Feasibility Study Company Independent Feasibility Analysis

Missouri · Market Intelligence

Missouri Feasibility Studies

An independent, lender-grade feasibility practice for Missouri across SBA 7(a) and 504, USDA Rural Development, EB-5, and conventional capital. This page is our standing, sourced read on where Missouri markets are oversupplied, how deals actually get funded by district, and where Missouri feasibility studies fail review.

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31.7%
Downtown St. Louis office vacancy, Q4 2025 — worst since 19993
8.4M
SF net industrial absorption in Kansas City in 2025, vs. negative in St. Louis2
2
SBA district offices spanning the state4
~6.2M
Missouri residents; a slow-growth state1
The Missouri Thesis

A statewide Missouri number is indefensible.

Missouri rewards feasibility work and punishes shortcuts. Its two anchor metros sit on opposite edges of the state and behave oppositely: Kansas City, on the western line with Kansas, is a genuine logistics, animal-health, and manufacturing growth story, while St. Louis, on the eastern line with Illinois, is a slower-growth but stabilizing older market with a genuinely distressed downtown office core. The decisive fact for underwriting is that the same asset class reads oppositely across these metros. Industrial is the clearest proof: in 2025 Kansas City recorded positive net absorption of 8.4 million square feet, positive in every quarter, while St. Louis ran negative, roughly negative 2.2 to 2.7 million square feet, as big-box tenants right-sized (Newmark Zimmer; NAI DESCO, 2025–2026).25 Opposite signs, same asset class, same year. A single statewide Missouri assumption misprices nearly every deal.

The state is also unevenly settled and slow-growing. Missouri reached about 6.2 million residents in the Census Vintage 2024 estimates, with Kansas City the population-growth leader while the City of St. Louis lost about 21,700 residents between 2020 and 2024, the steepest rate among major U.S. cities (Saint Louis University, May 2025).125 Springfield is a fast, affordable southwest hub; Columbia is a stable University of Missouri town; the Ozarks run on tourism; and most of the state outside the metro cores is USDA-eligible rural territory served from Columbia. Kansas City is not St. Louis; neither resembles Springfield or the Bootheel. We underwrite Missouri metro-by-metro, against the current pipeline, the regional funding channel, and the Missouri-specific factors most studies miss.

What follows is organized as a working desk: a live oversupply monitor, a funding-routing map built on Missouri's unusual two-district SBA structure, the review failures that sink Missouri studies, the regulatory edges that decide outcomes — the full Certificate of Need bed cap, the 2025 tax package, and large-load utility interconnection — and a per-metro demand fingerprint. Every figure is dated and attributed in the sources below.

The Oversupply & Pipeline Monitor

Where Missouri markets stand, metro by metro.

A supply-pressure read for each metro and asset class, refreshed each quarter from named primary sources. A dash means we hold no current tracked reading, not that the market is balanced. Metro reads are Q1 2026 unless noted; data current to Q2 2026.

Supply pressure: Oversupplied Balanced Undersupplied Digesting / softening
Metro Multifamily Industrial Office Hotel
Kansas City Digesting7.1% vac.; ~1.8% pipeline Balanced5.0% vac.; +8.4M SF '25 Digesting15.2–17.4% vac. BalancedWorld Cup one-off
St. Louis Balanced<4% vac., tightening Digestingbig-box; 5.4–6.0% vac. Oversupplied31.7% downtown; Clayton firmer Balancedconvention rebound
Springfield Balancedstrong affordable performer BalancedNorth Corridor pipeline Balanced Balanced
Columbia BalancedMizzou student-driven No read Balanced Balanced
Branson / Lake of the Ozarks No read No read No read Tourism-sensitive

Readings compiled from sources 2–16 below. Self-storage metro reads are not yet tracked for Missouri and are omitted rather than estimated. Vendor vacancy estimates for the same metro can differ; each figure is attributed at its point of use.

