Feasibility Study Consultant in West Virginia

What makes a West Virginia feasibility study different is that its demand has to be found in people the statewide count does not show growing (newcomers from other states, visitors, students and the residents of metro areas that cross the state line), while its costs turn on one line on the map: whether the site sits inside a municipality. West Virginia had 1,766,147 residents on July 1, 2025, 1.5% fewer than at the April 2020 estimates base, yet more people moved in from other states than moved out in each of the five years to July 2025, 6,408 more in the latest year alone [1]. Visitors made 77.2 million trips to the state in 2024 [2], about 44 for every resident [2][1]. Three metro areas above a quarter of a million people reach into West Virginia, and their six West Virginia counties held 406,028 residents in July 2025, 23.0% of the state [3][1]. On the cost side, 101 municipalities add a local sales and use tax to the 6% state rate on the State Tax Department's list issued October 22, 2026, and six more begin on January 1, 2027 [10][11], property inside a municipality is taxed in Class IV and property outside it in Class III [5], and counties and municipalities, not the State Tax Department, administer the hotel occupancy tax [6]. Put a single statewide figure on any of those lines and most West Virginia sites are mispriced. Both threads run through everything below. The lender section asks where customers come from and where the site sits; the demand, visitor and metro sections find the outside sources; the asset family sections show the municipal line inside each set of state rules; and three worked models put the debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) through a property class change, a state sales tax credit and a child care staffing ratio before the closing sections on who prepares the study, the file and the scope.

What do lenders expect from a West Virginia feasibility study?

They expect the study to say where its customers come from and which side of a municipal boundary the site is on, and to compute the DSCR only after both answers are fixed. What lenders ask of any study is collected in lender feasibility study requirements, and the qualities a credit committee looks for are in the bankable feasibility study guide. Federally, USDA wants a study from an independent qualified consultant when a Business and Industry guaranteed loan to a new business tops $1,000,000 [7], and SOP 50 10 8.1, in force from October 1, 2026, lets SBA ask for one [8].

Beyond that federal floor, a West Virginia file is judged on six local points.

• The demand source, named. The resident count is falling, so a study that grows its market with population has nothing to grow it with. The state lost 27,612 residents between the April 2020 base and July 2025 [1], while Berkeley County gained 14.3% and Kanawha County lost 4.6% [9]. A credible file says whether its customers are newcomers, visitors, students or people on the far side of a state line, and it cites the record that counts them.
• The corporate limit. Inside a municipality that levies it, the 1% local sales and use tax lifts the combined rate to 7% [10]. The Department's tax page says a new municipal tax may start no sooner than the first July 1 that begins 180 days after the city furnishes its ordinance and boundary data to the Tax Commissioner [10], yet its list issued in October 2026 also shows taxes that started on January 1, including four in 2026, and six that start on January 1, 2027 [11]. A study therefore takes the start date from the list, not from the July rule, and names the city, the date its tax took effect and whether the parcel lies inside the line.
• The property class and the July 1 date. Ownership, use and value are fixed as of July 1 for the next calendar tax year [12], and commercial property is Class IV inside a municipality and Class III outside one [5]. The class decides whether a municipal levy reaches the parcel at all, and Illustrative model A turns that into coverage.
• Who levies the room tax. The State Tax Department does not administer the hotel occupancy tax; counties and municipalities do [6]. A lodging study takes its rate from the county or the city, never from a statewide figure.
• The license that comes before revenue. A health care provider needs a certificate of need before it spends past the Health Care Authority's capital threshold, unless an exemption applies [13]. An alcohol license takes about a month and needs a finished premises [14]. A new owner of a fuel site has 30 days to register its tanks and may run only registered tanks [15]. Every plan for the State Fire Marshal has gone through its online portal since March 1, 2025 [16].
• The incentive's own clock. A BUILD WV housing project must be approved before construction is complete, and the Tourism Development Act credit is taken one tenth a year over 10 years, in full only if the sales tax base increases annually [17]. A study models an incentive only once its approval or its conditions are shown, and it reports coverage without it as well.

