Kentucky Feasibility Studies

Kentucky has a single SBA district office, in Louisville, and its district takes in all 120 counties ⁷⁷. Community Trust Bank, based in Pikeville, was named Kentucky's top SBA community bank lender for FY2025, the 17th consecutive year, with 60 7(a) loans totalling $12,596,200 and 3 projects under 504 totalling $17,477,879 ²³; the bank's own release calls the honour SBA's Gold Lender Award ⁵³. The Lane Report article that carried the award put SBA loans disbursed in Kentucky that year, across 7(a), 504 and other programs, at over $312 million, a record by its account ²³. The Paintsville Herald's figure of 819 loans worth more than $234 million counts 7(a), 504 and microloan approvals, in a year the outlet labels FY2024 ²⁴.

In SBA's loan-level files, Kentucky projects drew $205.5 million of 504 debentures approved in fiscal years 2016 to 2025, net of cancellations, the SBA and CDC share alone rather than the whole project; 7(a) loans approved in the same years, net of cancellations, number 4,169 and carry $1,718.0 million, counted at the full loan amount ²⁶.

SBA may require a feasibility study under 13 CFR 120.160(b): SBA may require professional appraisals, a survey, or a feasibility study ⁵. SBA's program tests, under SOP 50 10 8.1 with Technical Policy Updates, effective October 1, 2026 ⁶, are worked through on our SBA 7(a) and 504 practice page.

KEDFA's loan participation and collateral support

Kentucky's design for the second round of the federal State Small Business Credit Initiative included a Loan Participation Program, in which the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority buys up to 20% of a loan, a Collateral Support Program and venture capital through Keyhorse Capital, as KLC City Limit reported in February 2023 ⁸². The cabinet announced the $117 million award on February 27, 2023, for deployment in three phases over 10 years, with KY Innovation, inside the cabinet, as administrator ²⁵. Its incentives page lists three credit enhancement programs under the Kentucky Small Business Credit Initiative name, aimed at loans just outside standard underwriting, and a separate Direct Loan Program of the authority, below-market fixed-asset loans for agribusiness, tourism, industrial and service projects, subject to the revolving fund's availability ²⁷.

For assisted living, the 2020 to 2024 five-year American Community Survey estimate counts 784,676 Kentuckians aged 65 and over ²². The statute separates the three licences by what each may offer: the community licence provides no basic health services, the basic health care licence runs no secured unit, and a secured dementia unit may not operate without the dementia care licence ³⁰. An older federal compendium, from 2007, defines an assisted living community as a series of living units for five or more unrelated adults, with units of at least 200 square feet subject to exceptions; the research marks that definition to be checked against the current statute ⁹⁹. For child care, Type I staff ratios are set by age band: 1:5 for infants with a maximum group of 10, 1:6 for toddlers with 12, 1:10 at two to three years with 20, 1:12 at three to four with 24, 1:14 at four to five with 28 and 1:15 at five to seven with 30; for older school-age children the ratio is 1:20 over a full day, in groups of up to 30, and 1:25 before and after school ³¹.

Kentucky's Certificate of Need statute reaches health facilities, services and major medical equipment, and a capital expenditure above an approved certificate needs an administrative escalation or a new certificate; the expenditure minimums are adjusted each year ⁸. The Certificate of Need repeals Tennessee has scheduled are set out on our Tennessee page.

For fuel sites, the rest of the environmental assurance fee, $0.010 per gallon, goes to the petroleum storage tank account, and the fund reimburses corrective action ¹⁵. The tank branch still publishes claims agendas, and on July 9, 2025 it issued a notice on reimbursing water used during a tank closure ¹⁵.

Beside the $7.25 minimum in the table, Kentucky's tipped minimum wage is $2.13 an hour ³⁴.

FEMA's Kentucky page records 13 counties in the first designation and 24 added on May 15, 2025, 37 in all ¹². Hardin and McCracken, the counties of the Elizabethtown and Paducah sections, are among the primary counties in SBA's loan notice ¹⁴.

Landslides on the February 2025 declaration

DR-4860 covered landslides and mudslides as well as flooding ¹¹. For a parcel in one of its 16 individual assistance counties, listed under hazards, the check asks whether the parcel or its access slid in the February 2025 event.

Short-term rentals in residential zones

A rental-tax guide reports that Louisville requires annual registration for short-term rentals and a conditional use permit for non-owner-occupied ones in residential zones ⁴⁹. The same publisher's Fayette County guide reports that hosted and unhosted rentals are allowed, that unhosted ones in residential zones need a conditional use permit, and that both need a zoning permit and a business licence, with a $200 annual Special Fees License ⁵⁴. Both guides are secondary sources.

A package store against the county quota

In a wet county without a first-class city, KRS 241.066 allows no more than 1 quota retail package licence per 2,300 residents, with a minimum of 2, and, under KRS 243.241, the quota licensee bears the risk of later increases in the quota ⁹². A package store application starts from two numbers: the licences the county already holds and its latest population estimate.

Employers and the metro payroll

Louisville Business First's 2025 list of the area's largest employers, headed by UPS, Norton and Kroger, counts over 266,000 people employed by its 640 ranked organizations ⁴². GE Appliances announced a $490 million laundry investment in Louisville, with 800 jobs, on August 13, 2025, as The Lane Report recounted in December 2025 ⁴¹. The cabinet's August 20, 2025 release listed Ford's Louisville Assembly Plant project at nearly $2 billion and 2,200 jobs ⁸⁰. The metro's payroll barely moved, from 713.6 thousand nonfarm jobs in August 2025 to 712.7 thousand in August 2026, a loss of 0.9 thousand or 0.1%, not seasonally adjusted and preliminary, a change BLS does not mark as significant ⁴³. Louisville Metro's first-quarter 2026 statistics report put the metro's unemployment rate at 4.2% in January 2026, against 4.8% in January 2025 ⁹⁰.