Multifamily: reads diverge, metro by metro

Kansas City is digesting a heavy 2022–2025 delivery wave that peaked near 7,800 units in 2024; metro vacancy drifted to about 7.1 percent in Q1 2026, up 30 basis points year over year but down from a Q3 2024 cyclical peak, and the pipeline has fallen to roughly 4,200 units, about 1.8 percent of inventory, well below the national average (Neiboroughly and Northmarq, Q1 2026).6 A separate vendor cut put Kansas City vacancy near 3.6 percent in Q2 2025 on a different inventory definition (Cushman & Wakefield), a reminder to reconcile vendor reads before delivery.11 St. Louis is the opposite story: metro apartment vacancy began 2026 under 4 percent, a level achieved only once in the prior two decades, with absorption exceeding deliveries for six consecutive quarters and effective rents rising from $1,330 in Q4 2024 to $1,398 by Q1 2026 (Marcus & Millichap 2026 forecast; Colliers, Q1 2026).7 Its under-construction pipeline runs near one percent of inventory, roughly a third of the national pace. Springfield is a consistently strong affordable performer, though named-vendor Q1–Q2 2026 metrics were not tracked this cycle. The classic Kansas City error is underwriting 2021-era rent growth into a market still absorbing deliveries.

Industrial: the signature Missouri divergence

Kansas City is one of the most defensible industrial underwrites in the Midwest: the geographic center of the country, anchored by the BNSF Logistics Park Kansas City intermodal in Edgerton, the I-70/I-35/I-29 confluence, and KCI air cargo. It ended 2025 with vacancy near 5.0 percent and 8.4 million square feet of net absorption, positive in every quarter, then added 1.9 million square feet in Q1 2026 with vacancy down to 4.5 percent (Newmark Zimmer, 4Q25 and 1Q26); vendor year-end reads ranged from 4.9 percent (CBRE) to 5.2 percent (Colliers and Lee & Associates).212 Much of the roughly six-to-seven-million-square-foot pipeline is build-to-suit, including Panasonic's 2.35 million square feet tied to the $4 billion De Soto, Kansas battery gigafactory that began mass production July 14, 2025 (Kansas Department of Commerce).8 Because that plant sits across the state line, Missouri-side absorption in Jackson, Clay, and Platte counties must not be sized one-to-one to its headcount. St. Louis is digesting the other direction: 2025 net absorption ran negative, about negative 2.2 to 2.7 million square feet, driven by big-box move-outs such as Procter & Gamble and Save-A-Lot at Gateway Commerce Center, with vacancy rising to 5.4 to 6.0 percent by Q1 2026 (NAI DESCO; Newmark), though asking rents held near $6.20 triple-net and the pipeline is almost entirely build-to-suit.5 Springfield is a growing distribution hub anchored by O'Reilly Auto Parts, Bass Pro, Amazon, and Prime Inc., with warehousing employment up 4.7 percent year over year through 2024 (KiTalent; Missouri Economic Research and Information Center).1314

Office: bifurcated, and downtown St. Louis is the failure mode

CBRE put Q4 2025 downtown St. Louis office vacancy at 31.7 percent, the highest since 1999, with region-wide vacancy near 21 percent (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 2026).3 Two fully vacant towers — the 44-story AT&T Tower, empty since 2017, and the Railway Exchange, empty since 2013–2014 — together hold roughly 2.6 to 2.7 million square feet, nearly half of downtown vacancy, and were excluded from that 31.7 percent figure pending apartment redevelopment (Brookings, March 2025).10 Clayton and West County are healthier on flight-to-quality, and Newmark reported metro office vacancy near 15 percent in Q1 2026. Kansas City is more orderly, with overall office vacancy reported at 15.2 percent (Newmark Zimmer), 15.4 percent (Colliers), or 17.4 percent (CBRE) in Q1 2026, and office-to-multifamily conversions draining obsolete downtown stock.9 Underwriting downtown St. Louis on pre-2020 assumptions is a discrete failure mode; Clayton and the Central West End are separately financeable.

Hotels and the World Cup signal

Hotels are broadly balanced, but Kansas City carries a 2026 FIFA World Cup one-off that is underdelivering against the hype. As a host city, Kansas City projected a $653 million economic boost and 650,000 visitors (KC2026 Momentum Report via KCTV5, January 2026).15 But an April 2026 American Hotel & Lodging Association survey found Kansas City the weakest-performing U.S. host market, with 85 to 90 percent of surveyed hotels reporting booking pace below expectations and FIFA releasing 70 to 95 percent of contracted room blocks back to market (FOX4 and KCTV5, May 2026; KSHB, February 2026).16 Any World Cup revenue-per-available-room spike should be treated as a non-recurring one-off, not capitalized into stabilized value; the durable Kansas City drivers are the new $1.5 billion KCI single terminal, the Chiefs and Royals, and convention business. St. Louis hotels are balanced on Gateway Arch tourism, sports, and a rebounding convention calendar, with the $670 million Millennium Hotel redevelopment repositioning a derelict riverfront asset. Branson and the Lake of the Ozarks run on seasonal tourism, and named-vendor RevPAR was not tracked this cycle.

