Lender-Grade SBA and USDA Feasibility Studies, Calibrated to Ohio

MMCG Invest, LLC is a feasibility study consultant that produces feasibility studies for Ohio projects where the analytical questions sit at an intersection of variables that no other Great Lakes balance sheet replicates, beginning with the Commercial Activity Tax that replaces a conventional corporate income tax with a 0.26 percent gross-receipts levy applied only above a $6 million exclusion that, as of 2025, exempts roughly 90 percent of Ohio businesses from the tax entirely and changes the entity-level analysis for most single-asset and small-portfolio operating structures from a material line item to a non-factor, while large institutional operators above the threshold must model 0.26 percent of Ohio-sourced gross receipts with no deduction for expenses, cost of goods, or interest; the individual income tax that collapsed to a flat 2.75 percent for tax year 2026 under HB 96, placing Ohio second only to Arizona among flat-tax states and creating a competitive pass-through environment offset by the municipal income taxes of 1 to 3 percent that operate as a distinct and unusual second layer in cities like Columbus at 2.5 percent; the property tax regime governed by the House Bill 920 tax reduction-factor mechanism, which freezes voted millage revenue as assessed values rise so that the effective rate diverges materially from the voted rate, taxes property at 35 percent of true value, and produced the 2024 reassessment spikes — Cuyahoga County averaged a 32 percent residential increase — that triggered the largest Ohio property tax reform package in roughly fifty years in December 2025, including the HB 186 twenty-mill-floor inflation cap and a multi-bill relief structure projected to reduce bills by billions; the data center cluster in Central Ohio that became the single largest CRE demand driver in the state through approximately $37 billion of 2024 to 2025 investment from Amazon Web Services, Google, Meta, and Microsoft alongside Intel's $28 billion Licking County semiconductor complex, and that is now colliding with a subsidy reckoning after the data center sales-and-use tax exemption cost roughly $1.57 billion in 2025 against a state projection of $136 million, prompting Governor DeWine to pause new exemption requests on May 27, 2026; the automotive and EV-battery manufacturing base anchored by Honda's Marysville, East Liberty, and Anna operations, the $4.4 billion Honda-LG battery plant in Fayette County, and the Ultium Cells complex at Lordstown, where timelines have slipped right and the EV-battery employment thesis must be haircut rather than assumed; the logistics centrality that places Columbus and the Rickenbacker Inland Port within a one-day truck drive of approximately 46 to 50 percent of the U.S. population and roughly 46 percent of U.S. manufacturing capacity; and JobsOhio, the privatized economic development corporation funded by state liquor-franchise profits rather than tax appropriations and extended through 2053, a structure that exists in no other state and that drives genuine incentive velocity on competitive deals. Every engagement is calibrated to the project address, the county effective property tax rate by class, the program of record, and the specific lender, CDC, or JobsOhio regional partner carrying the deal.

Pricing starts at $4,900 with a 50/50 fee schedule. Delivery in 9 to 16 business days. A complimentary preliminary Ohio market overview within one business day of submission.

1. Why Ohio Operates as a Distinct Underwriting Geography

Ohio closed at roughly 11.88 million residents across 88 counties, the seventh-largest state by population and the seventh-largest state economy at approximately $873 billion in nominal GDP, with manufacturing the single largest sector at roughly 15 percent of output and a top-three national manufacturing ranking. The state hosts two SBA District Offices — Columbus (serving 60 southern counties with branch coverage in Cincinnati and Dayton) and Cleveland (serving 28 northern counties) — with the USDA Rural Development Ohio State Office at 200 North High Street, Room 507, Columbus administering Business and Industry Guaranteed Loans, REAP, Community Facilities, and ReConnect across the rural-eligible counties. JobsOhio and its six regional partners administer the state incentive network, and the Ohio Housing Finance Agency administers state Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and multifamily bond financing.

Five Ohio-specific variables redefine every Ohio deal and require state-specific calibration that no national template captures. Ohio is the gross-receipts-tax, flat-income-tax, data-center, advanced-manufacturing, and logistics-centrality anchor of the Great Lakes, and it sits inside a property tax mechanism and a privatized economic development structure that exist in no other state in identical form.

