Feasibility Study Consultant in San Antonio, TX: SBA and USDA

A feasibility study in San Antonio is read by a lender or a Certified Development Company before anyone else reads it, and it has to answer the questions that institution asks of a metro whose energy and water do not behave like the national average. Metro San Antonio, the San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area, holds 2,763,006 residents on the Census Bureau's 2024 estimate across eight counties, 2,127,737 of them in Bexar County, 201,628 in Comal County and 195,166 in Guadalupe County. Its electricity and natural gas come from a utility the city owns, part of its water is drawn from the Edwards Aquifer under a permit system, and its retail water inside the city comes from a utility whose board is the mayor and six council appointees. A San Antonio feasibility study that imports a template built for investor-owned utilities and rule-of-capture groundwater misses each of those, and an underwriter will notice. MMCG Invest, LLC is a feasibility study company in San Antonio serving borrowers, SBA 7(a) lenders, 504 CDCs, USDA Rural Development guaranteed lenders and conventional banks across Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Medina, Wilson, Atascosa, Kendall and Bandera counties. The San Antonio work covers ten of the asset classes the firm studies nationally, and each report is written so the lender's credit committee, the CDC's underwriter and, where the address qualifies, the USDA state office can read the same document. The market side rests on primary sources only: the two utilities' own published statements, the Edwards Aquifer Authority's description of its permitting system, the federal rural definition at 7 U.S.C. 1991, the Census Bureau and the SBA's own 7(a) and 504 FOIA release, from which the San Antonio lending record on this page is computed by county membership. Fees start at $4,900. Standard delivery runs 9 to 16 business days, a rush track is available at 5 business days, and every intake request receives a response within 12 business hours.

The San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX metro is home to about 2,763,006 residents per the U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates, led by Bexar County at 2,127,737; Comal County at 201,628; Guadalupe County at 195,166; Medina County at 55,619.

Energy from a city-owned combined electric and gas utility. CPS Energy states that it was established in 1860, that it is the nation's largest public power, natural gas and electric company, and that it provides energy to more than 996,000 electric and 399,000 natural gas customers in San Antonio and portions of seven adjoining counties. For a feasibility study the combination is what matters. A single municipally owned counterparty supplies both fuels, so a hotel running gas laundry and kitchen equipment, a car wash with gas-fired water heating or a restaurant on a gas line negotiates one connection process and one rate structure rather than two, and both are set by a city-owned enterprise rather than in a state rate case. In the model this changes the utility expense line and the pre-opening schedule: the energy cost basis is a published municipal tariff, and the service-upgrade timing sits with the same city that reviews the site plan. MMCG states the tariff basis and the connection assumption so the reader can check them against CPS Energy's own schedule rather than a national utility default.

Groundwater under a permit cap administered by the Edwards Aquifer Authority. The Edwards Aquifer Authority states that 2.5 million Texans, including farmers, cities and businesses, share this water source through a carefully maintained permitting system, and that water rights permits help control and track the total amount of water being withdrawn from the aquifer so that over-pumping which could deplete the aquifer or damage dependent springs and rivers is prevented. A project whose viability depends on water volume, and a car wash is the clearest case among MMCG's asset classes, has to establish whether its supply comes from the Edwards Aquifer under that permitting system before the demand model means anything, because the authority's jurisdiction follows the aquifer rather than the metro boundary and several of the metro's outer counties draw on other formations. Where the site draws on a municipal connection the study states which utility supplies it and whether that supply is Edwards water under permit; where it relies on its own well, the study states which formation it draws on and whether a permit governs it. A drought-stage restriction is an operating risk that belongs in the sensitivity analysis rather than in a footnote, and the report runs it there.

Retail water delivered by a city-owned utility governed by the city's own board. The San Antonio Water System states that it is governed by a Board of Trustees consisting of San Antonio's mayor and six members appointed by City Council. Taken with the aquifer's permit cap, this gives the metro an unusual water profile: the resource is allocated by a regional authority and delivered by a municipal utility answering to the city government. For a project the practical effect is that the connection, the capacity question and the rate all sit with a body accountable to the same council that approves the site, so timing risk and political risk are correlated here in a way a national template does not model. MMCG's San Antonio reports state the service provider at the address, the capacity finding the study relied on and the rate basis, and where a project sits outside the city system the report says which utility serves it instead.

An SBA 504 feasibility study in the San Antonio metro is written for two readers at once: the Certified Development Company that packages the debenture and the third-party lender that holds the first lien. Both underwrite under SBA SOP 50 10 8, and whether a study is required on a given file is their call; when one is requested, MMCG writes it to that standard. A 7(a) study follows the same discipline for a single lender, with the three San Antonio variables carried through: the CPS Energy tariff behind the utility line, the Edwards Aquifer permit question behind any water-dependent use, and the San Antonio Water System finding at the address. Texas property tax and the absence of a state income tax are statewide matters treated on the Texas feasibility study page rather than here. 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 of September 30, 2025, and the San Antonio cut below is the metro's share of that activity.