The Funding-Routing Map

How a Missouri deal actually gets funded.

Feasibility work exists to satisfy a specific reviewer. Knowing which district and channel funds your asset is half the battle. This is the routing most feasibility pages never publish.

SBA district offices in Missouri
Two district offices partition the state, an unusual structure most states do not share.4
District officeRegion covered
St. Louis District OfficeEasternmost 53 counties plus the City of St. Louis
Kansas City District OfficeWesternmost 61 Missouri counties plus 28 eastern Kansas counties; branch in Springfield

On the 504 side, Missouri is served by Certified Development Companies including the Enterprise Development Corporation in Columbia, the EDC of St. Charles County, and Rural Missouri, Inc. in Jefferson City for rural and non-metro projects; CDC coverage areas are self-reported, and any “statewide” or “largest CDC” framing is unsupported by primary sources.4 On the 7(a) side, OakStar Bank of Springfield is consistently the top Missouri-headquartered lender, at $58.3 million across 67 loans in fiscal 2023 (Coleman Report, source Lumos Data), while Live Oak Bank led Missouri by dollar volume in 2025 at about $112.0 million across 58 loans and U.S. Bank posted the highest Missouri loan count; Commerce Bank, UMB Bank, Central Bank, and Enterprise Bank & Trust round out the active lenders.1718 Missouri statewide 7(a) volume ran about $673.8 million across 1,047 businesses in 2025 (gosbaloans, citing SBA FOIA data).18 For rural credits, USDA Business and Industry and related programs route through the USDA Rural Development state office in Columbia, which serves about 2.2 million rural Missourians across four area offices.19 The decisive new tool is the July 4, 2026 decoupling of the 7(a) and 504 caps to $10 million combined, the highest in agency history.26

  • Industrial or logistics in the Kansas City metro (Jackson / Clay / Platte)Kansas City District Office; conventional or CMBS for big-box; SBA 504 via a CDC for owner-occupied; Commerce, UMB, or Central Bank for 7(a).
  • A project in the St. Louis metro (City / County / St. Charles / Jefferson)St. Louis District Office; Enterprise Bank & Trust or Commerce for 7(a); underwrite the downtown-versus-Clayton and St. Charles submarket split.
  • Springfield, the southwest, or the rural Ozarks / Bootheel / northKansas City District Office via the Springfield branch; USDA Rural Development in Columbia for rural and ag; OakStar and Great Southern locally; Rural Missouri, Inc. for rural CDC lending.
  • Owner-occupied real estate plus long-life equipment, up to $5M each legSBA 504 via a Missouri CDC paired with a bank first mortgage; after July 4, 2026, stack a 7(a) for up to $10M combined.
  • A rural or agricultural project outside the metro coresUSDA Rural Development through the Columbia state office; a major ag state (cattle, soybeans, corn, poultry).
Common Review Failures

How Missouri feasibility studies fail review.

Each failure below is tied to a real Missouri number. These are the recurring reasons a Missouri study loses credibility with a lender or agency, engineered out of our deliverables before they ship.

  1. Statewide-average error

    Applying one assumption across a growing Kansas City, a stabilizing St. Louis, an affordable-growing Springfield, and the slow rural Ozarks and Bootheel is indefensible. The concrete proof: 2025 industrial net absorption was positive 8.4 million square feet in Kansas City against roughly negative 2.2 to 2.7 million in St. Louis — opposite signs in the same asset class, same year.25

  2. Oversupply blindness in the Kansas City multifamily wave

    Kansas City delivered roughly 7,800 units at the 2024 peak; metro vacancy rose to about 7.1 percent in Q1 2026, and Central and Downtown Kansas City ran above 10 percent during peak deliveries. Underwriting 2021-era rent growth into 2026 is the classic failure; the pipeline has since fallen to about 4,200 units.6

