for its programs.

The Business and Industry program's Michigan page states the terms a lender models for loans approved in fiscal year 2026: an 85% guarantee for loans under $5 million and 80% at or above that line, a 3% initial guarantee fee, a 0.55% annual retention fee on the outstanding balance and terms of up to 40 years, on a project in a rural area not in a city or town with a population of more than 50,000 inhabitants, which puts Detroit and Grand Rapids out and most of the state in. The program's recent Michigan record is hospitality: on August 5, 2026 the agency announced a $15,360,000 guarantee to Bay City Hospitality Group LLC to acquire the six-story, 150-room Doubletree Hotel in Bay City after the property's foreclosure, supporting 127 jobs with the borrower contributing $3,865,240, and on September 10, 2026 a $9.125 million guarantee financing Birch Run SM Hospitality LLC's purchase of a 99-room Holiday Inn Express in Birch Run, on a total project cost of $11.407 million with the borrower contributing $2.282 million. Both are the kind of file a Michigan hotel study is written for: an acquisition of a flagged, mid-market property in a town under the 50,000 line, guaranteed at the program's terms.

Michigan's Rural Development volume by program, by place of performance, from the USASpending.gov data the Treasury publishes under the DATA Act: eight Business and Industry guarantees in fiscal year 2025 with a guaranteed loan face value of $13,435,850, against nine in fiscal year 2024 for $55,986,400; 81 Rural Energy for America Program awards obligating $22,605,073 in fiscal year 2025, against 145 awards and $39,246,753 in fiscal year 2024; 29 Community Facilities awards obligating $12,339,633 in fiscal year 2025, against 19 and $9,167,992 the year before; and 22 Water and Waste Disposal awards obligating $14,531,591 in fiscal year 2025. The Community Facilities awards the East Lansing office announced in the summer of 2026 show the program's Michigan grain: $2 million to the Mason County Road Commission for a 32,000-square-foot salt and chemical storage facility on July 29, $765,000 to the City of Rockwood in southern Wayne County for a replacement fire engine on July 22 on a total cost of $867,925, and $300,000 to Friends of the Hubbard Lake Center in Alpena County and $225,000 to Central Montcalm Public Schools on August 27, alongside a $2.6 million Water and Waste Disposal award to Harbor Beach on September 3.

Michigan's economic development authority is the Michigan Strategic Fund, created by the Michigan Strategic Fund Act, Act 270 of 1984, MCL 125.2001 to 125.2094, and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation administers its programs. Two of them reach a commercial real estate borrower directly. The Michigan Business Development Program under Chapter 8A, MCL 125.2088r, supports a project with a performance-based grant, direct loan or other assistance of not more than $10,000,000 against a commitment of Qualified New Jobs, 50 at the standard tier or 25 in a county of 90,000 or fewer residents, with a required commitment from the local municipality. The Michigan Community Revitalization Program under Chapter 8C, MCL 125.2090a, provides gap financing for property that is a facility, a historic resource, blighted or functionally obsolete, at up to 25 percent of the eligible investment and not more than $10,000,000 for any project, rising to 50 percent of eligible investment in a city, village or township of 15,000 or fewer residents, with no grant component above $1,500,000. Brownfield Tax Increment Financing runs alongside them: a local Brownfield Redevelopment Authority plan, with Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy approval for environmental activities and Michigan Strategic Fund approval for the rest, captures the incremental property tax on a facility as MCL 324.20101 defines it, a historic resource or blighted or functionally obsolete property to reimburse demolition, abatement and site preparation, with a capture period of not more than 30 years ending no later than 35 years after approval and the Fund supporting up to 5 percent simple interest and a 15 percent contingency.