The San Antonio metro record is computed from the SBA's 7(a) and 504 FOIA release, labelled as of June 30, 2026, by summing the eight member counties of the San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area, never from an SBA district total. In fiscal year 2025 the metro recorded 502 7(a) approvals for $289,408,900 and 17 504 approvals for $20,057,000. The most active 7(a) lenders in the metro in fiscal 2025 by approval count were The Huntington National Bank (53 loans), Northeast Bank (53), Newtek Bank, National Association (40), Zions Bank (25), Readycap Lending, LLC (24), Live Oak Banking Company (20 loans for $25,738,000, the largest dollar total among the lenders named), JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association (18) and PlainsCapital Bank (18). On the 504 side, Capital Certified Development Corporation approved 9 loans for $12,952,000 and LiftFund, Inc. 4 loans for $2,764,000, with four further CDCs at one loan each. Across fiscal years 2010 to 2026 disbursed, the ten asset classes in this record account for 714 7(a) loans for $756,160,500 and 137 504 loans for $152,355,000 in the metro. The method behind the computation and the full asset-class table sit in the San Antonio feasibility market research post.

USDA Business and Industry and Community Facilities credit runs on a statutory geography, not 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 with a population of greater than 50,000 inhabitants and any urbanized area contiguous and adjacent to such a city or town, and the USDA Rural Development eligibility map is the authoritative test for any address. The San Antonio urbanized core is therefore out. What remains in this metro is the outer parts of the eight member counties, beyond the urbanized area that runs with San Antonio and New Braunfels. Because the test turns on the subject address and the urbanized-area boundary around it rather than on the name of the town, MMCG verifies eligibility at the address on the USDA map at intake, before any work on the study begins, and no town is named on this page as eligible on a model's say-so.

When the address qualifies, the study is written to the standard USDA Rural Development and its guaranteed lenders apply under 7 CFR Part 5001. The water questions weigh more on a rural-fringe site, not less: a project outside the San Antonio Water System's service area may depend on a different utility or on its own well, and if it draws on the Edwards Aquifer the permit that authorises the withdrawal is the first document the study asks for.

A hotel feasibility study San Antonio lenders can underwrite starts from the metro's own SBA record. Across fiscal years 2010 to 2026 disbursed, hotels and motels in the San Antonio MSA drew 117 SBA 7(a) loans for $290,158,200 with a 0.0 percent charge-off rate, the largest 7(a) dollar total among the ten asset classes in this record, and 30 SBA 504 loans for $56,258,000, the largest 504 count of the ten. Against that lending history the study sets the San Antonio variables that shape a hotel pro forma. Energy for guest rooms, laundry and food service comes from one city-owned counterparty, CPS Energy, on both the electric and the gas side, so the utility line is built from a municipal tariff and a single connection process. Water for laundry, pools and landscaping may be Edwards water under the authority's permit system or come from another formation, depending on the address, so the report states the provider, the source, the capacity finding and the drought-stage exposure, and runs the last of these in the sensitivity analysis. The report then documents demand and competitive supply for the specific site and flag, projects the operating statement and tests debt-service coverage in the format an SBA lender, a CDC or a conventional bank expects.

These are the points a San Antonio underwriter checks first, and each one traces to a utility's own statement, the aquifer authority's published rule or the SBA's own file rather than to a market report.

An engagement begins with three things: the project address, the asset class and the name of the lender or CDC contact who will read the report. At intake the address is checked for its electric, gas and water providers; for whether a water-dependent use draws on the Edwards Aquifer under permit; and against the USDA Rural Development eligibility map under 7 U.S.C. 1991. MMCG sends a first response within 12 business hours. Fees start at $4,900. Standard delivery runs 9 to 16 business days from engagement, and a rush track at 5 business days is available when a loan committee date or a purchase contract deadline requires it.

The report is formatted for SBA, CDC, USDA and conventional submission in one document, with a sources list that lets an underwriter check every figure against the statement, statute or SBA FOIA file it came from. The draft goes to the lender or CDC contact named at intake so that questions are answered before the credit memo is written, and the final report is prepared under USPAP and written to SBA SOP 50 10 8 for 7(a) and 504 files and to 7 CFR Part 5001 for USDA files. Where a 7(a) lender and a CDC read the same 504 file, one report serves both.

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 San Antonio and its eight-county metro 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 USPAP, written to SBA SOP 50 10 8 for 7(a) and 504 files and to 7 CFR Part 5001 for USDA files, and built on primary sources named in each report: utility governance statements, the Edwards Aquifer Authority's permitting rule, federal statute, Census Bureau records and the SBA's 7(a) and 504 FOIA release, from which every metro lending figure is computed in-house by county membership. Every figure on this page traces to one of those sources, and each report names its sources the same way.