Jefferson County's residents and permits

Jefferson County issued permits for 3,001 residential units in 2025, and its July 1, 2025 estimate of 795,222 stood 1.6% above the April 2020 base of 782,962 ⁴⁴. It took in 7,494 net international migrants in the year to July 2025 ⁷.

The Q3 2025 hotel reading and the downtown openings

Matthews put occupancy at 63% and the average daily rate at $132.59 in the third quarter of 2025, and revenue per available room at $75.73, the rate and RevPAR both down year over year; it counted 601 hotel rooms under construction and none delivered in the quarter ⁴⁵. Two openings scheduled for spring 2025, the Hampton Inn & Suites East Oxmoor, planned for March in the East End, and Hotel Bourre Bonne, a Curio Collection property due in April, are not confirmed as open in the research ⁴⁶.

Metro's drink licence fee and one SBA lender

Louisville Metro's local fees run to $1,200 for a quota retail package licence, $1,600 for a quota retail drink licence and $1,800 for an NQ-2 restaurant licence ⁴⁷. Among SBA lenders, Republic Bank & Trust, based in Louisville, made 23 SBA loans averaging $372,426 in a 2025 ranking ⁵⁰.

Two air cargo operations sit at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport. DHL Express's operation there covers 194 acres with more than 2,500 employees, and the airport counted 9.2 million passengers in 2024, as The Lane Report described them in June 2025 ⁵⁵; the Amazon Air hub sits in Hebron, in the airport's cargo district, and the Cincinnati Enquirer's list of Northern Kentucky's largest employers, citing a 2022 Cincinnati Business Courier ranking, puts Amazon's local headcount at 6,000 ⁵⁶. LINK nky's August 6, 2026 report on the hub's fifth year puts the facility at $1.5 billion, with more than 4,000 jobs created and more than 1,300 people reporting daily; the company itself claims more than $30 billion invested in Boone County, by the same report ⁹¹.

QuickFacts gives Boone County 145,316 residents on July 1, 2025, 6.9% above its April 2020 base of 135,988 ⁵⁷; Kenton 175,779, against 169,041, a change of 4.0% ⁵⁸; and Campbell 95,441, against 93,081, or 2.5% ⁵⁹. Their 2025 permits were 756 units of housing in Boone, 681 in Kenton and 182 in Campbell ⁵⁷⁵⁸⁵⁹. BLS has the Cincinnati OH-KY-IN metro's nonfarm employment, for the whole metro rather than its Kentucky counties alone, up 0.3% over the year to August 2026, a preliminary figure ⁹⁷. For 2025 and 2026 the research found no project over $50 million in the three counties; FEAM AERO's $45 million hangar, which opened in April 2024, sits below that line ⁹⁸.

The local economic development chief told a chamber audience in April 2026 that Daviess County added about 335 workers in 2025 ⁶⁷. The county's estimate was 104,898 on July 1, 2025, against 103,319 at the April 2020 base, a change of 1.5%, and it permitted 253 units of housing in 2025 ⁶⁶. The same event credited Owensboro Health, named the largest employment driver, with an economic impact of $978 million ⁶⁷, an impact estimate rather than a payroll.

The industrial record is a list of dated projects. Swedish Match, part of PMI, announced a $232 million expansion in Owensboro with 450 jobs in August 2024 ⁶⁸, and Mizkan America broke ground on a $156 million expansion of about 320,000 square feet, with 44 jobs, on March 17, 2025 ⁴⁰. The city acquired the 121-acre Massie property site in 2025, which has received nearly $4 million in state funding support, and an R+L Carriers hub of $25 million opened that year ⁶⁷. The economic development corporation reported on December 30, 2024 that Owensboro Racing & Gaming was set to open in February 2025, with officials expecting 200 jobs ⁶⁹.

Hardin County permitted 432 units of housing in 2025, and its estimate reached 113,482 on July 1, 2025 from a 2020 base of 110,698, a change of 2.5% ⁷⁴. The research's figures for this market are the county's.

The first battery came off the line at the $5.8 billion campus at the I-65 interchange in Glendale in August 2025, and after the venture's dissolution Ford Energy said it would repurpose the site for battery energy storage within 18 months ¹⁶. A report of December 23, 2025 gave the workforce a closing date of February 14, 2026 ¹⁷; on February 11, 2026 The Detroit News reported about 155 employees extended to at least March 31, 2026, and a project total of $7.8 billion after Ford Energy's re-investment ⁸⁸. Spectrum News 1 reported on December 16, 2025 that the state's $250 million forgivable loan of 2022 was under review ⁸⁹.

In Bardstown, the climate-controlled self-storage case is financed under USDA Business and Industry. Elizabethtown, in Hardin County, holds the other two: an assisted living and memory care case carried on a bank bridge loan, and an urgent care case under SBA 7(a).

Kentucky also turns up in a case set in another state. The glamping resort near Oak Hill, West Virginia, at New River Gorge on a USDA Business and Industry loan, found no outdoor hospitality sale with a disclosed price per unit or cap rate in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky or Pennsylvania for 2023 to 2026.