First, the Commercial Activity Tax and the flat individual income tax. Ohio levies no traditional corporate income tax. The Commercial Activity Tax is a gross-receipts tax at 0.26 percent applied only to taxable gross receipts above a $6 million exclusion that rose from $1 million to $3 million in 2024 and to $6 million in 2025 under HB 33, a reform that the Ohio Senate Finance Committee projected would exempt nearly 90 percent of Ohio businesses from the tax by 2025 and that eliminated the annual minimum tax. For most single-asset and small-portfolio CRE operating entities, the CAT is now a non-factor that requires no filing; for large institutional operators above $6 million, the model must apply 0.26 percent to Ohio-sourced gross receipts with no deduction for expenses, cost of goods, or interest, a structurally different calculation than a net-income tax. The individual income tax collapsed to a flat 2.75 percent on nonbusiness income above $26,050 for tax year 2026 under HB 96, with business income taxed at a flat 3 percent after the $250,000 Business Income Deduction. For any Ohio deal, the entity structure determines the tax analysis, and the municipal income taxes of 1 to 3 percent that apply in most Ohio cities are a distinct layer modeled separately from the state rate.

Second, the House Bill 920 property tax reduction-factor mechanism. This is the defining and most frequently misunderstood Ohio underwriting variable. Property is taxed on 35 percent of true value, and all voted millage is subject to HB 920 tax reduction factors that hold revenue roughly constant as values rise, so that the effective rate diverges materially below the voted rate, with separate reduction factors applied to the residential and agricultural class and to the commercial and industrial class. The critical leak in the mechanism is that school districts at the twenty-mill floor — a majority of Ohio districts — are exempt from reduction-factor rollback and capture unvoted increases as values rise, which is the mechanism behind the 2023 and 2024 bill spikes that saw Cuyahoga County's reappraisal average a 32 percent residential increase. The Ohio General Assembly responded in December 2025 with the largest property tax reform package in roughly fifty years, including the HB 186 twenty-mill-floor inflation cap and a multi-bill relief structure projected to reduce bills by billions over three years. For any Ohio commercial or multifamily feasibility study, MMCG models the county effective rate by property class rather than the voted millage, flags any twenty-mill-floor school district, stresses the next sexennial reappraisal cycle, and re-baselines tax projections to post-reform effective rates rather than the 2023 and 2024 spike levels. An out-of-state lender that annualizes a single-year voted-millage tax bill on an Ohio deal will misprice stabilized NOI on the tax line.

Third, the data center cluster and the 2026 exemption pause. Central Ohio became the dominant CRE demand driver in the state through approximately $37 billion of 2024 to 2025 data center investment — Amazon Web Services at roughly $23.8 billion, Google at roughly $7.2 billion, Meta at roughly $4 billion, plus Microsoft — concentrated in the New Albany International Business Park in Licking County alongside Intel's $28 billion Ohio One semiconductor complex. The data center sales-and-use tax exemption, available to projects with at least $100 million of capital investment over three years and at least $1.5 million of annual payroll, anchored this cluster but cost roughly $1.57 billion in 2025 against a state projection of $136 million, and on May 27, 2026 Governor DeWine directed the Ohio Tax Credit Authority to pause consideration of any new data center exemption requests while the legislature's Joint Data Center Committee studies the growth, with a Republican veto-override to repeal the exemption outright still pending. For any Central Ohio industrial, land, or power-adjacent feasibility study, MMCG does not assume the data center sales tax exemption for new projects until the pause and the pending override are resolved, and the substantial construction-phase and operational demand the cluster generates in Franklin, Licking, and the surrounding counties is modeled at the submarket level with explicit reference to the policy uncertainty rather than extrapolated as a permanent structural input.

Fourth, the advanced manufacturing base and its slipping timelines. Ohio's automotive and EV-battery manufacturing economy is anchored by Honda's Marysville, East Liberty, and Anna engine operations, the $4.4 billion Honda-LG battery plant in Fayette County (2,200 jobs, production targeted 2026, with LG selling its joint-venture stake to Honda), and the Ultium Cells complex at Lordstown, where a WARN notice cut 1,334 hourly workers effective January 5, 2026 on slower-than-expected EV adoption. Intel's first Licking County fab has slipped from 2025 to a 2030 to 2031 window. For any Ohio feasibility study premised on automotive or semiconductor supplier-cascade demand, MMCG haircuts absorption and timing assumptions to the disclosed construction and hiring schedules rather than the original announcement timelines, treats the Intel supplier-cascade thesis as durable but not imminent, and avoids over-leveraging Mahoning Valley EV employment in any Trumbull or Mahoning County pro forma.