A file that answers these six from the records named on this page leaves the reviewer only the market itself to question. To test coverage on a project's own numbers, use the DSCR and debt yield calculator; SBA borrowers can see how SOP 50 10 8 and SOP 50 10 8.1 treat coverage differently in the SBA DSCR calculator. A borrower still choosing a lender can start with the lender fit finder, and the SBA, USDA and conventional program pages explain how each lender type reads a study.

How large is West Virginia's demand base, and what does each figure mean for a study?

It is small, shrinking slowly and being refilled from outside: the state had 1,766,147 residents in July 2025, 1,255 fewer than a year earlier, even though migration from other states and from abroad added 6,652 people in that year [1]. The Census Bureau's other components of change, taken together, subtracted 7,907 [1]. Table 1 gives the statewide measures, each with a note on how a West Virginia study uses it.

Table 1. West Virginia residents, households and housing, statewide

Source: Census Bureau state totals and state age file, Vintage 2025 [1][18]; American Community Survey 2025 1-year tables on tenure, household income and gross rent, state and metro rows [19][20][21]; Building Permits Survey state annual file for 2025, single-unit share computed by FSC [22].

Three readings of that table carry most of the weight in a West Virginia file, and the headline total is not one of them.

The first is the migration line, broken out for each year since 2020 in Table 2.

Table 2. Where West Virginia's population change came from, years to July 1

Source: Census Bureau state totals file, Vintage 2025 [1]; FSC computed the last column as population change minus both migration figures, and the five-year sums [1].

Net migration into West Virginia was positive in every one of the five years and added 22,451 people in all [1]. The state still lost 25,523 residents over the same years, because the other components took away 47,974 [1]. For a study this splits demand in two. Uses that serve the people already here, from a neighborhood grocery to replacement housing, face a base that shrinks a little each year. Uses that serve arrivals face a base that grows, and the arrivals do not land evenly: Berkeley County grew 14.3% from the 2020 base to July 2025 and Monongalia County 2.1%, while Kanawha County fell 4.6% [9]. A trade area in Berkeley County and one in Kanawha County start from opposite signs, and a projection that applies the state's -1.5% to either is wrong in both directions [1][9].

The second is age. Residents aged 65 and older were 22.5% of the state in July 2025 [18]. That share points care demand upward, but the certificate of need rules covered below bar new skilled nursing beds outside one narrow exemption and leave assisted living exempt [23][24], so in West Virginia the age profile argues for some care formats and closes the door on others.

The third is new supply. Of the 3,962 housing units authorized in 2025, 3,618 were in single-unit buildings, 198 in buildings of two to four units and 146 in buildings of five or more [22]. With 25.3% of occupied homes rented and a typical gross rent of $921 a month [19][21], the statewide permit count shows no wave of new apartments, so a rental project's competition is mostly older stock and the choice to buy. Median household income was $61,340 [20], which the metro section below compares with each metro.

Table 3 counts the establishments in the asset types this page covers. The counts are statewide and date from 2023, so they size no trade area; what they show is how many operators each West Virginia rule reaches.

Table 3. West Virginia establishments by type, 2023

Source: Census Bureau, County Business Patterns for 2023, state-level file [25].

The 298 hotels and motels [25] each collect whatever hotel occupancy tax their county or city levies [6]. The 837 gasoline stations with convenience stores [25] meet tank financial responsibility through private insurance or another federal mechanism, because West Virginia has no state trust fund [15]. Any of the 3,271 restaurants and bars [25] that seeks a private club license faces a commissioner who may weigh the number of similar licensees in the locality before granting another [26].

How should a West Virginia study use the state's visitor counts?

As a statewide ceiling and a direction of travel, never as a count of room nights: the Department of Tourism's report for 2024 puts visitors at 77.2 million, up 2.9% on 2023, and their spending at $6.6 billion, up 4.1% [2], but every figure used here is statewide. No other outside source of demand on this page comes close in number, which is why visitors get their own section. Table 4 sets out what the report says.

Table 4. Visitors to West Virginia and their spending

Source: Department of Tourism economic impact report for 2024 [2] and the 2025 report, whose cover is marked DRAFT [27]; shares, day visitors and per-visitor figures computed by FSC from the 2024 report [2].

