Nebraska Feasibility Studies

None of the totals in the first table is SBA's own, and no two measure the same thing: one joins 7(a) and 504 over a full fiscal year, one counts 7(a) alone across 2025, and one stops in July of that year ⁵²⁹³⁰. Any of them quoted in a report needs its program and period printed beside it.

SBA's own loan-level files give a steadier ten-year view. Counting approvals for fiscal 2016 through fiscal 2025 and netting out cancellations, Nebraska borrowers took 2,940 7(a) loans worth $1,184.7 million ⁹ and 371 504 loans ⁹. Losses split sharply by program. Among Nebraska loans from the fiscal 2011 to 2020 approval years, old enough to have seasoned, 5.4% of 7(a) loans, counted by number, ended in charge-off, compared with 1.4% of 504 loans ⁹. That gap is Nebraska's own record, so a study behind a 7(a) loan should test its projections against the higher state loss rate rather than a national average.

The lender table shows how few names hold the volume: the broker ranks by dollars, Union Bank and Trust heads its top five and also made the most loans of those five, and national lenders such as Live Oak booked fewer, larger loans ²⁹. On the 504 side NEDCO, the Nebraska Economic Development Corporation, carries the program ⁵. It is worth asking at the outset whether any of them has lent in the subject's town.

Nebraska-run credit: SSBCI and NIFA

Through SSBCI, the federal small-business credit program, Nebraska was approved in October 2022 for up to $64.0 million ³¹. The money is split evenly: $32 million for the Nebraska Growth Loan Fund, a loan participation program, and $32 million for the Nebraska Seed and Development Fund, a venture program ³². The loan fund can provide companion loans of up to 50% of principal ³², which can close a gap between a bank's first lien and the sponsor's equity. The Nebraska Enterprise Fund administers $10.5 million of the loan money for businesses with up to 500 employees, aiming for 75% private and 25% SSBCI capital in each deal ³³. The research found no state guarantee or capital access program outside it.

For rental housing the state's channel is the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority, which issues tax-exempt bonds and allocates housing tax credits ¹⁵. Its February 2026 board book shows a conditional allocation of 2026 volume cap not to exceed $13,175,986 for a 4% tax credit multifamily bond deal ³⁴. A multifamily study that expects bond financing should confirm the cap round and allocation date.

The Business and Industry guarantee in Nebraska follows the national terms: 85% on loans under $5 million and 80% on loans of $5 million or more in FY2025 ³⁶. The most recent state total the research could find is $269.5 million of obligations across all programs in FY2022 ³⁷; FY2025 totals, and Business and Industry obligations for Nebraska in particular, were not found. A study can say the program is available and the guarantee steps down above the size line, but not how deep the Nebraska pipeline is.

Smaller programs show where the money has gone. USDA announced $15.1 million for 3 Community Facilities investments in rural Nebraska in January 2025 ³⁸, and REAP, USDA's rural energy program, made 233 awards worth $16.5 million from 2021 to January 2025 ³⁹. REAP grant applications were closed in 2026 ¹²². A processor, a rural hotel or a small-town grocery whose loan is larger than an SBA lender wants to carry can look at the B&I guarantee instead, provided the site qualifies.

Whether it qualifies is a question about the parcel, which only a dated map run settles (check 2 below). The USDA practice area page covers the program itself, and another research note walks through the report components the agency looks for.

Senior housing and health care

Nebraska's certificate of need statute reaches only long-term care and rehabilitation beds ¹⁰, and for those beds it works as a moratorium with limited exceptions, with the bed threshold and fee shown in the table ¹¹. Existing skilled nursing licences can therefore carry scarcity value in an acquisition, and new senior capacity arrives as assisted living, which needs only a licence ¹². Memory care runs inside an assisted living licence with an optional endorsement ¹³. With no certificate of need standing in a new operator's way, the supply section has to count projects in planning as well as those open. See our method for assisted living with memory care.

Child care

Above the Home II cap a center licence applies ⁴⁰⁴¹; the research gives the smaller Home I cap without a source address, so the table leaves it out. Centers staff infants at 1:4 ⁴². The infant ratio drives cost, so a study should model each room separately and show the toddler and preschool rooms carrying the infants, rather than averaging tuition. The child care method sets out the classroom-level model.