  3. St. Louis downtown and urban distress

    Downtown office vacancy hit 31.7 percent in Q4 2025, the worst since 1999, and the AT&T Tower and Railway Exchange alone (about 2.6 to 2.7 million square feet) are roughly half of downtown vacancy. The City of St. Louis lost about 21,700 residents from 2020 to 2024. Underwriting downtown on pre-2020 assumptions is a discrete failure mode — but distinguish the healthy Clayton and Central West End submarkets.31025

  4. Megaproject and battery-timing risk

    The Panasonic De Soto gigafactory ($4 billion, mass production begun July 14, 2025) sits across the state line in Kansas; Missouri-side absorption cannot be sized one-to-one to the plant's headcount. Layer in data-center timing — the roughly $8.5 billion AWS project in Montgomery County had closings expected in Q1 2026 — and announced megaprojects are pipeline, not stabilized absorption.822

  5. Tornado and New Madrid seismic hazard

    Missouri sits in the central-U.S. severe-weather zone; the 2011 Joplin EF-5 was one of the deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history, and a destructive tornado struck St. Louis in 2025. Southeast Missouri, the Bootheel, lies in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, a low-probability, high-severity earthquake risk. Insurance-cost and deductible assumptions must reflect wind, hail, and tornado exposure statewide and seismic exposure in the southeast.

  6. Certificate-of-Need misstatement

    Competitors who state that “Missouri has no CON” are simply wrong. Missouri is a full Certificate of Need state under RSMo 197.300 to 197.366, with a long-standing nursing-bed cap under RSMo 197.318. Treating skilled nursing as an open-entry market is wrong on the one asset class where a hard supply cap applies.20

  7. Slow-growth demographics and the earnings tax

    Missouri is a slow-growth state; Kansas City, Springfield, Columbia, and St. Charles County grow while the City of St. Louis and many rural counties are flat or declining, so demand assumptions must be metro-specific. Both St. Louis City and Kansas City levy a 1 percent local earnings tax, a distinctive local cost a national template omits.121

Regulatory Edges

The Missouri rules that decide feasibility outcomes.

Four regulatory realities separate a Missouri study that survives review from one that does not. The first is the one competitors most often state wrong.

Certificate of Need: a full CON state with a nursing-bed cap

Missouri is a full Certificate of Need state, and this is the fact competitors state wrong most often. The Missouri Certificate of Need Law is codified at RSMo 197.300 to 197.366 and administered by the Missouri Health Facilities Review Committee, staffed by the DHSS Certificate of Need Program in Jefferson City.20 CON gates new hospitals and hospital beds; new long-term-care and nursing-facility beds, its central and long-standing focus; major medical equipment acquired at an aggregate cost of $1 million or more; and capital expenditures above statutory minimums, generally $600,000 for capital expenditures or $400,000 for major medical equipment under RSMo 197.305.20 RSMo 197.318 details the bed-expansion rules tied to occupancy — a facility over 40 beds may expand by 25 percent or 30 beds, whichever is greater, only if that licensure category has averaged 93 percent or higher occupancy over the prior six quarters. The feasibility implication is decisive: healthcare supply, especially skilled-nursing and long-term-care beds, is gated, meaning low oversupply risk but a hard barrier to entry, and the CON application itself becomes a gating deliverable. Assisted living and residential care carry statutory exemption pathways and are generally less gated than skilled nursing; project-specific applicability should be confirmed with the DHSS CON Program.

The 2025 tax package: a capital-gains exemption and rate cuts

Missouri's 2025 legislative package is a material after-tax underwriting variable. HB 594, signed July 10, 2025, makes Missouri the first income-tax state to fully exempt individual capital gains, retroactive to January 1, 2025, with the corporate exemption triggering only when the top individual rate reaches 4.5 percent or lower (Missouri Department of Revenue; Tax Foundation).21 The top individual income-tax rate is 4.7 percent, moving to a 4.7 percent flat rate in 2026 with statutory triggers toward as low as 3.7 percent over a decade, and the corporate rate is 4.0 percent. Both St. Louis City and Kansas City levy a 1 percent local earnings tax that a national pro forma will miss.

