Wisconsin Feasibility Studies

The July 1, 2025 estimate counted 5,972,787 Wisconsin residents ³, but no lender underwrites that total. The county figures further down run from a loss in Milwaukee County to steady growth in Dane County, so the population and household evidence in a Wisconsin study belongs to the counties its trade area covers, with the Census vintage named.

The make-up of growth changed as well. Net moves in from other states rose to 6,984 in the year to July 1, 2025, from 5,828, while net arrivals from abroad dropped to 7,260 from 19,395 ¹. The research does not say which counties lost those arrivals, one more reason a county's own series, not the state's rate scaled down, carries the demand case.

The statewide force is electricity. CROWE, the UW-Madison economics center, counts at least $36.3 billion of data-center projects that were running, being built or committed, giving each project's status as of July 2026 ², and its report carries the Public Service Commission's draft forecast tracing roughly 72% of the expected growth in statewide peak demand through 2032 to three very large data centers ². Through utility rates, part of the cost of serving that load may reach customers far from any campus, so the costs section treats power as a sensitivity. The campuses themselves were decided locally: the village of DeForest turned one away, Janesville set a referendum, and Marathon County paused new ones ²⁶.

The newest SBA-reported statewide totals in the research are for FY2024: 1,099 7(a) loans for $524.9M and 173 504 loans for $188.3M, inside 1,342 loans across all programs that included 70 microloans ⁵. The FY2023 counts were 964 7(a) loans for $482.1M and 183 504 loans for $174.9M ¹⁰. For FY2025 the research found no SBA total: a lender's award release puts SBA-backed lending in Wisconsin above $757 million ¹¹, and a secondary count built from FOIA records gives 1,128 7(a) approvals worth $551.1M in calendar 2025 ¹².

A longer window comes from SBA's loan-level file. Taking approvals in the ten federal fiscal years that ended in September 2025, and leaving out loans later cancelled, it holds 10,364 Wisconsin 7(a) loans and $1,692.6 million of 504 approvals ¹³. A study that wants to show SBA lending as routine in Wisconsin should cite these ten-year counts rather than any single year.

GoSBA's calendar 2025 tally, which ranks lenders by dollars, puts Old National Bank first with $59.6M on 54 loans; U.S. Bank follows at $28.1M on 116 loans, then Byline Bank ($27.2M on 26 loans), Huntington ($25.1M on 73) and Live Oak ($23.2M on 24) ¹². The same tally names hotels and motels as the most-funded 7(a) industry in Wisconsin in 2025 ¹².

WBD, Inc., a certified development company based in Madison, made 152 of the state's 183 504 loans in FY2023, for $139,309,000 ¹⁰, and its own FY2025 annual report counts 184 approvals for $190,993,000 ¹⁴. SBA's FY2023 story names Business Lending Partners of Racine as a second CDC ¹⁰.

Treasury approved up to $79.1M of SSBCI 2.0 money for Wisconsin, spread over seven programs in capital access, collateral support, loan participation, a debt and equity hybrid and venture equity ¹⁵. WHEDA's announcement split it into a $50M venture fund (the Wisconsin Investment Fund), an $8M WEDC Technology Development Loan, $6M for WEDC's Capital Catalyst and $15M of WHEDA credit support for CDFI microloans ¹⁶. In FY2025 Capital Catalyst had $3,600,000 available, $1,250,000 of it from WEDC and $2,350,000 from SSBCI ¹⁷.

The Public Finance Authority, created under Wis. Stat. s. 66.0304, issues tax-exempt, taxable and tax-credit conduit bonds for projects in all 50 states ¹⁸. In April 2026 The Bond Buyer reported that the authority's asset-ownership program held 9 credits with roughly $1.2B of debt outstanding, a figure the research did not verify elsewhere ¹⁹. The paper's own headline calls the program troubled, so a lender looking at a deal financed through the authority should test the study's demand case harder rather than take the conduit's name as comfort.