Fifth, logistics centrality and the JobsOhio incentive structure. Columbus and the Rickenbacker Inland Port sit within a one-day truck drive of approximately 46 to 50 percent of the U.S. population and roughly 46 percent of U.S. manufacturing capacity, with Foreign Trade Zone 138 ranking as the nation's top FTZ for imported textiles and footwear, CSX and Norfolk Southern intermodal connectivity, the Heartland Corridor double-stack rail line to the Virginia ports, and the I-70, I-71, I-75, and Ohio Turnpike grid. JobsOhio, the privatized economic development corporation funded by the profits of the state liquor franchise rather than tax appropriations and extended through 2053, operates a speed-of-business model through six regional partners — Columbus 2020, Team NEO in Cleveland, REDI Cincinnati, the Dayton Development Coalition, the Regional Growth Partnership in Toledo, and the Appalachian Partnership — that drives genuine incentive velocity on competitive deals and exists in no other state. For any Ohio industrial, logistics, or large mixed-use feasibility study, MMCG models the logistics-centrality demand thesis against verified submarket supply and quantifies the JobsOhio, CRA, and TIF incentive stack at intake rather than assuming it.

2. Ohio Capital Markets at a Glance

Ohio operates two SBA District Offices. The Columbus district covers 60 southern counties with branch coverage in Cincinnati and Dayton, and the Cleveland district covers 28 northern counties. The dominant Ohio SBA 7(a) lender is Huntington Bancshares, headquartered in Columbus, which has been the nation's largest originator of SBA 7(a) loans by volume for seven consecutive fiscal years, surpassing $1.5 billion in 7(a) originations and supporting more than 7,500 small businesses in FY2024 alone, and which provided roughly 71 percent of the Northern Ohio district's 7(a) volume in a recent fiscal year. The broader Ohio lender stack includes KeyBank (Cleveland headquarters), Fifth Third Bancorp (Cincinnati headquarters), First Financial Bank, Park National Bank, WesBanco, Peoples Bank, and Civista. The lead Ohio CDC for 504 lending is Growth Capital Corp in Cleveland — Ohio's highest-volume 504 CDC for roughly a decade with more than $550 million provided — alongside Ohio Statewide Development Corporation in Columbus (which also administers the Ohio 166 Regional Loan program), Stark Development Board Finance Corporation, the CDC of Greater Cincinnati, and West Central Partnership.

The USDA Rural Development Ohio State Office is led by State Director Charles Tassell, appointed in 2025 under Secretary Brooke Rollins, operating from Columbus through area offices in Findlay, Hillsboro, Marietta, and Massillon. The office administers Business and Industry guarantees, REAP, Community Facilities, ReConnect, and the Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant program, with a recent flagship award of a $16.4 million B&I guarantee to Stewart Glass LLC in Hocking County to produce solar glass. Under the Rollins USDA posture, B&I, REAP, and Community Facilities for rural-aligned production and infrastructure projects are prioritized, and Appalachian Ohio's rural-eligible geography — paired with the state Appalachian Community Grant program — produces one of the more active Community Facilities pipelines in the Great Lakes.

The Ohio incentive architecture is distinctive in two respects that govern feasibility modeling. The Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) program can abate up to 100 percent of the property tax on improvements for up to 15 years, with 30-year megaproject CRAs available for $1 billion-plus projects under HB 96, and CRA abatements stack with Tax Increment Financing under ORC 5709 and with JobsOhio cash grants to form the core Ohio incentive structure. JobsOhio adds the Growth Fund and the Ohio Enterprise Bond Fund; the state adds the Job Creation Tax Credit, the Ohio Opportunity Zone credit (with the cap raised to $50 million for FY2026 and FY2027), the Transformational Mixed-Use Development tax credit (capped at $125 million, now sellable and usable against income or financial institution tax, for projects meeting the 15-story or 350,000-square-foot thresholds), and the Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit (capped at $75 million). For any Ohio ground-up urban or industrial deal, MMCG treats the CRA and TIF stack as the base case and quantifies the full incentive schedule rather than asserting it.

Ohio is not a right-to-work state, having never enacted right-to-work legislation, which raises union and prevailing-wage construction costs on the Ohio side of its borders relative to right-to-work neighbors Indiana and Kentucky. For any ground-up Ohio feasibility study near those borders, MMCG models the construction-cost differential explicitly rather than treating it as a qualitative factor.

3. Columbus MSA Deep Dive

The Columbus MSA contains roughly 2.23 million residents and is the fastest-growing major metro in the Midwest, expanding at approximately 1.38 percent per year — ahead of Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Cleveland — with roughly 70 percent of that growth driven by international migration, and the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission projects approximately 3.0 to 3.15 million Central Ohio residents by 2050, requiring roughly 282,000 new housing units. The corporate base includes Ohio State University (one of the largest single-campus universities in the country at roughly 47,000 students and employees), OhioHealth, JPMorgan Chase (the largest private employer in the metro), Nationwide Insurance (headquarters), Cardinal Health (Dublin headquarters), Huntington Bancshares (headquarters), Honda, and Intel's semiconductor complex under construction in Licking County.