Large-load power and utility interconnection

Missouri's data-center recruitment push has made utility interconnection a first-order feasibility variable. Ameren Missouri serves eastern Missouri and Evergy serves the Kansas City area; the Missouri Public Service Commission approved a new large-load rate structure for Ameren to protect existing ratepayers, and PSC staff warned that a single large-load customer is “somewhat equivalent to the addition of a new medium-sized city, essentially overnight,” with new demand potentially raising bills by about $22 million a year (STLPR and KCUR, October–December 2025).23 Announced hyperscale projects — Meta's $1 billion Kansas City campus, operational August 2025, and a proposed roughly $8.5 billion AWS project in Montgomery County — are demand-side recruitment, but timing and interconnection risk are real; treat megaprojects as pipeline, not absorption.22

Tailwinds in the sponsor's favor

Three recent changes cut the other way. The HB 594 capital-gains exemption materially lifts after-tax returns on Missouri CRE dispositions;21 the Missouri Department of Economic Development's Data Center Sales Tax Exemption Program exempts qualifying new centers of $25 million or more from state and local sales and use taxes for up to 15 years;22 and the SBA decoupled its 7(a) and 504 programs to a combined $10 million ceiling effective July 4, 2026, the highest in agency history, materially enlarging bankable deal size.26

Metro Divergence

Missouri markets, distinct demand fingerprints.

Each metro carries its own economic base and its own supply position. These are the units of analysis for a Missouri study, and each anchors a dedicated market page.

Logistics & animal health

Kansas City

Intermodal logistics at the geographic center of the country, the world's largest animal-health corridor, manufacturing, and Panasonic-battery spillover from De Soto, Kansas. Industrial runs near 5 percent vacancy with 8.4 million square feet absorbed in 2025; multifamily is digesting a delivery wave.28

Bioscience & defense

St. Louis

Healthcare, BioSTL and Cortex, Boeing defense (the F-47/NGAD win, March 2025), and ag-biotech at Bayer and the Danforth Plant Science Center. Multifamily is tightening below 4 percent vacancy while downtown office hit 31.7 percent, the worst since 1999.32427

Distribution

Springfield

Southwest Missouri's affordable regional hub, anchored by O'Reilly Auto Parts, Bass Pro, Amazon, and Prime Inc., plus CoxHealth and Mercy. A growing distribution market with a North Corridor industrial pipeline roughly 65 percent pre-leased and multifamily a strong performer.13

University & insurance

Columbia

The University of Missouri anchors a stable, student-driven economy alongside healthcare and insurance. Multifamily demand is steady and less cyclical, though named-vendor metrics are thinner; we build these studies with primary local research.

Animal health & food processing

St. Joseph

A northwest anchor of the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor, led by Boehringer Ingelheim (about 1,400 workers) and food processing. The corridor accounts for roughly 56 percent of global animal-health sales and more than 22,000 direct jobs.1326

Tourism & resort

Branson / Lake of the Ozarks

A major domestic live-entertainment and theater market plus resort and second-home tourism, with a large short-term-rental base. Demand is seasonal and tourism-sensitive, and lodging must be underwritten on monthly, not annual, occupancy; named-vendor metrics are bespoke.

Government & regional hubs

Jefferson City / Cape Girardeau / Joplin

State government and Central Bancompany in Jefferson City, regional healthcare and retail hubs in Cape Girardeau, and distribution and healthcare in Joplin — where the 2011 EF-5 tornado remains a structural-risk reference. Flat-to-slow markets built on primary local research.

Ag-biotech & plant science

St. Louis 39 North / Cortex

A global plant-science cluster: the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Bayer Crop Science, the 600-acre 39 North AgTech district, and the Cortex innovation district. Durable, specialized demand for lab, flex, and R&D space — but talent-supply-constrained.27

By Asset Class

Missouri feasibility studies by asset class.

Each asset class carries its own Missouri demand drivers, from Kansas City intermodal logistics to the animal-health corridor to CON-gated skilled nursing. Explore the analytical approach by property type.

Missouri Questions

Missouri feasibility study questions.

Does Missouri require a feasibility study for an SBA loan?

Under SBA SOP 50 10 8, a feasibility study is discretionary rather than universally mandated, and lenders commonly require one for special-purpose properties and startup or ground-up projects that lack operating history. Missouri deals route through its two SBA district offices, St. Louis and Kansas City, and frequently trigger a feasibility requirement on hospitality, senior-housing, and other special-purpose collateral.