For a Northwoods resort, a Dells campground or a food processor in a small town, the Business and Industry guarantee from Rural Development offers a federal alternative to SBA, open only where the parcel counts as rural. A study prepared for one channel can serve the other only if it already carries that parcel status, which is the first open question in the verification list that closes the page.

What the research could not supply is any Wisconsin record of the program: no state office details, no FY2025 Business and Industry obligations and nothing on Community Facilities or REAP activity. The research note applying USDA's five study components lists what such a study contains, the Rural Development deadline calendar tracks the agency's dates, and the USDA practice page describes the program in general.

Nursing homes and senior care

Wisconsin has no formal Certificate of Need program, but it keeps a statewide nursing-home bed limit under s. 150.31 and moratoria on new hospital, psychiatric and chemical-dependency, and nursing-home beds ²⁵. A new nursing home needs state approval regardless of cost, and approval is also required for a non-renovation capital expenditure above $1M or for clinical equipment above $600,000 ²⁶. CR 25-072, a Department of Health Services rule proposed in 2025 and 2026 and published in the 2026 Administrative Register, would repeal DHS 122.05(1)(c), the provision that keeps beds from closed homes from being redistributed ²⁷; a study that counts on such beds should state where the rule stands on its own date. The licensing categories and bed thresholds for assisted living or memory care (DHS 83, 88 and 89) were not in the research; a study in that segment quotes the current rule text itself.

Restaurants, taverns and hotels with a bar

Class B liquor licenses are capped by a population quota, and a reserve license can move only between municipalities that touch or lie within 2 miles of each other. The initial fee for a reserve Class B license is at least $10,000, or at least $30,000 for a reserve license in a premier economic development district, while the annual Class B fee runs from $50 to $500 ²⁸. A restaurant or hotel study that counts alcohol revenue should show where its license will come from under the quota, budget what it costs, and run the revenue without alcohol as a sensitivity case.

Room taxes and whole-home rentals

Wisconsin levies no room tax of its own. A lodging bill carries sales tax at the state and county level, 5.5% in a Revenue Department example, plus any room tax the municipality sets under s. 66.0615 ²⁹. Under s. 66.1014 a local government may not prohibit rentals of seven consecutive days or more; for rentals of 7 to 29 days it may set a cap, but the cap cannot allow fewer than 180 days of such rentals in any 365. An operator renting more than ten nights a year needs a DATCP tourist rooming house license. A 2025 bill to repeal the core of that preemption, SB 1080, was not enacted ³⁰. Lodging and campground studies should therefore count whole-home rentals of a week or longer in the competitive census as supply that local rules cannot remove.

Wages

Wisconsin's minimum is $7.25 an hour, unchanged since July 24, 2009, and s. 104.001 keeps cities from setting a higher one; the tipped cash wage is $2.33, and workers under 20 may be paid an opportunity wage of $5.90 for their first 90 days ³¹. Because of the preemption the legal floor is identical in Madison and in Vilas County, so what separates a staffing budget in one from the other is the market wage, which a hotel, restaurant, child care center or assisted living study takes from local postings or the operator's own payroll.

Fuel stations and dry cleaners

PECFA, the state petroleum cleanup fund, stopped taking new claims on June 30, 2020; no state fund reimburses new tank releases, and the dry cleaner fund sunsets on June 30, 2032 ³². Environmental risk on a fuel station or c-store purchase therefore stays private, and the study should report tank age and condition, the Phase I findings and the premium for private pollution cover.

The Governor's request for a federal declaration recorded 14.55 inches of rain in Milwaukee County in the 24 hours of August 9, 2025 ³⁶. FEMA declared DR-4892 on September 11, 2025 for the storms of August 9 to 12, with Individual Assistance only, for Milwaukee, Waukesha and Washington counties ³⁷.