Columbus industrial closed 2025 as one of the hottest markets in the country, with overall vacancy of approximately 6.1 percent and net absorption approaching 11 million square feet — the strongest since the pandemic — driven by third-party logistics, hyperscale data centers, and solar manufacturers, with asking NNN rents of roughly $6.86 per square foot and modern-bulk vacancy in the Licking submarket tightening to roughly 2.3 percent by mid-2025. Speculative starts have been limited relative to absorption, supporting continued rent growth. For any Columbus industrial feasibility study, MMCG models the one-day-drive demand thesis against verified submarket supply in the Licking, southeast Columbus, and West Jefferson corridors and treats the data center and Intel-adjacent demand with explicit reference to the May 2026 exemption pause and the slipped Intel timeline.

Columbus office closed 2025 at approximately 20 to 23 percent vacancy depending on the inventory basis, with downtown soft and Class A favored in a continuing flight to quality, though Columbus shows stronger underlying employment momentum than Cleveland. Columbus multifamily closed 2025 at approximately 10.6 percent vacancy — a record high driven by heavy deliveries — even as the metro remains a top national growth market, and MMCG models a measured lease-up timeline on 2024 to 2026 vintage product against the elevated supply pipeline while reflecting the durable long-term demand from the population growth trajectory and the Intel and data center construction workforce. The Columbus hotel market is anchored by Ohio State, the convention and sports demand base, and the data center and semiconductor construction-phase lodging demand in the New Albany and Licking County corridor, which MMCG models explicitly rather than as organic ADR growth.

4. Cleveland MSA Deep Dive

The Cleveland-Elyria MSA contains roughly 2.06 million residents, anchored by the largest healthcare enterprise in Ohio and one of the largest in the country. The Cleveland Clinic directly and indirectly supported $28.19 billion of Ohio economic activity in 2023, sustaining 140,547 Ohio jobs representing approximately $12.22 billion of annual labor income and $1.85 billion of state and local taxes, employing roughly 82,600 worldwide. University Hospitals and MetroHealth add further institutional anchors. The broader corporate base includes Progressive Insurance (Mayfield headquarters), Sherwin-Williams (which is consolidating into a new downtown headquarters campus of roughly $750 million), KeyCorp, Parker Hannifin, Eaton, Lincoln Electric, and Goodyear in nearby Akron. NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland-Cliffs steel, and the Port of Cleveland on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway round out the economic base.

Cleveland industrial closed 2025 at approximately 5.2 to 5.8 percent vacancy — the highest year-end level since 2017 — with more than 2.7 million square feet of negative absorption in 2025, the most in over two decades, tied substantially to the JoAnn and Big Lots distress, and asking rents of roughly $5.97 per square foot. Demand has skewed decisively to smaller manufacturers, with more than 90 percent of new leases under 25,000 square feet. For any Cleveland industrialstudy, MMCG underwrites big-box product conservatively and models small-tenant manufacturing demand as the durable segment. Cleveland office closed 2025 at approximately 22.7 percent vacancy against a loan-maturity wall and multiple downtown receiverships, and Cleveland is a regional leader in office-to-residential conversion — the Erieview Tower and the former Huntington Building among the active projects — which MMCG models with explicit reference to floor-plate geometry, mechanical risers, and conversion cost rather than as a generic adaptive-reuse assumption. Cleveland multifamily is a top-tier national cash-flow market drawing significant capital, and MMCG models the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals medical-anchor demand as the structural floor for multifamily and medical office in the eastern submarkets.

5. Cincinnati MSA Deep Dive

The Cincinnati MSA contains roughly 2.30 million residents across the Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana tristate, anchored by six Fortune 500 headquarters — Procter & Gamble, Kroger (a Fortune 20 company), Fifth Third Bancorp, American Financial Group, Cintas, and Western and Southern — alongside Cincinnati Children's Hospital, the University of Cincinnati, GE Aerospace in Evendale (jet engine manufacturing), and Total Quality Logistics. The defining tristate logistics dynamic is the Amazon Air global hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, a $1.5 billion, 800,000-square-foot facility on a 600-acre campus that opened in 2021, employs more than 2,000, and constitutes Amazon's largest global field-operations site at a top-seven U.S. cargo airport. The hub sits on the Kentucky side of the airport, so much of the associated warehouse spillover, jobs, and incentive capture accrues to Northern Kentucky, where the right-to-work and lower-cost environment competes directly with Ohio-side industrial — a cross-border dynamic MMCG models explicitly for any Hamilton, Butler, Warren, or Clermont county industrial deal.