The state's loan programs are funded by its State Small Business Credit Initiative allocation of $236,990,950. The first tranche, announced in August 2022, put $72 million into the Collateral Support Program, the Loan Participation Program, the Loan Guarantee Program and the Capital Access Program and $75 million into the Small Business Venture Capital Program; the Fund approved up to $22 million for two venture funds in March 2024, and on January 23, 2025 the state announced $79,383,856 more, including $5.2 million for the SSBCI Technical Assistance Program and a $9.1 million grant launching the Michigan Auto Supplier Transition Program. Under the Capital Access Program a lender may enrol a new loan of up to $5 million to a for-profit business of no more than 500 employees, but not a refinancing and not the unguaranteed portion of an SBA-guaranteed loan; the March 5, 2025 fact sheet lists 13 participating institutions, among them Commercial Bank, County National Bank, First Merchants Bank, Highpoint Community Bank, Horizon Bank, Independent Bank, Isabella Bank, Lake Osceola State Bank, Northland Area Credit Union, Shelby State Bank, Sidney State Bank, Upper Peninsula State Bank and West Shore Bank. Under the Loan Guarantee Program the Corporation guarantees up to 80 percent of each enrolled loan of $250,000 or less, with its exposure capped at 25 percent of enrolled loans and a 1 percent origination fee, for businesses of fewer than 250 employees, and the eligible uses include the purchase, construction, renovation or tenant improvement of a place of business that is not a passive real estate investment.

Michigan does not issue a licence called assisted living. A facility marketed that way is licensed by the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Bureau of Community and Health Systems, under one of two regimes: a home for the aged, defined at MCL 333.20106 of the Public Health Code, Act 368 of 1978, as a supervised personal care facility that provides room, board and supervised personal care to 21 or more unrelated, nontransient individuals 55 years of age or older, or an adult foster care facility under the Adult Foster Care Facility Licensing Act, MCL 400.701 to 400.737, for 1 to 20 residents in family, small group, medium group and large group classes. Michigan's certificate of need program, administered by the Department of Health and Human Services under Part 222 of the Public Health Code, MCL 333.22201 and following, governs nursing home and hospital long-term-care unit beds under its CON-217 review standards and does not reach a home for the aged or an adult foster care licence, so a Michigan assisted living or memory care study carries a LARA licensing sequence and no certificate of need risk.

Michigan has no general hotel operating licence. The state gates a hotel through the Michigan Liquor Control Commission's A-Hotel and B-Hotel licence classes where it serves alcohol, and through a food service establishment licence under the Michigan Food Law, Act 92 of 2000, where it serves more than a continental breakfast. The taxes are the operating question: the Use Tax Act imposes a 6 percent tax on rooms furnished to transient guests for less than a continuous month at MCL 205.93 and MCL 205.93a; a county may impose an accommodations excise tax of not more than 5 percent under Act 263 of 1974, MCL 141.861 to 141.867; a convention or tourism bureau may assess up to 2 percent of the room rate, and up to 4 percent in certain townships, on transient facilities of 10 or more rooms under the Community Convention or Tourism Marketing Act, Act 395 of 1980, MCL 141.871 to 141.880; and in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties the State Convention Facility Development Act, 1985 PA 106, MCL 207.621 to 207.640, adds an excise tax on convention hotel rooms of 1.5 percent to 6 percent by room count and location under MCL 207.624.

Car washes are gated by two water programs of the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy rather than a licence. A facility with the capacity to withdraw 100,000 gallons per day or more, a combined pump capacity of 70 gallons per minute, is a large quantity withdrawal that must pass the Water Withdrawal Assessment Tool and register under Part 327 of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, 1994 PA 451, and a wash that discharges to the ground rather than to a municipal sewer needs a groundwater discharge permit under Part 31 and the Part 22 Groundwater Quality Rules, issued for not more than five years. RV parks and campgrounds are licensed as campgrounds under Part 125 of the Public Health Code, MCL 333.12501 and following, administered by the department's Drinking Water and Environmental Health Division: a licence for five or more sites or recreational units, a construction permit before a new campground is built, and an annual inspection.

A Michigan 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 the Capital Access Program's exclusion of the unguaranteed portion of an SBA loan and the Loan Guarantee Program's $250,000 ceiling, so the state stack is claimed only where it applies. For a Business and Industry or Community Facilities file the East Lansing office reviews, it wants the rural-area determination at the address, the 85% or 80% guarantee stated with its 3% fee, and a market study to the standard in 7 CFR Part 5001. For every Michigan file it wants the state layer set out above in the lender's own vocabulary: the LARA licence class and the absence of a certificate of need, the use tax and the county and bureau lodging taxes the operation collects, the withdrawal registration or discharge permit a car wash carries, the campground licence and construction permit, the Proposal A taxable value the parcel will carry after the sale uncaps it, and the permit clock the city's own page states. A study that carries each of those with the source named in the sentence is the study a Michigan underwriter can lift into the memo without a second round.