Restaurants, bars and liquor

Nebraska has no quota on liquor licences, and licences are reported as non-transferable, with a new licence issued when a licensed business is bought, so no secondary market gives one a value ⁴⁹. The state fees in the table are low, and a city or village occupation tax on them is capped ⁴³⁴⁴. A licence is cheap and obtainable, so a study should not value it as an asset and should assume a competitor can open nearby; the local hearing belongs in the opening schedule.

Fuel and convenience sites

Nebraska still runs a state petroleum release fund under the Petroleum Release Remedial Action Act, and it reimburses releases reported on or before June 30, 2028 ⁴⁶. Since inception the fund has collected more than $375 million and spent about $294.5 million; in FY2025 it reimbursed $3.2 million across 130 sites ⁵¹. The fund is a real but time-limited backstop: a buyer holding a site past the 2028 reporting date should price private pollution cover. For the 2023 data year, County Business Patterns puts Nebraska's fuel and convenience establishments at 1,030 ⁵²; a claim that an Interstate 80 exit or a county highway is underserved should start from that statewide count and then narrow to the trade area. Our gas station method explains why a per-capita count alone does not settle demand.

Hotels and short-term rentals

The research identified no state statute pre-empting local short-term rental rules; operators need permits and collect tax ¹⁶, and platforms collect it on stays of 28 nights or fewer ⁴⁷. The lodging taxes under costs below matter more to a hotel study.

Manufacturing and construction

Machinery and equipment qualify for the sales tax exemption when used more than 50% in manufacturing ⁴⁸. Building materials, however, are taxable, and the contractor elects one of three options for how the tax is handled; there is no general exemption for materials annexed to a manufacturing building ⁵³. A plant or warehouse budget should carry that tax as a hard cost.

Of the 74 Nebraska disaster declarations since 1980 that USAFacts assigns a type, 39 were for severe storms, which is 52.7%; in the most recent five years of that record, through September 3, 2026, storms make up 9 of 16 ⁵⁹. The same page also states a larger total for all declarations, which it does not reconcile with the typed count, so the share holds only for the typed declarations. The recent run is dense. DR-4868 covers a severe winter storm and straight-line winds on March 18 and 19, 2025, and was declared on May 21 ¹¹⁶; DR-4896, declared in October 2025, covers 12 counties, among them Douglas, Lancaster, Saunders, Seward and Washington ⁶⁰; and DR-4928, declared in August 2026 for public assistance, covers 8 counties, Buffalo and Howard among them ⁶¹. A further request was denied in December 2025 ⁶². A study for a roof-heavy asset such as a fuel canopy or self-storage building should carry a hail and wind deductible and premium that reflect this record.

Wildfire is the new line in the Nebraska record. DR-4920 covers fires from March 12 to April 2, 2026 in Arthur, Garden, Grant, Lincoln and Morrill counties, 5 in all ⁵⁹; the research reports the burned area and damage only through a secondary account without a source address, so this page does not carry them. The research found no quantified wildfire exposure for the state, so a western site at the grassland edge needs the insurer's current rating. FEMA also issued revised flood maps effective January 23 and May 26, 2026 ⁶²; a study should check the panel in force on its date, not the one in the appraisal from last year.

For central Nebraska the Lexington closure outweighs the rest. The WARN notice Tyson filed covered 3,212 jobs ⁶, and the Center for Agricultural Profitability at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln put the loss to the state economy at $3.283 billion a year ¹⁴. The plant sits in Dawson County, which has no market section on this page, yet its reach is wider than the county: the cattle it bought and the people it employed both have to go somewhere, and the NIFA board took up homeownership support for three counties, Custer and Buffalo along with Dawson ³⁴. In that area the pre-closure population and spending are history, and a study should size demand on what remains. The Gretna district in Sarpy County is taken up in the Omaha section.

The federal metro definition adds three Iowa counties, Pottawattamie, Harrison and Mills, to the Nebraska five, so published metro headcounts and job totals mix both states and are left out here; for Council Bluffs and the rest of the Iowa side, start from the Iowa page. The research does not state which counties the CBRE, Colliers and Berkadia reports cover, and NAI NP Dodge titles its quarterly report Omaha and Council Bluffs ¹¹⁷, so its figures are not used here. Before any broker figure stands in as a Nebraska comparable, the study should establish which counties it covers.