Cincinnati industrial is a major logistics hub anchored by the CVG cargo complex and the I-71, I-74, and I-75 convergence. Cincinnati multifamily closed 2025 at approximately 8.1 percent vacancy — the highest since 2005 — with occupancy around 95.4 percent and roughly 4,600 units underway, and MMCG models the downtown and suburban submarkets separately against the corporate-headquarters and university employment base. The Cincinnati hotel market reflects the convention, sports, and corporate-headquarters demand base, with the tristate dynamic and the CVG cargo workforce modeled where relevant.

6. Dayton, Toledo, Akron, and the Mahoning Valley

Dayton is anchored by Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the largest single-site employer in Ohio at approximately 38,000 military, civilian, and contractor personnel — roughly double its 2002 workforce — generating more than $16 billion in annual economic activity and supporting more than 81,000 regional jobs across the aerospace and defense cluster. Joby Aviation agreed in early 2026 to acquire a second Dayton-area plant in Vandalia to scale eVTOL production. For any deal within the Dayton-area commute shed, MMCG models the Wright-Patterson federal employment base explicitly as a structural demand floor for multifamily, hotel, and medical office, in the same manner the firm treats other major federal installations, rather than extrapolating from census population statistics.

Toledo carries the glass-industry legacy of Owens-Illinois, Owens Corning, and Libbey, hosts the First Solar Perrysburg solar-panel manufacturing flagship, and anchors the Jeep and Stellantis Toledo Assembly complex, which under Stellantis's October 2025 $13 billion U.S. plan is slated to receive $400 million for a new mid-size pickup launching in 2028. The Port of Toledo is a leading Great Lakes port by tonnage. Akron anchors the polymer and rubber cluster — Goodyear headquarters and the University of Akron polymer science programs — with Goodyear contracting under a roughly $1 billion cost-reduction program. The Mahoning Valley around Youngstown and Warren centers on the Ultium Cells Lordstown battery complex (which cut 1,334 workers effective January 2026), the Foxconn facility, and the regional steel legacy, and MMCG underwrites Mahoning Valley EV-dependent demand with explicit reference to the disclosed hiring and recall schedules.

Appalachian Ohio in the southeast — Washington, Athens, Hocking, Belmont, Guernsey, Muskingum, and the surrounding counties — is the primary USDA Rural Development pipeline geography, anchored by the Utica and Marcellus shale oil and gas economy, the petrochemical potential of the Ohio River corridor, and the state Appalachian Community Grant program, with USDA B&I, Community Facilities, and REAP as the structurally preferred programs over SBA for rural-eligible deals.

7. Other Asset Classes MMCG Covers Across Ohio

Beyond the data center, advanced manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and corporate-headquarters anchors, MMCG produces lender-grade feasibility studies across the full range of Ohio asset classes. Self-storage demand is calibrated to the Columbus suburban growth corridors in Delaware, Licking, and Fairfield counties, the Cleveland eastern and western suburban rings, the Cincinnati tristate growth corridors, and the Dayton and Toledo regional markets. Hotel and hospitality feasibility spans the Columbus Ohio State and data center construction demand base, the Cleveland Clinic medical-visitor and downtown convention market, the Cincinnati corporate-headquarters and tristate market, the Dayton Wright-Patterson and aerospace demand base, and the Sandusky and Lake Erie Cedar Point tourism corridor. RV park and outdoor-hospitality feasibility draws on the Lake Erie shoreline and islands, the Hocking Hills outdoor-recreation corridor in Appalachian Ohio, and the Amish Country tourism base in Holmes and Wayne counties, with explicit seasonality modeling. Gas station and convenience and car wash feasibility is calibrated to the I-70, I-71, I-75, and Ohio Turnpike corridor traffic counts and the suburban growth corridors of Delaware, Warren, and Medina counties, with regional and national chain competition modeled directly. Assisted living and senior housing feasibility is matched to the Franklin, Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Montgomery, and Summit county demographic cohorts, with the dense Ohio healthcare-system infrastructure modeled as a referral and clinical-affiliation anchor. Daycare feasibility reflects the dual-income healthcare, corporate, and university household base that produces above-average childcare demand density in Franklin, Hamilton, and Delaware counties. Each asset class is benchmarked against the relevant Ohio submarket comparable set rather than national averages, with the CAT and flat income tax structure, the HB 920 effective property tax rate by class, the CRA and TIF incentive eligibility, the data center and manufacturing policy context, and the USDA rural designation all modeled directly where applicable.

8. Ten Analytical Realities That Make an Ohio Study Defensible

First, the Commercial Activity Tax exemption to $6 million means most CRE operating entities owe no business-activity tax, but large institutional operators above the threshold pay 0.26 percent of Ohio-sourced gross receipts with no deduction for expenses, cost of goods, or interest — a structurally different calculation than a corporate income tax that must be modeled to the actual entity structure.