A bankable Michigan feasibility study is built around the five conditions that make this state different, not the checklist every state study shares: an automotive headquarters cluster, a Great Lakes shoreline longer than any neighboring state's, a property tax that resets on sale, a city-scale land bank still working through its own inventory, and a single lock system the region's steel supply depends on. Each leads the study before the licensing and permitting detail every state page also carries.

First, the Detroit Three research core. General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Stellantis all keep a Michigan headquarters, at Detroit, Dearborn and Auburn Hills, and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation states that the state carries over 60 percent of U.S. automotive R&D spending and counts 26 original equipment manufacturers with a headquarters or technology center here. An industrial or workforce multifamily study near Detroit, Dearborn, Auburn Hills, Lansing or Marshall has to model demand against the automotive supply chain's own cycle, because a production pause or a supplier shakeout at one of the three moves vacancy and absorption faster than population or employment trend lines suggest.

Second, the Great Lakes shoreline. Michigan carries 3,224 statute miles of Great Lakes shoreline by the NOAA Office for Coastal Management's count, about four times Wisconsin's 820 miles, ten times Ohio's 312 and more than seventy times Indiana's 45, and Travel Michigan reported $54.8 billion in 2024 tourism economic impact from 131.2 million visitors who spent $30.7 billion in the state. A hotel, RV park and campground, or marina study anywhere on the Lake Michigan, Lake Huron or Lake Superior shore has to size its demand base on freshwater coastline recreation at a scale no bordering state can match, with occupancy seasonality, the length of the boating and camping season, and the competitive set all moving on the state's coastline capacity rather than a generic Midwest leisure assumption.

Third, Proposal A uncapping. The Michigan Legislature's Michigan Compiled Laws 211.27a caps a parcel's Taxable Value from one year to the next at the lesser of the rate of inflation or 5 percent, and uncaps it to match the State Equalized Value only in the year after a transfer of ownership, producing a foreseeable, one-time jump in the tax bill the year after a sale. In Detroit, that reset lands on a combined commercial millage of approximately $88 per $1,000 of Taxable Value. A Michigan acquisition pro forma has to model Year 1 property tax against the post-sale, uncapped Taxable Value rather than the seller's trailing bill, because using the seller's number overstates Year 1 net operating income and understates the debt service coverage ratio the lender will actually see.

Fourth, the Detroit Land Bank. The Detroit Land Bank Authority's own inventory currently totals 63,566 structures and vacant lots, 4,527 structures and 59,039 vacant parcels held in the city's own hands. An adaptive reuse, assemblage or infill project in Detroit is as likely to be sourced from the land bank's own inventory as from a private seller, which changes the acquisition process to a land bank purchase agreement and deed restrictions rather than a conventional purchase and sale, and strengthens the case for stacking Brownfield Tax Increment Financing or Michigan Community Revitalization Program gap financing into the capital stack, because the property's prior vacancy is itself the qualifying condition for those programs.

Fifth, the Soo Locks chokepoint. The Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie, in the Upper Peninsula, are the only lock system connecting Lake Superior to the lower Great Lakes, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office states that iron ore made up 50 percent of about 78 million tons of domestic Great Lakes traffic in 2016. An industrial or steel-adjacent project's lender carries the system's larger Poe Lock, which has no full backup for its size class, as a named single-point supply risk underwritten with a stress case or a reserve, because an unplanned closure would ripple into the steel and automotive production the Detroit Three research core depends on.

A Michigan 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 Michigan District Office and, for a USDA file, the area office among the eight. The site and market area section places the parcel in its county, its city and its millage, states the rural-area determination where USDA is the program, 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, Travel Michigan for visitors and spending, the Federal Aviation Administration for the Detroit airport's enplanements, 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 licence class, the certificate of need position, the use and lodging taxes, the withdrawal or discharge permit and the campground permit with the statute cited. 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 uncapped Taxable Value and the parcel's millage, and the construction cost line checked against the Department of Treasury's $286 per square foot Detroit-Warren-Flint parameter or its $270 out-state parameter. The risk section names what could move the numbers, the lender concentration, the drought declarations, the seasonal shoreline market, the Bay City foreclosure history that preceded the state's largest recent B&I guarantee, 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.