FEMA's preliminary damage assessment report for the declaration counted 51 residences destroyed, 1,500 with major damage, 654 with minor damage and 966 affected, and found only 0.7% of the damaged residences insured against flood ³⁸; the research gives these as the report's totals, without a county breakdown. A study whose site lies in or near the declared counties should state the parcel's flood zone and show flood cover in the operating budget. SBA's disaster notice added Dodge, Fond du Lac, Jefferson, Ozaukee, Racine, Sheboygan and Walworth as contiguous counties for economic injury loans ³⁹, so for lending purposes the flood reaches well past the three declared counties.

No other Wisconsin hazard is measured in the research: it has no National Risk Index profile and no wind, seismic or wildfire exposure for the state, and it could not confirm whether storms in April 2026 led to a declaration. For a site outside the flood counties, the study supplies the hazard evidence itself, from the flood map panel and the site's own claims history.

Beaver Dam, in Dodge County, is the furthest along. Meta's $1B campus there, sized at 220 MW, was under construction in July 2026, with $200M of ATC transmission work tied to it ². For lodging, RV and rental housing studies in and around Beaver Dam, the construction workforce is real demand, but it is temporary, and the permanent case has to stand without it.

Janesville, in Rock County, shows the political stage. A Viridian project valued at $8B was pending in July 2026, and the city scheduled a referendum for November 3, 2026 on any project above $450M at the site ². Menomonie, in Dunn County just west of the Eau Claire market, shows the pause: negotiations on a $1.6B Balloonist project were on hold in July 2026 ². Any study near a campus in Wisconsin, in these three towns or inside the markets below, should record the campus's standing on the date the study is signed and show its demand case both with the campus and without it.

This page reads the Madison market through Dane County alone, and two official series give the county different sizes. Census's Vintage 2025 estimate is 590,375 for July 1, 2025, against 561,504 in the 2020 census, a change QuickFacts gives as +5.1% ⁵⁷, while the state Department of Administration figure behind the county's projections is 611,149 for 2025 ⁵⁸. A Madison study should choose one, use it for base and projection alike, and show the other so a reviewer can see what the choice is worth.

Dane County permitted 6,629 residential units in 2025 ⁵⁷. The City of Madison has set a goal of 15,000 new homes by 2030, and the county strategy aims for 139,000 homes by 2040 ⁵⁹.

Payrolls did not keep pace. Between June 2025 and June 2026 the Madison metro lost 5,400 nonfarm jobs before seasonal adjustment and 2,600 after it ⁴⁸. Epic planned 1,700 hires for 2024 to 2025 and won approval for a sixth campus with an underground parking structure for 2,050 vehicles ⁶⁰. Its Verona hosting data center, valued at $347M, was in progress and WEDC-certified in July 2026 ². The QTS project at DeForest, valued at $12B, was cancelled after the village rejected the annexation ².

The apartment rows measure different things and do not agree, yet they point the same way: vacancy rose as the pipeline delivered, and rent growth slowed. A Dane County apartment project should be underwritten against the larger of the two construction counts, assume it leases up alongside every building delivering at the same time, and budget concessions in its first year. The industrial reading names no area, so it cannot carry an industrial or flex case on its own; an apartment project argues from absorption.

Local rules add costs a study should count. The City of Madison charges a $300 application fee and a $100 annual fee for a short-term rental license, grants one only for the host's own primary residence, and sets penalties of $500 to $1,000 per day ⁶⁵. The Town of Dunn charges an annual permit fee of $450 ⁶⁶. The city levies a 10% municipal room tax ²⁹, and park impact fees are due at building permit and adjusted every January, though the current rate was not found ⁶⁷.

I-94 crosses Kenosha and Racine counties on its way to Illinois, and south of the state line the corridor belongs to Illinois and to the Chicago market, whose page will cover that side when it lands. Kenosha County slipped 0.4%, to 168,448 at July 1, 2025 from 169,151 in 2020 ⁷³, while Racine County edged up to 198,919 from 197,727 ⁷⁴. In 2025, permits covered 892 units in Kenosha County and 667 in Racine County ⁷³⁷⁴.

