STATE GUIDE
Independent third-party feasibility studies for SBA 7(a) and SBA 504 projects across Maryland, prepared to SOP 50 10 8 standards for lenders, CDCs, and SBA review.
#25
National rank, weekly SBA proceeds
$496.9M
Maryland 7(a) dollars, calendar 2025
1,376
7(a) loans, calendar 2025
$361K
Average Maryland 7(a) loan, calendar 2025
110
Active SBA lenders in the state
$33.0M
Baltimore SBA lending, calendar 2025
11,000+ mi
Chesapeake Bay shoreline, MD and VA
$10M
Combined 7(a) and 504 cap from July 4, 2026
Maryland closed calendar 2025 with $496.9 million in 7(a) lending across 1,376 loans, a high-count, small-ticket market: the $361,000 average is the lowest in its batch and the 10.75 percent average rate the highest, shaped by 110 active lenders and one dominant small-loan originator. Baltimore led the published city tables at $33 million across 119 loans averaging $278,000, with Frederick adding 48 loans for $30 million on the I-270 technology corridor.
The lender table tells the story: M&T Bank wrote 570 of the state's loans for $70.1 million, a high-volume, small-dollar engine that pulls the statewide average down and the rate up, while Live Oak at $25.5 million and Huntington at $24.6 million carry the larger tickets. The CDC field is anchored by two of the mid-Atlantic's most experienced 504 lenders: Bethesda-based Chesapeake Business Finance Corporation, whose president helped architect the original 504 program, and Fairfax-based Business Finance Group, which also lends across Maryland from a Gambrills office; their named record reaches the Hyatt Place Ocean City hotel project.
Under SOP 50 10 8, special-purpose properties such as hotels, car washes, gas stations, self-storage, RV parks, and marinas normally require a third-party feasibility study, and projection-based deals carry the same expectation. The SBA serves Baltimore City and most Maryland counties through the Baltimore district office at 100 South Charles Street; Montgomery and Prince George's counties fall under the Washington Metropolitan Area District Office, a split any Capital-region deal team should know.
Maryland saw 12,222 SBA-disbursed 7(a) and 504 loans across all industries between FY2010 and FY2026, worth $4.87 billion at an average ticket of $399,000. 7(a) carried 95.3% of the loan count; 504 covered the balance. 2,337 approvals have landed since FY2024.
Among the 8,395 seasoned loans in Maryland (approvals FY2010–FY2021), 9.2% reached adverse resolution — purchased, liquidated, or charged off — compared with 7.3% nationally. That performance runs above the national all-industry benchmark, which lenders weigh in underwriting. The state's most active SBA asset classes by loan count are restaurant, manufacturing, and medical or dental practice.
| Asset class | Loans FY2010–FY2026 | Approved volume | Average loan | Seasoned adverse rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurant | 1,150 | $473.3 million | $412,000 | 11.6% |
| Manufacturing | 517 | $238.9 million | $462,000 | 8.3% |
| Medical or dental practice | 387 | $166.2 million | $429,000 | 6.6% |
| Trucking and logistics | 320 | $99.5 million | $311,000 | 15.0% |
| Liquor store | 277 | $185.0 million | $668,000 | 3.9% |
| Childcare center | 214 | $178.8 million | $836,000 | 4.9% |
| Fitness center | 211 | $82.3 million | $390,000 | 12.8% |
| Hotel | 132 | $346.7 million | $2.6 million | 4.9% |
| Gas station and c-store | 91 | $40.4 million | $444,000 | 8.8% |
| Event venue | 81 | $16.6 million | $205,000 | – |
| Brewery, distillery, or winery | 66 | $25.4 million | $385,000 | 14.5% |
| Veterinary clinic | 62 | $50.9 million | $822,000 | 0.0% |
| Car wash | 49 | $56.9 million | $1.2 million | 2.4% |
| Laundromat | 46 | $39.2 million | $852,000 | 2.8% |
| Assisted living | 44 | $33.3 million | $756,000 | 9.7% |
| Marina or boat storage | 10 | $11.0 million | $1.1 million | – |
| Self-storage | 10 | $16.7 million | $1.7 million | – |
| RV park | 1 | $2.3 million | $2.3 million | – |
– State-level rate not published where the seasoned cohort is under 30 loans; national benchmarks apply. Details in our data methodology.