Douglas County grew faster than the state, to 606,460 residents by July 2025 ²². Health care, corporate offices and the air base carry the economy. The Greater Omaha Chamber lists the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Mutual of Omaha and FNBO among the area's large employers, in size bands rather than counts ⁶⁹; a federal employer database lists Union Pacific without a date ¹¹⁸; and a 2018 newspaper list puts Offutt Air Force Base and the CHI Health, Nebraska Medicine and Methodist systems in its top size band ¹¹⁹. Those are the latest employer figures in the research, so a study that leans on one employer's payroll should ask that employer for a current count.

Projects that move demand

Project Health, the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Nebraska Medicine expansion in Douglas County, carries a cost of $2.19 billion and broke ground in April 2025 ⁷⁰. For medical office, apartments and hotels near the campus, it is the project whose schedule a study should track. Google's northwest Omaha data center, announced at $750 million on a 378-acre campus, was under construction in January 2025 ⁷¹. The new Omaha Central Library cost $158 million and opened on April 19, 2026 ⁷². Along Highway 50 in Sarpy County, Google and Meta campuses have turned farmland into a data center corridor ⁷³.

The Gretna Good Life District at Nebraska Crossing, in Sarpy County, was presented as a $3.2 billion project ⁷⁴. Once its developer warned the state in early 2025 that the plan could not proceed as drawn, the Destination Nebraska Act set out a new route for it ⁶⁵; in January 2026 a large travel center was reported to be coming to the site near Interstate 80 and Highway 31, with no opening date ⁷⁴. A study near the interchange should count only what has permits and financing on its date.

Apartments: deliveries outran demand in 2025

By CBRE's count, 2025 brought 3,793 new apartment units to Omaha, and fourth-quarter vacancy stood at 8.3%, a rise of +270 bps from a year before ⁶⁶. Asking rent of $1,288 per unit slipped -0.4% from the third quarter yet sat +4.3% above the prior year, while the pipeline held 3,218 units across 21 properties ⁶⁶. Berkadia's mid-year report, on RealPage data, put second-quarter 2025 occupancy at 97.1% and effective rent at $1,305 ⁶⁷. The research treats the two as conflicting measures and leaves them unreconciled, and the study must name the one it relies on. An Omaha apartment study should model lease-up on the 2025 absorption record, include first-year concessions, and show the loan works if stabilization slips. The multifamily method explains the absorption test.

Industrial: tight and still building

Colliers' first-quarter 2026 report put industrial vacancy at 2.0%, with 943 thousand square feet under construction ⁶⁸. Vacancy that low supports the resale case for an owner-occupied 504 warehouse; a study should still check how much of the space under construction is preleased.

Hotels, taxes and short-term rentals

Omaha's city hotel occupation tax is 5.5% on the Department of Revenue's list, a rate the research could not confirm on the city's own site, and Douglas County adds a lodging tax of 4% ⁷⁵. Hotel performance data were not found; an Omaha hotel study needs a paid STR report for its competitive set. The city had no short-term rental registry in July 2026; a registration proposal was pending ⁷⁶.

Grand Island's home county, Hall, grew +1.2% between the 2020 census (62,895) and July 1, 2025 (63,633) ⁸⁹; the metro counted 77,278 in July 2024 ⁹⁰. Nonfarm employment in the area was 40,187 in March 2026, a preliminary count up +74 jobs or +0.2% on the year ⁹¹. JBS USA's Grand Island beef plant appears among the state's largest private sites in the same undated federal database that lists Union Pacific ¹¹⁸. With payrolls this flat, the job base cannot be assumed to grow.

Nebraska Medicine announced in May 2025 a 66,000 square foot Grand Island Health Center, with groundbreaking in July 2025 and a build of about 20 months ⁹². CHI Health St. Francis expanded its emergency department within a city permit total of $266 million from 2019 to 2024 ⁹³. If patients come from well beyond the city, the two projects can carry demand for medical office space, senior beds and visitor nights, but that reach has to be shown: a senior or medical office study should define its trade area past Hall County and map the drive times.

