STATE GUIDE
Independent third-party feasibility studies for SBA 7(a) and SBA 504 projects across New Jersey, prepared to SOP 50 10 8 standards for lenders, CDCs, and SBA review.
#10
National rank, SBA dollar volume
$1.11B
New Jersey 7(a) dollars, calendar 2025
2,520
Businesses financed, calendar 2025
12,188
New Jersey 7(a) loans since fiscal 2020
$5.73B
New Jersey 7(a) dollars since fiscal 2020
133
Active SBA lenders in the state
1,900+
Gas stations under the attendant mandate
$10M
Combined 7(a) and 504 cap from July 4, 2026
New Jersey is the tenth-largest SBA market in the country, with roughly $25.8 million in weekly loan proceeds per the SBA's own late 2025 analysis. Calendar 2025 brought $1.11 billion in 7(a) lending to 2,520 businesses at an average of about $439,000, served by 133 active lenders, and since fiscal 2020 the state has accumulated 12,188 7(a) loans for $5.73 billion at an average near $470,000.
The named program record spans the state's economy: the Child's Play Challenge Courses recreation operation in Scotch Plains, Frontline Corporation's logistics and distribution business financed through a Regional Business Assistance Corporation 504, and Clifton outerwear manufacturer Better Team USA, recognized in the SBA's 2026 success stories. UCEDC has lent more than $800 million across its history, TD Bank leads the lender table, and Fort Lee-based Cross River Bank carries the NJEDA Premier Lender designation.
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 all 21 New Jersey counties through the district office at Two Gateway Center, Suite 1002, in Newark, led by District Director John M. Blackstock.
Between FY2010 and FY2026, SBA lenders approved and disbursed 24,117 7(a) and 504 loans across all industries in New Jersey, totaling $11.42 billion at an average of $474,000 per loan. 95.3% were 7(a) loans, the remainder 504. 4,643 loans have been approved since FY2024.
Among the 16,081 seasoned loans in New Jersey (approvals FY2010–FY2021), 10.4% 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 trucking and logistics.
| Asset class | Loans FY2010–FY2026 | Approved volume | Average loan | Seasoned adverse rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurant | 2,538 | $1.35 billion | $533,000 | 10.5% |
| Manufacturing | 1,261 | $949.7 million | $753,000 | 9.2% |
| Trucking and logistics | 1,000 | $269.8 million | $270,000 | 22.0% |
| Medical or dental practice | 626 | $325.4 million | $520,000 | 3.8% |
| Liquor store | 580 | $516.5 million | $890,000 | 3.0% |
| Childcare center | 492 | $397.5 million | $808,000 | 4.6% |
| Fitness center | 481 | $259.2 million | $539,000 | 12.1% |
| Hotel | 264 | $551.4 million | $2.1 million | 6.9% |
| Gas station and c-store | 220 | $101.3 million | $460,000 | 4.7% |
| Event venue | 164 | $53.9 million | $328,000 | – |
| Laundromat | 141 | $69.7 million | $494,000 | 5.3% |
| Car wash | 132 | $124.1 million | $940,000 | 5.3% |
| Brewery, distillery, or winery | 99 | $53.9 million | $544,000 | 5.3% |
| Veterinary clinic | 99 | $116.5 million | $1.2 million | 2.6% |
| Assisted living | 24 | $30.3 million | $1.3 million | – |
| Self-storage | 22 | $34.6 million | $1.6 million | – |
| Marina or boat storage | 14 | $21.1 million | $1.5 million | – |
| RV park | 0 | $0 | $0 | – |
– 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.
With 24,117 disbursed SBA loans and $11.42 billion in approved financing, New Jersey gives credit committees a genuine local comparison set, and a rigorous third-party feasibility study is the report that anchors the projection and coverage case. On program structure, working-capital and acquisition deals typically anchor on 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 New Jersey charged off at 8.34 percent by count and 3.20 percent by dollar, against national baselines of 6.44 and 2.92 percent. See the full 50-state analysis.
INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT
New Jersey is the last state in America where pumping your own gas is illegal. After Oregon repealed its ban in August 2023, New Jersey's Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act, enacted in 1949 and codified at N.J.S.A. 34:3A-1, stands alone, sustaining more than 1,900 stations and roughly 10,000 attendant jobs. The state fuel retailers association puts the attendant labor premium at around 12 cents per gallon, a structural cost line that exists nowhere else in the country.
For feasibility work the implication is direct: a New Jersey gas station or convenience store study cannot run on national benchmarks. Fuel margin math diverges by a fixed labor wedge, inside sales and food service carry proportionally more of the model, and the SOP's special-purpose requirements, the study, the industry-experienced going-concern appraiser, and Phase I environmental work, sit on top. The same high-cost logic generalizes across the state's operating classes, from restaurants to childcare, which is precisely why projection-based New Jersey deals reward independent analysis.
1
States with a full-service fuel mandate
1949
Year the statute was enacted
1,900+
New Jersey gas stations
12¢
Attendant labor premium per gallon
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 all 21 New Jersey counties through the district office at Two Gateway Center, Suite 1002, in Newark, led by District Director John M. Blackstock, who oversees roughly $1.3 billion in annual lending. UCEDC, with more than $800 million lent across its history and 504 partnerships reaching $20 million in project size, Regional Business Assistance Corporation, and multi-state lender Pursuit anchor the CDC field, supported by the NJSBDC network.
SBA lending has no geographic eligibility test, so New Jersey feasibility work follows three economies: the North Jersey core of Hudson, Bergen, and Essex counties adjacent to New York, where Jersey City hotels ran roughly 80 percent occupancy at a $260 average daily rate in 2025; the port logistics corridor around Newark and Elizabeth, the busiest container complex on the East Coast; and the Shore, where hotels, marinas, and seasonal businesses run on compressed summer demand curves that credible studies must model monthly.
TD Bank led New Jersey SBA lending as of the April 2025 ranking with 412 loans for $65.4 million at an average of $158,754, followed by Northeast Bank and M&T, with state-headquartered institutions including Fort Lee-based Cross River Bank, an NJEDA Premier Lender that has funded more than 16,000 New Jersey businesses and posts the largest average ticket in the state, First Bank, and Peapack Private. The oversight climate has a local dimension: ReadyCap, one of the ten lenders USDA revoked from its own guaranteed programs in May 2026, is headquartered in Berkeley Heights, and a June 2026 Senate letter asked the SBA to review the revoked lenders' records, with Celtic Bank also active in-state; no SBA action has been announced against any of them, and the practical step is to confirm any lender's current preferred status and recent program activity before committing a deal to it.
UCEDC has lent more than $800 million across its history with direct loans from $500,000 to $5 million and 504 partnerships reaching $20 million in project size, Regional Business Assistance Corporation runs an active in-state 504 book, and Pursuit lends across New Jersey from its multi-state platform. 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, so structuring the 7(a) first preserves the most capacity. New Jersey stacking: the NJEDA Premier Lender Program layers participations and guarantees onto bank loans, the state's $255 million SSBCI allocation funds six NJEDA programs including the $100 million NJ Capital Access Fund with working capital loans to $250,000, and C-PACE is available for energy components.
Lenders and Certified Development Companies in New Jersey 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 New Jersey 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 New Jersey study. Lenders and CDCs can start at for lenders or the CDC compliance guide.
About the firm and the analyst signing New Jersey 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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