Second, the flat 2.75 percent individual income tax for 2026, the flat 3 percent business-income rate after the $250,000 deduction, and the municipal income taxes of 1 to 3 percent are three separate layers. The municipal layer is unusual among states and is modeled separately from the state rate on every Ohio deal.

Third, the HB 920 reduction-factor mechanism means the effective property tax rate diverges materially from the voted millage, and the twenty-mill-floor school districts that capture unvoted increases are the highest-leverage tax risk on any Ohio deal. MMCG models the county effective rate by property class, flags twenty-mill-floor districts, and stresses the next reappraisal.

Fourth, the December 2025 property tax reform package changes the forward tax trajectory, and tax projections are re-baselined to post-reform effective rates rather than the 2023 and 2024 reassessment-spike levels — a distinction that materially affects stabilized NOI on long-hold underwriting.

Fifth, the data center sales tax exemption is paused for new requests as of May 27, 2026, and MMCG does not assume the exemption for any new Central Ohio project until the pause and the pending legislative veto-override are resolved, modeling the substantial cluster demand with explicit reference to the policy uncertainty.

Sixth, the Intel Licking County complex has slipped to a 2030 to 2031 first-fab window, and the supplier-cascade real estate thesis is treated as durable but not imminent, with absorption and timing assumptions haircut to the disclosed construction schedule rather than the original announcement.

Seventh, the EV-battery employment thesis must be haircut, with the Ultium Cells Lordstown layoffs of 1,334 workers effective January 2026 and the Honda-LG ownership transition modeled to the disclosed hiring and recall schedules rather than the full announced headcount.

Eighth, Ohio's logistics centrality places Columbus within a one-day truck drive of roughly half the U.S. population, a structural industrial demand driver that MMCG models against verified submarket supply rather than as an open-ended absorption assumption.

Ninth, the CRA abatement of up to 100 percent of improvement value for up to 15 years, stacked with TIF and JobsOhio cash, is the core Ohio incentive structure, and MMCG quantifies the full stack at intake because the difference between a modeled and an unmodeled stack on a ground-up deal materially changes the DSCR conclusion.

Tenth, Ohio is not a right-to-work state, and the union and prevailing-wage construction-cost premium relative to Indiana and Kentucky is a real border-arbitrage variable that MMCG quantifies in the Technical Feasibility analysis for any ground-up deal near those borders rather than noting it qualitatively.

9. How an Ohio Engagement Runs

Engagement begins with the project address, asset class, total capitalization, entity structure, sponsor experience, and the specific lender, CDC, or JobsOhio regional partner carrying the deal. MMCG confirms SBA SOP 50 10 8 applicability across the two-district Ohio geography, the USDA program of record (B&I, REAP, Community Facilities, or ReConnect) administered from the Columbus State Office under Director Charles Tassell, and the relevant Ohio state stack: the Community Reinvestment Area abatement eligibility and duration; the Tax Increment Financing structure under ORC 5709; the JobsOhio Growth Fund and Job Creation Tax Credit qualification through the relevant regional partner; the Transformational Mixed-Use Development credit for qualifying high-rise or large mixed-use projects; the Ohio Opportunity Zone and Historic Preservation credits where applicable; the data center sales tax exemption status for any qualifying project given the May 2026 pause; and the Ohio Housing Finance Agency LIHTC posture where housing is involved. A complimentary preliminary Ohio market overview is delivered within one business day of submission, before any fee is collected, and includes the entity-level CAT determination, the county effective property tax rate by class with any twenty-mill-floor flag, the CRA and TIF posture of the host jurisdiction, and the applicable USDA or SBA program fitness assessment.

The study itself is built around four analyses calibrated to the Ohio deal: an Economic Analysis (the data center and Intel demand context for any Central Ohio project; the Cleveland Clinic and healthcare-anchor demand for any Northeast Ohio medical-adjacent deal; the Wright-Patterson federal employment base for any Dayton-area deal; the logistics-centrality thesis for any industrial deal; the CAT and flat income tax structure for any sponsor return projection; and the HB 920 effective rate for any commercial or multifamily study), a Market Feasibility Analysis (parcel-level absorption, comparable performance, ADR or rent benchmarks, and competitive position across the relevant Ohio submarket), a Technical Feasibility Analysis (site, entitlement, constructability, and the non-right-to-work union construction-cost premium quantified where the border arbitrage with Indiana or Kentucky is relevant), and a Financial Feasibility Analysis (stabilized assumptions, lease-up curve, DCF through stabilization and reversion, debt service coverage at the lender-required threshold, equity injection mechanics under SOP 50 10 8, property tax modeled at the county effective rate by class with the post-December-2025-reform baseline and any twenty-mill-floor adjustment, the CAT modeled to the entity structure, and the CRA, TIF, and JobsOhio incentive schedule quantified rather than asserted). Draft delivery goes to the sponsor and the lender, CDC, or JobsOhio regional contact simultaneously, with the review cycle through final lender acceptance accommodated and no additional fees for normal-course revision rounds.