The city has pushed hard on housing. It built or rehabilitated 1,267 housing units over about five years, and in 2025 it won $1.2 million from Nebraska's workforce housing fund for rural towns ⁹³. That shows demand and local support, but a study has to count those units as competition. Road work has reshaped the corridors. The four-lane US-30 expressway west of town, a $47.8 million project, was scheduled to open fully in early November 2025, according to an October 31 report ⁹⁴; the second phase of South Locust Street, a $9,044,222 contract from February 2025, replaces water mains and century-old pipes ⁹⁵; and a $4.3 million Claude Road project began in 2025 ⁹⁶. A retail or fuel study should show the site's access after the work.

Since May 1, 2026 Grand Island has charged a 4% occupation tax on hotel rooms, up from 2%, on top of Hall County's 4% lodging tax ¹⁸. A hotel study with a 2025 operating history has to restate it at the new rate. State and federal grants for a rail park were reported without a date and are not used here; a study for an industrial site there should obtain the award letters.

North Platte sets a large investment record against a population count that may be falling. The state economic development department counts $2 billion of development since 2020, with 1,211 housing units, 60 new retail businesses and 1,000+ jobs over the same years ¹⁰⁴. Yet one secondary source puts Lincoln County at 33,303 in July 2025, -4.0% from 2020, a change the research flags for checking against the Census base ¹⁰⁵. The micropolitan area counted 33,972 ²⁰. Jobs moved the other way: the preliminary July 2026 count of 17,629 was +479 above the 17,150 of July 2025 ⁹⁸.

The anchor of the new investment is Sustainable Beef, a cattle-producer-owned plant near the Interstate 80 Newberry Access interchange, built on a former city sewer lagoon ¹⁰⁶, with Walmart as a minority partner ¹⁰⁷. It processed its first cattle in May 2025 with 200 jobs, has a capacity of 1,500 head per day ¹⁰⁸, and plans 950 jobs at full capacity ¹⁰⁴. Its cost was estimated at nearly $300 million in 2021; the final cost was not found ¹⁰⁶. Great Plains Health, the second-largest employer after Union Pacific ¹⁰⁷¹⁰⁹, completed a $30 million primary care center and a $6.8 million neurosurgery center in 2025 ¹⁰⁹.

The constraint is labor and housing. A Nebraska Department of Labor figure reported in 2025 found that 84% of employers had difficulty finding enough applicants ¹¹⁰. A plant that adds several hundred jobs in a county whose population may be falling has to draw workers from elsewhere, and they need somewhere to live. That supports workforce rental housing, but the file should prove the plant's hiring by date and headcount, and show that the units built since 2020 have filled.

Hotel taxes are known only for 2019: a city occupation tax of 2% and a Lincoln County lodging tax of 4% ¹⁰³; the current rates were not found. Lincoln County was among the five counties of the June 2026 DR-4920 wildfire declaration ⁵⁹, a fact the study's own hazard section should carry.

The Norfolk micropolitan area counted 49,228 residents in 2025, up from 48,744 in 2020, a gain of +0.99% ²⁰. Its payrolls added +410 over the latest twelve months, reaching a preliminary 25,627 in July 2026 (25,217 a year before) ⁹⁸. The base is manufacturing and regional retail. Nucor's steel mill completed a $58 million engineered bar upgrade in 2022, and the state counts more than $600 million of private investment in Norfolk since 2020, along with nearly 700 housing units ¹¹².

The city is preparing for more industry. About 500 acres of industrial land were in site planning in 2025 ¹¹³, and the Bradford Business Park was financed by four local banks: Midwest, Elkhorn Valley, First National and Frontier ¹¹⁴. Norfolk's housing program received two state workforce housing awards, $628,356 in 2024 and $1,000,000 in 2025 ¹¹². Local bank participation is useful evidence in a credit file, and for an industrial project the land bank means competing sites, so the study should compare cost and access.

One open question sits in the operating budget: a city occupation tax was proposed subject to a public vote, but no outcome appears in the research. Until the city confirms the rate, a Norfolk lodging or dining pro forma should show it both ways. Nor does the research hold room counts, occupancy or road counts for Norfolk, so a new hotel or restaurant has to be argued from field counts along the corridors that will serve the new industrial land.

Nebraska's record is deep where the state writes a rule or a tax and thin almost everywhere else. The pages below set out the general method for each use, written for any state; the Nebraska rules that bend those methods, from the nursing bed moratorium to the release fund deadline, are in the rules section above.