Source: SBA 7(a) and 504 FOIA loan-level data, as of March 31, 2026. Disbursed loans only.
Maryland's 12,222 disbursed SBA loans and $4.87 billion in approved capital give lenders here a deep track record to underwrite against — which means projections in a feasibility study are read against a real local comp set, not a national average alone. For structuring, most owner-occupied real estate deals will map to SBA 7(a), while owner-occupied real estate and heavy equipment typically fit SBA 504. A rigorous third-party feasibility study is what turns those local numbers into a defensible credit narrative for the lender's underwriter and credit committee.
State loss experience
Mature-cohort SBA 7(a) loans in Maryland charged off at 7.09 percent by count and 3.94 percent by dollar, against national baselines of 6.44 and 2.92 percent. See the full 50-state analysis.
INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT
Maryland runs the highest-volume, smallest-ticket SBA book in its batch, and one lender explains most of it: M&T Bank wrote 570 of the state's calendar 2025 loans for $70.1 million, an average near $123,000, a small-loan engine that pulls the statewide average down to $361,000 and helps push the average rate to 10.75 percent, the highest in the batch. For a feasibility analyst the signal is clear: most Maryland SBA credit is small and fast, so the deals that carry a third-party study, the hotels, marinas, and self-storage projects, stand apart as the larger, projection-driven exceptions that the SOP routes to independent analysis.
The other half of the Maryland story is the water. The Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the country with more than 11,000 miles of shoreline across Maryland and Virginia, anchors a boating economy that state records have counted in the hundreds of marinas and tens of thousands of wet slips, and 504 Capital's published record reaches it through anonymized marina and boat dealer projects. From the Ocean City oceanfront, where a $26 million Hyatt Place ran through Chesapeake Business Finance, to the Annapolis sailing capital, hotel and marina projects are where Maryland feasibility work concentrates.
570
M&T Maryland loans, calendar 2025
$70.1M
M&T Maryland dollars, calendar 2025
$361K
Statewide average loan, calendar 2025
11,000+ mi
Chesapeake Bay shoreline
NAICS NAICS 7211 family
NAICS 721211
NAICS NAICS 7225 family
NAICS No dedicated NAICS; 812990 proxy segment
NAICS 811192
NAICS NAICS 447 and 457 families
NAICS 531130
NAICS 624410
NAICS NAICS 6233 family
NAICS NAICS 6211, 6212
NAICS 541940
NAICS 713940
NAICS 812310
NAICS NAICS 445310, 445320
NAICS NAICS 484, 4885, 4931 families
NAICS 31-33
NAICS 3121
NAICS 713930
The SBA serves Baltimore City and most Maryland counties through the Baltimore district office at 100 South Charles Street, Suite 1201; Montgomery and Prince George's counties report to the Washington Metropolitan Area District Office. Bethesda-based Chesapeake Business Finance Corporation, whose president helped write the original 504 program and which counts roughly 300 approved 504 loans for $300 million in SBA financing and $750 million in total project value across its history, and Fairfax-based Business Finance Group, the mid-Atlantic's leading CDC with a Gambrills, Maryland office, anchor the 504 field, with Mid-Atlantic Business Finance Company and 504 Capital Corporation also active and a Mid-Atlantic Veterans Business Outreach Center at the University of Maryland.