Pricing starts at $4,900 with a 50/50 fee schedule. Delivery in 9 to 16 business days. Engagement begins with the project address, the entity structure, the county effective property tax rate, the program of record, and the participating lender, CDC, or JobsOhio regional partner.

10. Adjacent State Coverage

MMCG produces feasibility studies across the states bordering Ohio, allowing multi-state sponsors and regional lenders to route an entire pipeline through a single feasibility partner. Ohio borders Indiana to the west — a right-to-work, lower-cost state along the I-70 corridor where the Cincinnati metro spills into the southeast and the construction-cost differential is a live border-arbitrage variable; Kentucky to the south across the Cincinnati tristate, where the Amazon Air global hub at CVG and most of its warehouse employment accrue to the right-to-work Kentucky side; Pennsylvania to the east along the I-80 and I-76 corridors, where the Marcellus and Utica shale economy is continuous with eastern Ohio and the Pittsburgh-Youngstown axis links the two manufacturing bases; Michigan to the north, where the automotive supply chain is continuous along the I-75 Toledo-Detroit corridor; and West Virginia to the southeast, where the Appalachian Ohio shale and petrochemical corridor crosses the Ohio River. Cross-border deals involving the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky logistics market, the Ohio-Indiana I-70 corridor, the eastern Ohio shale corridor, and the Toledo-Detroit automotive axis are calibrated to the regulatory and incentive framework on each side of the line.

11. Ohio Cities and Counties Served

MMCG produces feasibility studies in every Ohio county and municipality, including Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo, Akron, Canton, Youngstown, Springfield, Lima, Mansfield, Marion, Zanesville, Newark, Lancaster, Dublin, Westerville, Hilliard, Grove City, Parma, Lakewood, Elyria, Lorain, Mentor, Beavercreek, Kettering, Hamilton, Middletown, Mason, West Chester, Fairfield, Warren, Lordstown, New Albany, Marysville, and Jeffersonville.

The 88 Ohio counties served, by region: Franklin, Delaware, Licking, Fairfield, Pickaway, Madison, Union, Morrow, Knox, Logan, and Marion in Central Ohio; Cuyahoga, Lake, Geauga, Lorain, Medina, Summit, Portage, Stark, Wayne, Ashtabula, Trumbull, Mahoning, Columbiana, Carroll, Tuscarawas, Holmes, Ashland, and Richland in Northeast Ohio and Greater Cleveland and Akron-Canton; Lucas, Wood, Ottawa, Sandusky, Erie, Huron, Seneca, Hancock, Wyandot, Crawford, Putnam, Henry, Defiance, Williams, Fulton, Paulding, Van Wert, Allen, Hardin, Auglaize, Mercer, and Shelby in Northwest Ohio and the Toledo region; Hamilton, Butler, Warren, Clermont, Montgomery, Greene, Clark, Miami, Preble, Darke, Clinton, Highland, Brown, Champaign, and Fayette in Southwest Ohio and the Cincinnati-Dayton region; and Washington, Athens, Hocking, Perry, Morgan, Noble, Monroe, Belmont, Guernsey, Muskingum, Coshocton, Harrison, Jefferson, Gallia, Meigs, Vinton, Jackson, Lawrence, Scioto, Pike, Ross, and Adams in Southeast and Appalachian Ohio.

12. Adjacent State Coverage

MMCG is a feasibility study consultant that produces feasibility studies across the states bordering Iowa, allowing multi-state sponsors and regional lenders to route an entire pipeline through a single feasibility partner. Iowa borders Illinois to the east across the Mississippi River — the Quad Cities is a binational MSA, the Rock Island Arsenal draws Iowa-resident labor, and the Illinois right-to-work versus prevailing-wage differential is the most consequential construction cost variable in the corridor; Nebraska to the west across the Missouri River, where the Omaha–Council Bluffs MSA is a single economic geography and Iowa Business Growth Company CDCs lend into Nebraska under SBA geographic licensing; South Dakota to the northwest, where the absence of any state income tax creates a meaningful labor and owner-operator arbitrage in the Sioux City tri-state corridor; Minnesota to the north along the I-35 corridor from Albert Lea to Des Moines, where Minneapolis-based corporations with Iowa distribution networks generate cross-border feasibility demand; Missouri to the south along the I-35 Kansas City corridor and the Missouri River, where grain transport and the Kansas City protein-processing complex intersect with Iowa production agriculture; and Wisconsin to the northeast across the Mississippi River, where the Dubuque industrial corridor and shared Mississippi River barge and rail infrastructure create cross-border logistics demand. Cross-border deals involving the Omaha–Council Bluffs data center and logistics corridor, the Sioux City tri-state protein-processing belt, the Quad Cities Iowa-Illinois construction labor arbitrage, and the Minnesota-to-Iowa I-35 distribution corridor are calibrated to the regulatory and incentive framework on each side of the line.