Three things in the table shape a study here. First, most visitors do not stay the night. Overnight visitors were 16.6 million of the 77.2 million in 2024, or 21.5%, yet they spent $2.5 billion of the $6.6 billion, or 37.9% [2]. A day-trip market feeds restaurants, fuel stops and attractions; it feeds hotels only through the minority that stays.

Second, lodging spending of $0.869 billion across all accommodation types works out to about $52 per overnight visitor [2], against $148 of total spending per overnight visitor in the same report [2]. An average that low means an overnight visitor cannot be read as a paid room night, so a hotel study in West Virginia builds its room nights from local hotel tax collections and its own competitive set, as the Huntington records below allow, rather than from the statewide count.

Third, the 2025 report is marked DRAFT on its cover [27]. Its 78.4 million visitors and $6.8 billion of spending [27] are shown only to flag them; this page relies on the final 2024 report for every figure it uses.

The visitor base also explains why short-term rentals deserve their own line in a West Virginia projection. Demand for them rose nearly 18% in 2024 [2], and since January 1, 2022 the platforms that book them collect the local hotel occupancy tax once they reach $100,000 of West Virginia hotel sales or 200 transactions [6]. A cabin or cottage projection therefore shows rent net of the tax the platform remits.

Is any West Virginia city above 50,000 residents, and how does that bear on the USDA rural definition?

No: no incorporated place in West Virginia had more than 50,000 residents at the April 2020 estimates base or in July 2025, according to the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 subcounty file [28][29]. There is therefore no places table for this state, and its largest cities enter a study through what they collect rather than through a headcount above a federal line. The State Tax Department distributed $20,074,722.15 of Charleston's 1% municipal tax [11] across the four imposition quarters of fiscal year 2026, 12.2% of the total for all municipalities over those quarters [30].

7 CFR 5001.3 excludes two kinds of land from its rural definition: any city or town above 50,000 inhabitants, and the urbanized area contiguous and adjacent to such a place [29]. The test uses the latest decennial census, not the yearly estimates above [29]. The Rural Development Property Eligibility Map marks land next to an urbanized area non-eligible, an applicant there can ask its Rural Development State Office for a determination, and approval cannot hinge on meeting the test later [29]. Nothing on this page decides whether any West Virginia site qualifies, including a site in one of the six metro counties.

What do the three metro areas that reach into West Virginia mean for a study?

They mean that the metro statistics a lender sees first often describe another state: West Virginia holds 50.7% of the Huntington-Ashland metro's residents and 50.0% of Hagerstown-Martinsburg's, but only 1.0% of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro's [3]. Table 5 sets the three side by side as the Census Bureau defines them.

Table 5. The three metros above a quarter of a million people that include West Virginia counties

Source: Census Bureau metropolitan area file with county rows, Vintage 2025 [3]; American Community Survey 2025 1-year metro rows for household income, tenure and gross rent [20][19][21]; changes and shares computed from the same files [3][19].

Read across, the table holds three different demand stories. Hagerstown-Martinsburg grew 7.3% from the base, the fastest of the three, and drew 4,089 net domestic migrants in the latest year [3]. Huntington-Ashland was 2.7% smaller than at the base, even though it, too, gained 816 domestic migrants in the latest year [3]. The Washington metro lost 23,791 people to domestic migration in the year and grew only because 44,804 arrived from abroad [3], the reverse of West Virginia's own pattern [1]. Its median household income of $131,346 and median rent of $2,168 [20][21] are set almost entirely by counties outside West Virginia and say little about Jefferson County, which holds 63,102 of the metro's 6,465,724 residents [3].

Table 6 lists the six West Virginia metro counties with the two other counties whose estimates this page carries.

Table 6. West Virginia counties on this page, July 2025

Source: Vintage 2025 metropolitan area estimates, county rows [3]; Vintage 2025 county totals [9]; state totals [1]; shares computed by FSC [1][3][9].

For the cities in the three metros, the most complete local record is the State Tax Department's: which cities levy the 1% municipal sales and use tax, since when, and, for most of them, what each received [11]. Table 7 lists the dates and Table 8 the money.