Does Missouri have a Certificate of Need law?

Yes. Missouri is a full Certificate of Need state. The Missouri Certificate of Need Law, codified at RSMo 197.300 to 197.366 and administered by the Missouri Health Facilities Review Committee through the DHSS Certificate of Need Program, gates new hospital and long-term-care beds, major medical equipment of one million dollars or more, and capital expenditures above statutory minimums. New nursing-facility beds are the central, long-standing focus under RSMo 197.318, so skilled-nursing supply is capped. Competitors who state that Missouri has no CON are simply wrong.

Which Missouri real estate markets are oversupplied right now?

As of Q1 2026 the reads diverge sharply by metro. Downtown St. Louis office is the clearest oversupply, with vacancy at 31.7 percent in Q4 2025, the worst since 1999 (CBRE). Kansas City multifamily is digesting a delivery wave near 7.1 percent vacancy, and St. Louis industrial is digesting big-box move-outs on negative net absorption for 2025. Kansas City industrial is the opposite story, near 5 percent vacancy with 8.4 million square feet absorbed in 2025.

Who funds SBA and USDA loans in Missouri?

Missouri is split between two SBA district offices, an unusual structure: St. Louis covers the eastern 53 counties plus the City of St. Louis, and Kansas City covers the western 61 Missouri counties plus 28 Kansas counties, with a Springfield branch. OakStar Bank of Springfield is the top Missouri-headquartered 7(a) lender, Live Oak Bank led Missouri by dollar volume in 2025, and U.S. Bank posted the highest Missouri loan count. USDA Business and Industry and rural credits route through the USDA Rural Development state office in Columbia.

How does the 2026 FIFA World Cup affect Kansas City feasibility?

Kansas City is a 2026 FIFA World Cup host city, and projections put the local economic boost near 653 million dollars (KC2026, January 2026). But an April 2026 American Hotel and Lodging Association survey found Kansas City the weakest-performing host market, with most hotels reporting booking pace below expectations and FIFA releasing large blocks of contracted rooms back to market. Any World Cup RevPAR spike should be treated as a non-recurring one-off and not capitalized into stabilized value.

How is a Missouri feasibility study different from a national one?

Missouri is too internally divergent for statewide assumptions; its two anchor metros sit on opposite edges of the state and behave oppositely. In 2025 Kansas City industrial recorded positive 8.4 million square feet of net absorption while St. Louis ran negative, the same asset class with opposite signs in a single state. A defensible Missouri study is built metro-by-metro against the current pipeline, the two-district SBA channel, and Missouri-specific factors most studies miss: the full Certificate of Need bed cap, the distressed St. Louis downtown office core, and the cross-border Panasonic-battery spillover into Kansas City.

Underwriting a Missouri project? Start with the market read.

A methodology briefing walks through the analytical framework, the deliverable composition, and the current Missouri market data for your metro and asset class — including the Certificate-of-Need, tax, and utility-interconnection factors that decide Missouri outcomes.

Request a methodology briefing
Sources

Data sources and dates.

Every figure on this page traces to a named authority. Real-estate readings are point-in-time and vendor-dependent; where vendors disagree, the range is shown and each is attributed at its point of use.