Michigan counted 10,127,884 residents on July 1, 2025 by the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimates, an increase of 27,922 in a year, and the components tell a lender where the growth comes from: net international migration added 30,706, net domestic migration added 1,796, and natural change was negative, so essentially all of the state's growth arrived from abroad. A Michigan demand case that leans on population growth is thin; one that leans on the visitor economy, the health sector and the replacement of an ageing stock is not.

The labor market is large and flat. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Michigan Economy at a Glance table reports total nonfarm employment of 4,498.4 thousand for July 2026, seasonally adjusted, an unemployment rate of 4.9 percent, leisure and hospitality employment of 432.7 thousand, up 0.3 percent over the year, and education and health services employment of 741.2 thousand, up 0.8 percent, the health-linked sector growing at nearly three times the hospitality rate.

Tourism is the demand engine. Travel Michigan, the state's tourism office within the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, reported 131.2 million visitors in calendar 2024 who spent $30.7 billion in the state, up 4.9 percent from $29.3 billion in 2023, for a total economic impact of $54.8 billion, 351,292 jobs supported and $3.6 billion in state and local tax revenue. Detroit Metro Wayne County airport enplaned 16,110,696 passengers in calendar 2024 by the Federal Aviation Administration's ranking, 20th nationally, up 4.76 percent from 15,378,601 in 2023, and the state's 3,224 statute miles of Great Lakes shoreline by NOAA's measure are the reason the hotel, campground, marina and short-term rental files run north from Traverse City to the Straits and along both Upper Peninsula coasts.

Southeast Michigan carries the state's commercial pipeline and its highest costs. The Department of Treasury's school construction parameters put the Detroit-Warren-Flint combined statistical area, Washtenaw, Lapeer, Livingston, Macomb, Oakland, St. Clair, Wayne, Genesee and Monroe counties, at $286 per square foot against $270 for the rest of the state, the state's own statement of the Detroit cost premium. The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments' high-frequency dashboard recorded 8,848 building permits across its seven-county region on a trailing twelve-month basis as of September 2025. Detroit's own commercial guidance states the 50 percent assessment ratio and the combined commercial millage of approximately $88 per $1,000 of Taxable Value that an acquisition uncaps into, and its Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department states a plan review of one to three business days for average jobs through its electronic ePLANS system, with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department's 2025-26 schedule setting a $2,000 stop box replacement and a $45 water turn on or off for commercial service. In Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties a convention hotel also collects the State Convention Facility Development Act excise of 1.5 percent to 6 percent under MCL 207.624 on top of the 6 percent use tax and the county's accommodations tax of up to 5 percent, and the study models that stack against the 16,110,696 enplanements that feed it. Oakland County Business Finance Corporation, with 15 504 approvals for $12,670,000 in fiscal year 2025, is the CDC the region's owner-occupied files most often carry.

Three of the state's thesis conditions bite hardest here. General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Stellantis keep their Michigan headquarters at Detroit, Dearborn and Auburn Hills, anchoring the over 60 percent of U.S. automotive R&D spending the state carries. Proposal A uncapping resets Taxable Value to the State Equalized Value the year after a sale, landing on the $88 per $1,000 millage named above. The Detroit Land Bank Authority's 63,566 structures and vacant lots make a land bank purchase as likely a source as a private seller.

North of a line from Muskegon to Bay City, Michigan is a rural and seasonal market that USDA and SBA both work through dedicated offices: the Traverse City, West Branch, Caro, Gladstone and Sault Ste. Marie area offices, and the SBA's drought declarations of 2024 that named 41 northern Lower Peninsula and Upper Peninsula counties in one notice and Alger, Cheboygan, Chippewa, Emmet, Luce, Mackinac and Schoolcraft in another. The Community Facilities awards of 2026 went: Mason County's $2 million salt storage facility, Hubbard Lake's $300,000 community center and Montcalm's $225,000 school renovation. County Business Patterns' 221 RV parks and campgrounds and 28 7(a) marina loans for $18,012,900 on the FOIA release are concentrated here, under the Part 125 campground licence and the 6 percent use tax on transient stays, and the study for any of them is written to a season, not a year.