Payrolls were nearly flat. DWD's June release, in the series it labels Kenosha and Racine, shows Kenosha up 300 between June 2025 and June 2026 before seasonal adjustment and down 100 after it, and Racine up 100 ⁴⁸; the research leaves the county makeup of those two series unstated, and a study has to settle it before setting them beside the county populations. Uline employs around 3,800 people in Kenosha County and was building a 1.4M sf warehouse there, along with a fourth headquarters building in Pleasant Prairie whose value was not found ⁷⁵.

Mount Pleasant holds Microsoft's campus. Its first data center, a $3.3B phase, became fully operational on June 23, 2026, with 800 to 900 permanent jobs expected ⁴⁵⁷⁶⁷⁷. CROWE's compilation puts the company's Racine County commitment at $20B+ ². In January 2026 the village plan commission advanced site plans for a $13.3B expansion with 9 data centers on the Durand Avenue campus and 6 on International Drive ⁴⁴, plans whose building count a study should check against the village's current approval. The dollar figures cover different scopes and dates, so a study quotes one and says what it includes rather than adding them. Microsoft also left a separate Caledonia site by July 2026 ².

With that much empty industrial space on the corridor, a speculative warehouse or flex project competes against standing buildings from the day it opens. The study should document a signed tenant, or a size or clear-height niche the vacant stock cannot fill.

The campus reaches other asset classes as well. City of Racine data put its water demand at 2.8 million gallons per year in 2026 ⁷⁶, held down by a design that uses zero-water evaporation cooling ⁴⁵. Construction crews leave when the buildings are done, and the research has no hotel or apartment figures for either county, so a lodging study near the I-94 interchanges should show debt service covered by a running campus's business travel alone.

This page reads the Dells market, with Lake Delton and Baraboo, through four counties: Columbia, Sauk, Juneau and Adams. Adams and Juneau also fall inside the Wausau region below, so a site there belongs to whichever market its guests come for. Sauk County held 66,652 people at July 1, 2025 against 65,763 in 2020, with 231 residential units permitted in 2025 ⁸⁷; the research found no population figures for the other three.

Kalahari announced an $85M expansion of its indoor waterpark, adding 75,000 sf, with opening given as October 10, 2026 ⁸⁸, while Kalahari's own expansion page has shown it as open ⁸⁹; a study should check which is true on its own date. Meetings Today reported the Dellshire Resort as scheduled to debut in June 2026, with about 500 rooms planned at full buildout by fall 2027 and around 340 hires ⁹⁰. The Wilderness Resort's waterpark was being renovated for an October 2026 reopening, at a value not found ⁸⁸.

Any lodging or campground study in the Dells has to show how the property competes for the same visitors once that new capacity opens. The research names the room-tax receipts as the local stand-in for hotel performance but did not retrieve them; since most of the city's room tax goes to the visitor bureau, that receipts series is the Dells measure a study should obtain and read month by month.

Each layer adds to the guest's bill, so a study should net every layer out of its rate before computing revenue. The visitor bureau's share of the room tax supports demand only while the bureau's budget holds, and a study that counts on it should say so. The Town of Delton's tax reaches campgrounds and park-model units by name, so an RV park study there should budget it, and the premier resort area tax may pay for local infrastructure and public safety ⁹³.

The research gives the area no employer list, campground count or traffic count, and nothing from primary sources on water or short-term rental rules. An RV or campground study there starts by counting competing sites, and a cabin or resort study by listing the rentals around it.

The case applies the reasoning behind the supply section's establishment count to a single site: deaths in a defined service area, the share a new home can win, and coverage tested against the loan. Since SBA lists funeral homes with crematoriums as special purpose properties (see the SBA section), it also shows what a study carries when the project has no operating history. Cases set in other states are in the case library.