How AVANA navigated a government shutdown, a complex credit story, and a softening market to close a $7M SBA 504 hospitality refinance in Austin, Texas.
Total Deal Size: $6.99M · AVANA First Mortgage: $3.5M · Loan Product: SBA 504 · LOI to Close: 189 Days
The Problem with SBA 504 Lending: Most Lenders Can Quote It. Few Can Navigate It.
The SBA 504 program is one of the most powerful financing tools available for commercial real estate. It gives borrowers below-market fixed rates, low equity requirements, and no balloon payments. It gives lenders disciplined structure and strong collateral positioning.
But the 504 program is also one of the most process-intensive lending structures in the market. It requires coordination between the lender, the SBA, and a Certified Development Company (CDC). It demands precise documentation, eligibility compliance, and timing across multiple parties. And when something disrupts the process — a market event, a borrower complication, or in this case a federal government shutdown — a lender without deep SBA experience and strong CDC relationships will stall.
AVANA has been originating and closing SBA 504 loans for years, across hospitality, multifamily, office, industrial, and retail. That depth of experience and those CDC relationships are what allow AVANA to keep deals moving when the process gets hard.
For a broker, the difference between an SBA lender and an experienced SBA lender shows up exactly when a deal hits a complication. This case study is about one of those moments.
AVANA Companies: Founded 2002. $6.5B+ Loans to Date. $1B AUM
The Deal: Best Western Plus, Austin, Texas
A broker brought AVANA a refinance opportunity on a Best Western Plus hotel in Austin, Texas: a 55,890-square-foot property owned and operated by Samar Hospitality, a second-generation hotelier family with 30-plus years of experience across luxury, mid-scale, and limited-service hotels in New York, North Carolina, Texas, and Florida.
On paper, the deal had real strengths: an experienced operator, a performing asset in a major market, and a clear SBA 504 structure. In practice, it had three layers of complexity that required a lender who could manage all of them at once.
Deal Snapshot
Property — Best Western Plus, Austin, Texas
Borrower — Samar Hospitality, second-generation hoteliers with 30-plus years of experience
Asset — 55,890 SF hotel, built 1981, fully renovated 2015
Total Deal Size — $6,997,000
AVANA First Mortgage — $3,500,000 (50% of total)
SBA Debenture — $3,497,000 (40% of total)
Borrower Equity — $708,900 (10% of total)
Purpose — Refinance (SBA 504)
Rate — 7.75% floor (5-Year CMT + 3.75%)
AVANA LTV — <35%
Outcome — Closed February 27, 2026. No surprises.
Three Layers of Complexity. One Closing.
Layer 1: A softening market that required disciplined underwriting, not avoidance. Austin RevPAR had dropped roughly 24% due to the closure of the Austin Convention Center for a $1.6 billion renovation and ongoing I-35 highway construction restricting access to the submarket. A lender without hospitality expertise would have stopped at the headline number. AVANA dug deeper.
The underlying credit story was strong: the property outperformed the Austin market by 15 percentage points in revenue decline (9.4% vs. 24%), the ownership team cut operating expenses by 16%, and Austin's long-term fundamentals remain among the strongest in the country. The headwinds were temporary. AVANA underwrote accordingly.
"We were deliberate about not underwriting an immediate recovery. Our underwritten case is essentially the current trough, with RevPAR 17% lower than the property's recent peak in 2022."
— Matthew Hunt, Underwriter, AVANA Companies
Layer 2: A 40-year-old hospitality asset that required specialist-level property and credit analysis. The property was built in 1981 and fully renovated in 2015 when Samar Hospitality converted it from a Ramada to a Best Western Plus. A Property Condition Assessment confirmed overall good condition, with upcoming capital needs addressed by structuring a 4% of room revenues monthly replacement reserve (approximately $120,000 per year) held by AVANA. The most recent Best Western franchise QA inspection (August 2024) rated the property Good.
Layer 3: A government shutdown that froze the SBA for over a month. The SBA 504 approval process ran directly into the federal government shutdown in Q4 2025, delaying SBA sign-off by approximately 110 days. This is where AVANA's SBA experience and CDC relationships proved decisive. Rather than losing momentum or losing the deal, AVANA maintained communication with the CDC, kept the borrower and broker informed, and positioned the file to move quickly the moment the SBA reopened.