Two of the state's thesis conditions bite hardest here too. Michigan's 3,224 miles of Great Lakes shoreline, about four times Wisconsin's, carries the $54.8 billion tourism impact Travel Michigan reported for 2024, sizing demand on coastline recreation no neighbor matches. The Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie, the only lock connecting Lake Superior to the lower Great Lakes, carried 50 percent of about 78 million tons of 2016 Great Lakes iron ore traffic, a supply chain risk an industrial study here carries by name.

Grand Rapids is the state's second commercial market and its most active 504 market: Great Lakes Commercial Finance of Grandville led the state's CDCs by dollars in fiscal year 2025 with 58 loans for $61,463,000, Independent Bank of Grand Rapids is the largest Michigan-headquartered 7(a) lender by dollars, and the SBA's virtual office serves the west from Kent County. The city's own Development Center states that most commercial reviews take five business days and that a project needing Planning Commission or board approval adds roughly 2 months, on the state's $270 per square foot out-state cost parameter. Ann Arbor's pipeline is institutional: the University of Michigan's Board of Regents communications describe a $250 million U-M Center for Innovation and a $190 million Lorch Hall Renovation and Addition, the demand base for the lodging, food service and medical office files around the campus. The Grand Rapids Area Office of USDA Rural Development at 3200 Eagle Park Dr. works the B&I and Community Facilities files west of the 50,000 line, in Muskegon, Allegan, Ottawa's smaller cities and the lakeshore towns.

The counties between the Detroit suburbs and the northern forests are where Michigan's three federal channels meet on one map. Genesee, Lapeer and St. Clair sit inside the Detroit-Warren-Flint combined statistical area and its $286 per square foot cost parameter; the Flint Area Office at 1525 North Elms Rd. and the Caro Area Office at 1075 Cleaver Rd. work the Business and Industry and Community Facilities files for the Thumb and the Saginaw Bay shore; and the Bay City Doubletree guarantee of $15,360,000 and the Birch Run Holiday Inn Express guarantee of $9.125 million, the state's two most recent B&I hotel files, both sit in this corridor under the 50,000 line. The SBA's 2024 drought declaration named Midland as a primary county and Bay, Gladwin, Gratiot, Isabella and Saginaw as adjacent, with working-capital loans up to $2 million at 4% for small businesses, so a Frankenmuth lodging file, a Bay City marina or a Huron County campground carries an agricultural-economy history the lender will read. The Michigan Certified Development Corporation's East Lansing base and its projects in over 90% of Michigan counties make it the CDC the corridor's owner-occupied 504 files most often carry, and a study here is written to the same home for the aged, use tax and campground rules as the rest of the state, on a county millage rather than Detroit's.

Census County Business Patterns for 2023, the latest year published, counts 1,431 hotels and motels in Michigan (NAICS 721110), 882 assisted living facilities for the elderly (623312), 668 car washes (811192), 312 self-storage operators (531130), 221 RV parks and campgrounds (721211) and 119 continuing care retirement communities (623311). Read against the SBA record above, three classes stand out. Hotels pair the largest establishment count with 362 7(a) loans for $675,063,400 at a 1.3 percent charge-off rate and 94 504 loans with none charged off, a $30.7 billion visitor economy growing 4.9 percent and an airport growing 4.76 percent, and the two most recent B&I guarantees in the state. Assisted living pairs 882 establishments with a 1.9 percent charge-off rate on 52 resolved loans, a health-linked sector at 741.2 thousand jobs growing 0.8 percent, and a licensing regime with no certificate of need. Self-storage is the smallest class by count at 312 establishments and the cleanest by record, 41 resolved 7(a) loans with none charged off and 61 504 loans for $41,363,000, in a state whose population grew by 27,922 and whose growth is immigrant-led. Car washes are a larger Michigan class than in most states, 668 establishments and 164 7(a) loans for $115,539,800, with a 3.8 percent charge-off rate on 104 resolved loans that a saturation test has to answer. RV parks are the seasonal class, 221 establishments and 39 7(a) loans, written to the shoreline and the campground licence rather than to an SBA cohort that is too small to read.

