Feasibility Study Consultant in Portland, ME: SBA and USDA

A feasibility study in Portland, ME is read by a lender or a Certified Development Company before anyone else. In fiscal year 2025 this metro recorded 224 SBA 7(a) approvals for $53,364,500. One rule a lender meets here: Maine taxes rentals of lodging at a separate sales tax rate.

The Portland-South Portland, ME metro is home to about 571,534 residents per the U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates, led by Cumberland County at 313,809; York County at 220,143; Sagadahoc County at 37,582.

A national template prices this metro on its 571,534 residents and stops there. The rules below come from Maine Revenue Services, and each one changes a line of the model before a lender reads it.

Maine taxes rentals of lodging at a separate sales tax rate. Maine Revenue Services publishes a Sales and Use Tax Rates table with one row for each type of sale and four columns of effective dates. The Rentals of Lodging row reads 8%, 9%, 9% and 9% across the columns, and the last column is headed Effective 01/01/2026. The General Sales row reads 5.5% in each column. For a hotel, motel or similar lodging project in the Portland-South Portland area, the revenue model should apply the lodging rate of 9% to room rental receipts, not the 5.5% general sales rate. The table is a state rate table; the page lists one rate for each type of sale. A modeler should confirm with Maine Revenue Services whether a particular stay or rental falls under the Rentals of Lodging category before using it for an RV park or similar use.

Maine taxes prepared food at a separate sales tax rate. Maine Revenue Services publishes a Sales and Use Tax Rates table that gives Prepared Food its own row. That row reads 8% in each of the four columns, the last of which is headed Effective 01/01/2026. The General Sales row reads 5.5% in each column. For a restaurant, a convenience store with a food counter, a gas station that sells prepared food or a similar project in the Portland-South Portland area, the revenue model should apply the 8% rate to prepared food receipts and the 5.5% rate to general retail sales. A single blended rate would misstate the tax collected from customers. The table does not define what counts as prepared food, so a modeler should read the Maine Revenue Services guidance before splitting a menu or a store's sales between the two rows.

Nationally, the U.S. Small Business Administration closed fiscal year 2025 having guaranteed 84,400 7(a) and 504 loans for $44.8 billion. This page computes the Portland, ME share from the SBA's own 7(a) and 504 FOIA release, as of June 30, 2026, by member county rather than by district office: in fiscal year 2025 the metro's three counties recorded 224 SBA 7(a) approvals for $53,364,500 and 35 SBA 504 approvals for $29,734,000.

In fiscal year 2025 the 7(a) approvals here came from TD Bank, National Association (41 loans, $3,361,000), Maine Community Bank (34 loans, $10,597,900), and Bangor Savings Bank (30 loans, $6,875,100), listed by approval count with the names as the SBA released them. The 504 approvals that year went through Granite State Economic Development Corporation (27 loans) and Southern Maine Finance Agency (8 loans). The SBA's district office field reads Maine District Office on 224 of the 224 fiscal year 2025 7(a) rows, 100.0%.

Across fiscal years 2010 to 2026 disbursed, the ten asset classes tracked here account for 385 7(a) loans for $105,492,400 and 175 504 loans for $111,363,000 in this metro. In fiscal year 2025 alone those classes took 44 7(a) and 504 approvals for $22,113,600. The table sets out each class; a cell under five loans is not shown, and a charge-off rate is printed where 30 or more loans have resolved and left blank below that.

USDA Business and Industry and USDA Community Facilities credit runs on a statutory geography rather than on a county line. Under 7 U.S.C. 1991(a)(13)(A) the terms rural and rural area mean any area other than a city or town that has a population of greater than 50,000 inhabitants and any urbanized area contiguous and adjacent to such a city or town. The test turns on the subject address and the urbanized-area boundary around it, not on the name of a county or a metro. For a project in Portland, ME the address decides it. The metro spans three counties, from Cumberland County at 313,809 residents to Sagadahoc County at 37,582, and an urbanized-area boundary follows the census map rather than any county line. MMCG checks the subject address against the USDA Rural Development eligibility map at intake, before work on the study begins, and this page names no town as eligible.

A restaurant feasibility study in Portland, ME starts from the metro's own SBA record. Across fiscal years 2010 to 2026 disbursed, full and limited service restaurants account for 234 7(a) loans for $57,499,500 and 76 504 loans for $37,109,000 here, $94,608,500 in all. Hotels and motels come to $57,069,900 over the same years. On the full and limited service restaurants 7(a) loans that have resolved, the charge-off rate is 4.2%.

For a restaurant in this metro the publisher rules above are model lines rather than background: Maine taxes prepared food at a separate sales tax rate (Maine Revenue Services).

These are the points an underwriter in Portland, ME reads before the rest of the file. Each traces to a government publisher or to the SBA's own file.

MMCG starts from the project address, the asset class and the lender or Certified Development Company contact. The address settles the county and the rules set out above; the asset class sets which part of the SBA record applies.

The report names its sources the way this page does: Maine Revenue Services, the SBA FOIA release, and the Census Bureau's population estimates. The method is set out in full in MMCG's feasibility study methodology.

MMCG Invest, LLC is a feasibility study consultancy that specializes in SBA and USDA feasibility studies for lenders, Certified Development Companies, USDA Rural Development guaranteed lenders and the borrowers they serve, with Portland, ME among the markets it covers. The practice is led by Michal Mohelsky, J.D., FMVA, Practicing Affiliate of the Appraisal Institute. Reports are prepared under SBA SOP 50 10 8.1 for 7(a) and 504 files and under 7 CFR Part 5001 for USDA files, and each one states which schedule, rate and boundary it relied on so a credit officer can check the work. Pricing starts at $4,900, standard delivery runs 9 to 16 business days, a rush track delivers in 5 business days, and every inquiry receives a response within 12 business hours.