SBA loans for warehousing and storage companies

Bigger loans, and a lot of buildings

General warehousing and storage (NAICS 493110) took 117 SBA 7(a) loans from FY2024 through June 2026, worth $96,415,400, from 59 lenders. The median loan, $350,000, is more than twice the national $150,300. The middle half ran from $150,000 to $1,000,000, the 90th percentile was $2,520,000, and 32 loans, 27.4% of the total, were $1 million or more. A warehouse business needs racking, forklifts, dock equipment and a management system before it stores a pallet, and often a building.

The building usually goes through 504. The industry took 31 SBA 504 loans with a median of $2,227,000, one for roughly every four 7(a) loans, a large 504 share beside the 7(a) count. Operators buying or building their own warehouse use 504 for the real estate and keep 7(a) for equipment, working capital and the business.

Operating a warehouse, or owning one

The first question an SBA lender asks is whether the borrower runs a warehouse or rents one out. SBA finances operating businesses. A company whose income is rent from tenants is a passive real estate investor and is not eligible, however much the building looks like a warehouse business from the street. A company that receives, stores, handles, picks, packs and ships customers' goods, and charges for that work, is an operating business.

Mixed cases are common. An operator may sublease a bay it does not need, or own the building in one company and run the warehouse in another. SBA allows the second arrangement through an eligible passive company that holds the real estate and leases it to the operating company, with both on the loan. The first is fine within limits: a 504 borrower must occupy at least 51% of an existing building, or 60% of new construction, and may lease out the rest. See eligible passive company and propco-opco structures. Self-storage facilities, which rent units to the public, sit in a separate code with their own figures; see self-storage.

Revenue from handling other people's goods is an operating business; revenue from renting space is rent, and SBA will not finance a landlord.

7(a) or 504 for the building

For the real estate, 504 usually wins on cost and down payment. The typical structure is 50% from a bank, 40% from the CDC and 10% from the borrower, 15% for a new business or a special-purpose property, 20% for both. The CDC's share goes up to $5 million, or $5.5 million for manufacturers and energy projects, and since July 2026 the 504 and 7(a) limits are counted separately, so an operator can use both at full size. The CDC portion carries a fixed rate, so an operator who wants long, fixed money for a building can find it in the 504; that may be part of why only 7.7% of warehouse 7(a) loans were fixed.

A building fitted for a specific use, with heavy floor loads, specialized dock systems or controlled environments, may be treated as special-purpose and need the larger contribution. Temperature-controlled storage has its own NAICS code; a general warehouse that adds a cooler for one customer should expect the appraiser to ask whether the space would lease to anyone else. See SBA 7(a) vs 504 and SBA 504 vs a conventional commercial mortgage.

What secures a warehouse loan

The goods on the racks belong to the customers. A warehouse operator has a lien on stored goods for unpaid storage and handling charges, which helps it collect, but a lender cannot count customer inventory as its own collateral. What it can count is the operator's equipment, its receivables for storage and handling, and real estate if the operator owns it.

Equipment in a leased building needs a landlord waiver so the lender can reach it, and the lease, with renewal options, should run at least as long as the loan; a short lease on the building the whole business depends on is a common reason a lender shortens the term or asks for more collateral. See lease assignment in a purchase.

Storage and handling receivables can support a revolving line. Asset-based lenders typically advance 80% to 90% of eligible receivables, treat receivables more than 90 days past invoice as ineligible, and commonly cap any single customer at 20% to 25% of the eligible pool, which bites for an operator with one dominant account. See how a borrowing base works.

Customers, contracts and utilization

Warehouse revenue is pallets in and pallets out. Dedicated contract warehousing, with a multi-year agreement and volume minimums, reads like a lease with services attached; public warehousing billed month to month by the pallet reads like a hotel, full in some seasons and empty in others; e-commerce fulfillment swings with each client's sales and client turnover. A lender asks for revenue by customer and by contract type, the contract terms for the largest accounts, and space use over at least two years.

Concentration is the recurring worry. One customer filling half the building makes that customer's renewal the credit. SBA requires debt service coverage of at least 1.15x, and 1.0x globally once the owners are counted; a lender will run the test with the largest customer's volume reduced and see whether the loan still pays. See customer concentration and debt.

Why buyers rarely use SBA here

One loan in the period, $2,840,000 at 9%, financed a change of ownership: 0.9% of the industry's loans, against 10.4% nationally. There is no pattern to read from one loan, but the gap is worth explaining. Likely reasons: warehouse businesses often change hands with their buildings, which buyers can finance with a conventional or 504 mortgage and the operating company separately, and some purchases are too large for a 7(a) alone.

A buyer who does use 7(a) should plan for SBA's acquisition rules: at least 10% of total project costs as equity, a seller note counting toward half of that only on full standby for the life of the loan, an independent business valuation where the amount financed less appraised real estate and equipment exceeds $250,000, and from 1 October 2026, 1.25x debt service coverage on historical results and a quality of earnings report on acquisitions of $3 million or more excluding real estate. Loans above the 7(a) ceiling of $5 million are covered in acquisitions above the SBA limit.

Preparing a warehouse operator's file

The SBA list: 2–3 years of business tax returns, a P&L and balance sheet with a year-to-date P&L through last month-end, a debt schedule with copies of notes being refinanced, and personal tax returns and a personal financial statement for each owner of 20% or more, each of whom personally guarantees the loan. Add revenue by customer, the top customer agreements, space use by month, the building lease or deed, an equipment list, an AR aging, and insurance showing warehouse legal liability coverage. For a building, the purchase contract or construction budget. Transparent builds the full lender package — financing model, lender presentation, blind teaser and underwriting memo — in a day once the documents are in, and takes it to the lenders among the 278 in its book that write SBA 7(a) and 504. On SBA loans the lender pays Transparent, not the borrower. See the package.