"For a transaction with this many moving parts, 189 days is not something I would look at in isolation. The better question is whether the deal moved with discipline, transparency, and consistency from LOI to close. Certainty of execution means the borrower, the broker, and the partner know where the deal stands at every stage. It means we surface issues early, not late. It means we do not retrade a deal without a real credit reason."
— Sanat Patel, Chief Lending Officer, AVANA Companies
What AVANA's SBA Expertise Actually Means for Your Deal
Brokers who regularly work SBA 504 deals know that the program's complexity is where relationships get made or broken. Here is what AVANA brings to every SBA 504 transaction:
Strong CDC relationships. AVANA works with established CDC partners with whom the team has a long track record. That relationship means better communication throughout the approval process, faster problem-solving when issues arise, and a more coordinated experience for the borrower and broker from origination through closing.
Deep SBA 504 process knowledge. AVANA's team understands the full eligibility framework: the owner-occupied requirements, the debt seasoning rules, the payment history documentation, the debenture structure, and the overlays that can complicate a hospitality refinance. On this deal, the team confirmed the borrower met all SBA eligibility requirements, including evidence that at least 75% of the original loan proceeds were used to acquire or improve the property, that the debt was incurred more than two years prior to application, and that all payments were current for the prior 12 months.
"That institutional background shows up in how we think, not just in where we worked. It means our underwriting is rigorous, our structuring is intentional, and our risk assessment is grounded in experience across cycles. For a broker, that translates into a process that is thoughtful and credible."
— Sanat Patel, Chief Lending Officer, AVANA Companies
Institutional underwriting discipline. AVANA's underwriting team has backgrounds at JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and GE Capital. That institutional DNA means the credit analysis that goes to the SBA is rigorous, well-documented, and structured to hold up under review — which matters when approvals are scrutinized or delayed.
Experience closing through disruption. This deal proves the point. A 110-day government shutdown would have derailed many SBA transactions. AVANA kept the deal alive, maintained all parties' confidence, and closed on schedule.
What Brokers Ask Before Bringing AVANA a Deal
"Do you actually know SBA 504 and hospitality, or will you treat my deal like a problem?"
AVANA specializes in both. The team has closed SBA 504 transactions across hotel, multifamily, office, industrial, and retail asset classes. On hospitality specifically, AVANA approaches every deal as an operating business backed by real estate, not a headline risk to be avoided.
"We do not look at hotels as a headline risk; we look at them as operating businesses backed by real estate. What AVANA tends to see — and sometimes others miss — is the difference between generic hotel exposure and a specific hospitality asset with a defensible demand driver, a capable borrower, and a structure that gives us downside protection."
— Sanat Patel, Chief Lending Officer, AVANA Companies
"How fast will I know where my deal stands, and will you tell me the truth?"
AVANA can size a hospitality SBA 504 deal with as little as two years of financial statements and a current STR report, typically providing a viability assessment within 24 hours. If a deal will not work as proposed, AVANA communicates that early and comes back with an alternative structure. Brokers do not find out at week eight. They find out at hour twenty-four.
"If I bring you in, will my reputation come out intact?"
When a broker makes an introduction they are putting their reputation on the line. AVANA's job is to make sure that introduction reflects well on the broker from start to finish: honest assessment upfront, clear communication throughout, and no surprises at the closing table.
"Brokers bring us deals because they know we understand complexity, we communicate clearly, and we do what we say we are going to do. We win business by being a dependable lender with creativity, structure, and follow-through. Over time, that builds real broker trust."
— Sanat Patel, Chief Lending Officer, AVANA Companies
What Deals to Bring Us
AVANA is the right call when your deal has SBA complexity, hospitality exposure, or both. Here is what fits:
Asset Types — Hotels, multifamily, office, industrial, retail, mixed-use
Deal Size — $1M to $15M+
Loan Purpose — Refinance, acquisition, expansion
Loan Products — SBA 504, construction, bridge, permanent
Borrower Profile — Experienced owner-operators; current on debt; 2+ years of financials
To Size a Deal — 2 years of financials plus current STR report
Feedback Timeline — Typically within 24 hours
Geography — Nationwide
Start the Conversation
The broker who brought this deal to AVANA needed a lending partner who understood the SBA 504 process deeply enough to keep a complex transaction moving through a government shutdown, a softening market, and a 40-year-old asset. AVANA delivered: disciplined underwriting, strong CDC coordination, and a close on February 27, 2026 — without retrading.
If you have an SBA deal, a hospitality deal, or any CRE transaction that needs a lender who knows how to close, bring it to us.
Contact AVANA | 1-877-850-5130