SBA lending has no geographic eligibility test, so Maryland feasibility work follows five economies: the Baltimore metro, the port, healthcare, and Johns Hopkins anchor where calendar 2025 lending ran $33 million across 119 loans; the Washington suburbs of Montgomery and Prince George's, a federal and professional services market served by a separate SBA district; Frederick on the I-270 life sciences corridor; the Eastern Shore and Ocean City, where tourism, seafood, and marinas run on seasonal curves; and Annapolis, the Chesapeake sailing capital. The I-95 corridor and the Port of Baltimore tie the freight economy together.
M&T Bank dominates Maryland by count, writing 570 calendar 2025 loans for $70.1 million on a small-dollar model that shapes the entire state average, followed by Newtek, Live Oak at $25.5 million on the table's larger tickets and lowest major-lender rate near 8.96 percent, Huntington, and Northeast Bank at 124 loans, with Harvest Small Business Finance and regional names filling the table. The oversight climate is more prominent here than in most states: Celtic Bank, eighth in the state at $16.2 million across 31 loans, and ReadyCap, eleventh at $13.5 million across 52 loans and carrying a 12.08 percent rate, were both among the ten lenders USDA revoked from its own guaranteed programs in May 2026, and a June 2026 Senate letter asked the SBA to review the revoked lenders' records; no SBA action has been announced against either, and the practical step is to confirm any lender's current preferred status and recent program activity before committing a deal to it.
Chesapeake Business Finance Corporation, headquartered in Bethesda under a president who helped architect the original 504 program and a founder of the national CDC association, has approved roughly 300 504 loans for $300 million in SBA financing and $750 million in total project value supporting more than 5,000 jobs across its history, serving Maryland, DC, southern Delaware, Northern Virginia, and eastern West Virginia. Fairfax-based Business Finance Group, the mid-Atlantic's leading CDC with more than 2,800 businesses financed for $3.2 billion across its history, lends into Maryland from a Gambrills office, with Mid-Atlantic Business Finance Company and 504 Capital Corporation rounding out the field. The CDC underwrites the debenture, addresses special-purpose status in its credit memorandum, and carries the package through SBA processing.
For loans in fiscal 2026 under SOP 50 10 8, effective June 1, 2025 and amended March 1, 2026: 7(a) loans run to $5 million with an 85 percent guaranty up to $150,000 and 75 percent above, statutory fees restored, and a 0.55 percent annual service fee, with fees waived for small manufacturers on loans up to $950,000. 504 debentures run to $5 million, or $5.5 million for manufacturers and energy projects, on the 50/40/10 structure, with manufacturer fees waived and other 504 loans at a 0.50 percent upfront fee and 0.209 percent annual fee. Equity injection follows the 10/15/20 ladder, and from July 4, 2026 eligible borrowers can combine programs for up to $10 million under Policy Notice 5000-879058, with sequencing that matters: a 7(a) balance no longer reduces 504 capacity, but 504 balances still count against 7(a) room. Maryland stacking is unusually deep: the state's SSBCI allocation of up to $198 million, among the first approved by Treasury, runs through three channels, the Department of Housing and Community Development's Neighborhood BusinessWorks with loan-to-lender, loan participation, and venture tracks, the Department of Commerce's MSBDFA programs for minority, women, and veteran-owned businesses, and TEDCO's equity programs, and C-PACE is available statewide for energy components.
Lenders and Certified Development Companies in Maryland do not need a business plan writer, they need an independent SBA feasibility study consultant whose conclusions survive credit committee. Our feasibility study company prepares signed, sourced studies to SOP 50 10 8 standards, with the analyst and reviewer named on the report.
Every Maryland engagement is calibrated to the program the file routes through: 7(a), 504 or Express. See when SBA requires a feasibility study, cost and turnaround, projections and DSCR testing and the methodology behind each Maryland study. Lenders and CDCs can start at for lenders or the CDC compliance guide.
About the firm and the analyst signing Maryland work: David Jones, MAI, CCIM, over 4,300 feasibility studies completed.
Fifteen-minute scoping call, written proposal inside one business day, firm fixed fee before you sign.
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