13. Iowa Cities and Counties Served

MMCG produces feasibility studies in every Iowa county and municipality, including Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Sioux City, Iowa City, Waterloo, Council Bluffs, Ames, West Des Moines, Ankeny, Dubuque, Urbandale, Cedar Falls, Marion, Bettendorf, Waukee, Altoona, Johnston, Coralville, North Liberty, Marshalltown, Mason City, Ottumwa, Clinton, Fort Dodge, Burlington, Muscatine, Keokuk, Fort Madison, Storm Lake, Spencer, Fairfield, Oskaloosa, Decorah, and Sergeant Bluff.

The 99 Iowa counties served, by region: Polk, Dallas, Warren, Madison, Guthrie, Story, Boone, Marion, Jasper, and Marshall in Des Moines Metro and Central Iowa; Linn, Johnson, Benton, Iowa, Jones, Cedar, and Washington in the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Corridor; Scott, Muscatine, Clinton, and Louisa in the Quad Cities; Woodbury, Plymouth, Sioux, Lyon, Osceola, O'Brien, Dickinson, Cherokee, Ida, Monona, and Crawford in Sioux City and Northwest Iowa; Dubuque, Jackson, Delaware, Buchanan, Black Hawk, Bremer, Butler, Grundy, Tama, Allamakee, Clayton, Fayette, Winneshiek, Howard, Chickasaw, Floyd, Mitchell, and Worth in Northeast Iowa and the Driftless region; Lucas, Monroe, Wayne, Appanoose, Decatur, Ringgold, Clarke, Union, Adams, Adair, and Taylor in South Central Iowa; Des Moines County, Lee, Henry, Van Buren, Davis, Jefferson, Wapello, Keokuk, Mahaska, and Poweshiek in Southeast Iowa along the Mississippi corridor; and Hardin, Hamilton, Webster, Wright, Franklin, Cerro Gordo, Hancock, Winnebago, Kossuth, Palo Alto, Emmet, Clay, Buena Vista, Sac, Calhoun, Pocahontas, Humboldt, Greene, Carroll, Pottawattamie, Mills, Fremont, Page, Montgomery, Cass, Shelby, Harrison, and Audubon in Northwest Iowa, the Wind Belt, and Southwest Iowa.

About MMCG

MMCG Invest, LLC is a national commercial real estate feasibility consulting firm that operates from San Francisco and produces third-party feasibility studies for SBA 7(a), SBA 504, USDA B&I, USDA REAP, USDA Community Facilities, and conventional loan programs across more than 30 asset classes. The firm holds Appraisal Institute Practicing Affiliate credentials and has been cited by Forbes, The Washington Post, The Independent, Commercial Observer, DHL, and Placer.ai. MMCG delivers lender-grade feasibility studies with a contractual acceptance guarantee, a 50/50 fee schedule, and delivery in 9 to 16 business days. For Iowa engagements spanning the Des Moines insurance capital and data center corridor, the Quad Cities Mississippi River industrial and defense economy, the Cedar Rapids food-processing and aerospace complex, the Waterloo John Deere and protein-processing anchors, the Iowa City university and medical economy, the Council Bluffs hyperscale and logistics corridor, the Sioux City protein-processing tri-state market, and the statewide hog, ethanol, wind energy, and USDA rural pipeline, MMCG calibrates every study to the project address, the sponsor tax structure, the program of record, and the specific lender, CDC, or Iowa Economic Development Authority contact carrying the deal.

To request a proposal, email info@mmcginvest.com or book a 30-minute consultation. Pricing starts at $4,900 with a 50/50 fee schedule and delivery in 9 to 16 business days.

Michal Mohelsky, J.D., | Principal | mmcginvest.com

Contact: michal@mmcginvest.com

Phone: (628) 225-1110

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, Appendix A to Subpart D 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 days. A senior analyst responds to proposal requests within 12 business hours from the firm's San Francisco office at 27 Maiden Lane, Suite 625.