Beyond the classes above, MMCG produces SBA, USDA and conventional-grade feasibility studies for the full range of commercial property types financed in Michigan. Restaurants are the largest count in the table, 2,050 7(a) loans for $741,308,800, and resolved 1,122 at 5.3 percent, which is why a Michigan restaurant study is written to a saturation test rather than a traffic count. Gas stations and convenience stores, 176 loans for $155,742,300 at 2.9 percent, follow Interstate 75, Interstate 94, Interstate 96 and US-131. Fitness and recreational sports centers, 402 loans for $126,857,800 at 8.9 percent, carry the weakest record in the table and the most demanding study. Child day care services, 264 loans for $130,866,400 at 3.5 percent, follow the suburban counties of Oakland, Macomb, Kent and Ottawa. Industrial and logistics files follow the Detroit-Warren-Flint cost premium and the auto supply chain the Michigan Auto Supplier Transition Program was funded to steady; medical office files follow the 741.2 thousand education and health services jobs; retail and multifamily files follow the Community Revitalization Program's brownfield and obsolete-property gap financing; glamping and short-term rental files carry the same use tax and campground or lodging rules as a hotel or an RV park; marinas on the Great Lakes and the inland lakes, 28 7(a) loans for $18,012,900, are written to the shoreline and the season; and Community Facilities Program files for nonprofit and public borrowers are written to the East Lansing office's standard, on the pattern of the 29 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 Michigan 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 Michigan credit committees expect: the Michigan District Office's roster and the state's own FOIA cohort by asset class, the 50,000-inhabitant rural-area test and the East Lansing office's 85% and 80% guarantee terms, the Strategic Fund and SSBCI stack, the home for the aged or adult foster care licence with no certificate of need, the use, accommodations, bureau and convention facility taxes on a lodging property, the withdrawal and discharge permits on a car wash, the Part 125 campground licence, Proposal A's taxable value uncapping and the parcel's millage, and the permit clock Detroit and Grand Rapids state on their own pages. Sponsor inquiries that involve a brownfield plan, a home for the aged licence or an acquisition out of foreclosure 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 area 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 Michigan 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 Michigan cities and counties served:

Southeast Michigan: Detroit, Dearborn, Livonia, Southfield, Troy, Novi, Farmington Hills, Pontiac, Rochester Hills, Auburn Hills, Warren, Sterling Heights, Macomb, Clinton Township, Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Monroe, Flint, Grand Blanc, Lapeer, Port Huron, Howell, Brighton, Rockwood.

West and central Michigan: Grand Rapids, Grandville, Wyoming, Kentwood, Holland, Muskegon, Grand Haven, Kalamazoo, Portage, Battle Creek, St. Joseph, Benton Harbor, Niles, Lansing, East Lansing, Jackson, Mount Pleasant, Midland, Saginaw, Bay City, Birch Run, Frankenmuth, Caro, Mason, Ionia, Big Rapids.

Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula: Traverse City, Petoskey, Charlevoix, Cadillac, Gaylord, Alpena, West Branch, Houghton Lake, Ludington, Manistee, Mackinaw City, St. Ignace, Sault Ste. Marie, Marquette, Escanaba, Gladstone, Iron Mountain, Houghton, Ironwood, Menominee.

Counties: Alcona, Alger, Allegan, Alpena, Antrim, Arenac, Baraga, Barry, Bay, Benzie, Berrien, Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Chippewa, Clare, Clinton, Crawford, Delta, Dickinson, Eaton, Emmet, Genesee, Gladwin, Gogebic, Grand Traverse, Gratiot, Hillsdale, Houghton, Huron, Ingham, Ionia, Iosco, Iron, Isabella, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Kalkaska, Kent, Keweenaw, Lake, Lapeer, Leelanau, Lenawee, Livingston, Luce, Mackinac, Macomb, Manistee, Marquette, Mason, Mecosta, Menominee, Midland, Missaukee, Monroe, Montcalm, Montmorency, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oakland, Oceana, Ogemaw, Ontonagon, Osceola, Oscoda, Otsego, Ottawa, Presque Isle, Roscommon, Saginaw, St. Clair, St. Joseph, Sanilac, Schoolcraft, Shiawassee, Tuscola, Van Buren, Washtenaw, Wayne, Wexford.