  1. U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2024 Population Estimates (Missouri population about 6.2 million; Kansas City about 516,032; City of St. Louis about 281,000–289,000 and declining), via STLPR (May 2025).
  2. Newmark Zimmer, Kansas City Industrial Market Report (4Q25 and 1Q26): 8.4 million square feet of 2025 net absorption, year-end vacancy 5.0 percent, 1Q26 vacancy 4.5 percent.
  3. CBRE, downtown St. Louis office vacancy (Q4 2025), via St. Louis Post-Dispatch (January 2026): 31.7 percent, highest since 1999; region-wide about 21 percent.
  4. U.S. Small Business Administration, St. Louis and Kansas City district office directories (2026); SBA List of Certified Development Companies, Missouri.
  5. NAI DESCO and Newmark, St. Louis Industrial Market Reports (Q4 2025 and Q1 2026): 2025 net absorption about negative 2.2 to 2.7 million square feet; Q1 2026 vacancy 5.4–6.0 percent.
  6. Neiboroughly and Northmarq, Kansas City multifamily (Q1 2026): metro vacancy about 7.1 percent; pipeline about 4,200 units, roughly 1.8 percent of inventory.
  7. Marcus & Millichap, 2026 Investment Forecast (St. Louis apartment vacancy under 4 percent); Colliers, St. Louis multifamily (Q1 2026).
  8. Kansas Department of Commerce and Panasonic (July 14, 2025): De Soto, Kansas battery gigafactory, $4 billion, up to 4,000 direct jobs, mass production begun; 2.35 million square feet in the Kansas City pipeline.
  9. Newmark Zimmer (15.2 percent), Colliers (15.4 percent), and CBRE (17.4 percent), Kansas City office vacancy (Q1 2026).
  10. Brookings (March 2025): the AT&T Tower and Railway Exchange, about 2.6–2.7 million square feet, nearly half of downtown St. Louis vacancy.
  11. Cushman & Wakefield, Kansas City multifamily (Q2 2025): vacancy 3.6 percent on a differing inventory methodology.
  12. CBRE (4.9 percent) and Colliers / Lee & Associates (5.2 percent), Kansas City industrial year-end 2025 vacancy; asking rents about $5.60–5.90 triple-net.
  13. KiTalent (2026), Springfield industrial pipeline and the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor, citing the KCAHC 2024 Economic Impact Report (about 56 percent of global animal-health sales; more than 22,000 direct jobs).
  14. Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC): Springfield warehousing and storage employment up 4.7 percent year over year through 2024.
  15. KC2026 “KC Momentum Report,” via KCTV5 (January 12, 2026): projected $653 million economic boost and 650,000 visitors for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
  16. American Hotel & Lodging Association survey (April 2026), via FOX4 and KCTV5 (May 2026); KSHB (February 2026): Kansas City the weakest host market; FIFA released large contracted room blocks back to market.
  17. Coleman Report fiscal 2023 SBA 7(a) lender ranking (source: Lumos Data): OakStar Bank $58.3 million across 67 loans, top Missouri-headquartered lender.
  18. gosbaloans.com and sbalenders.com, citing SBA FOIA data (2025–2026): Live Oak Bank $112.0 million / 58 loans (first in Missouri by dollars); U.S. Bank highest Missouri loan count; statewide 7(a) about $673.8 million across 1,047 businesses.
  19. USDA Rural Development, Missouri State Office, 601 Business Loop 70 West, Columbia (2026): about 2.2 million rural Missourians served across four area offices.
  20. Missouri Certificate of Need Law, RSMo 197.300–197.366; Missouri Health Facilities Review Committee and DHSS Certificate of Need Program; RSMo 197.318 (long-term-care beds) and RSMo 197.305 (expenditure thresholds).
  21. Missouri Department of Revenue and Tax Foundation: HB 594 (signed July 10, 2025), full individual capital-gains exemption retroactive to January 1, 2025; top individual rate 4.7 percent moving to a 4.7 percent flat rate in 2026; corporate rate 4.0 percent; 1 percent local earnings taxes in St. Louis City and Kansas City.
  22. Missouri Department of Economic Development, Data Center Sales Tax Exemption Program; Meta's $1 billion Kansas City campus (operational August 2025); proposed roughly $8.5 billion AWS project in Montgomery County, via STLPR (December 2025).
  23. Missouri Public Service Commission, large-load rate proceedings for Ameren Missouri and Evergy, via STLPR and KCUR (October–December 2025).
  24. Boeing F-47 / NGAD award (announced March 21, 2025), via Spectrum News and STLPR: about $20 billion contract; $1.8 billion St. Louis-area expansion; about 500 new jobs.
  25. Saint Louis University, Ness Sandoval analysis of U.S. Census estimates (May 2025): the City of St. Louis lost about 21,700 residents 2020–2024, the steepest rate among major U.S. cities.
  26. U.S. Small Business Administration Policy Notice 5000-879058 (dated May 18, 2026; effective July 4, 2026): decoupled combined 7(a)-plus-504 cap of $10 million; NAGGL summary.
  27. St. Louis Magazine: the St. Louis plant-science and ag-biotech cluster, including the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Bayer Crop Science, the 39 North AgTech district, and BioSTL / Cortex.