Table 7. Effective dates of the 1% municipal sales and use tax in the cities on this page

Source: State Tax Department municipal sales and use tax page [10] and its list of municipalities imposing the tax, issued October 22, 2026 [11].

Table 8. Municipal sales and use tax for the four imposition quarters of fiscal years 2025 and 2026

Source: State Tax Department quarterly local sales and use tax distribution tables, fiscal years 2025 [31] and 2026 [30]: each figure is the tables' fiscal year total of the four imposition quarter columns, July to September through April to June, not the separate Amount Distributed column, whose totals differ; changes are computed from those totals [31][30]. "Not carried" marks a figure that was not taken from the Department's tables for this page.

The distributions are a proxy for sales activity inside city limits, not a count of taxable sales: each is the municipal tax the Department passed on for four imposition quarters [30]. Even so, they show where spending inside the corporate limit moved. The four quarter total for all municipalities rose 5.7% [30]. Barboursville and Ranson rose almost twice as fast, by 10.3% and 10.5% [30]. Martinsburg and Morgantown rose more slowly, by 2.4% and 0.6%, and Charleston's fell 2.2% [30]. Because the tax stops at the corporate limit, the series also measures how much of each market the municipal line captures, which is this page's thesis in a single column.

Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV: Berkeley and Morgan counties

This is the growth metro, and the growth is on the West Virginia side. The metro had 315,280 residents in July 2025, 7.3% more than at the April 2020 base, and added 4,344 in the latest year, 4,089 of them through net domestic migration [3]. Berkeley County alone went from 122,073 at the base to 139,522, a gain of 17,449 or 14.3% [9]. That is 81.4% of the whole two-state metro's gain of 21,445 over the same period [9][3]. Morgan County adds 18,027 residents [3], and the two counties together hold 50.0% of the metro [3].

Growth on that scale changes the question a study answers. In most of West Virginia a project has to take share from existing operators; in Berkeley County it has to be open before others fill the same gap, with a trade area drawn around where the residents who arrived after 2020 actually live. A study shows the county's growth and then the growth inside its own trade area, because the two need not match.

Martinsburg's own tax base shows why. Its 1% municipal sales and use tax, in force since July 1, 2015 [11], produced $7,204,189.55 across the four imposition quarters of fiscal year 2025 and $7,375,417.25 across those of fiscal year 2026, a rise of 2.4% [31][30], less than half the 5.7% rise for all municipalities on the same basis [30]. The county grew fastest, while the city's distribution grew more slowly than the statewide total. A study treats that gap as a question for site-level evidence: either much of the new spending happens outside the city limits, or the city's retail base was already full. Either way, a retail or restaurant projection inside Martinsburg that borrows the county's 14.3% population growth as its sales growth overstates the case [9][30].

By asset type, the metro's records point as follows.

• Housing. The metro's renter share was 27.4% and its median gross rent $1,287 in 2025, against 25.3% and $921 statewide [19][21], and its median household income was $82,478 [20]. Both sit well above the state's figures, but they blend in the Maryland half of the metro, so a housing study sets rents from Berkeley County's own tables and its own rent survey.
• Retail and restaurants. Inside Martinsburg a taxable sale carries the 7% combined rate [11]; outside every taxing city it carries the 6% state rate [10]. The distribution gap above is the first thing a lender will ask about.
• Lodging. Martinsburg's hotel occupancy tax is 6% on the State Tax Department's facilitator list [6]. The Department presumes every sale of goods and services taxable unless an exemption is clearly provided [32], so a room in the city is modeled with the 7% combined sales tax as well [10].
• Care. The statewide 65 and older share of 22.5% [18] is the only age figure here; a care study in Berkeley County takes the county's own age rows, since a fast-growing county can be younger than the state.

Morgan County has no local tax or permit record on this page, and a study there starts with the county itself.

Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH: Cabell, Putnam and Wayne counties

This metro is half West Virginia and shrinking, and its central city is the only one on this page whose own budget, audit and tax forms are cited. The metro had 365,965 residents in July 2025, 2.7% fewer than at the base, and lost 1,090 in the latest year despite a net domestic gain of 816 [3]. Its three West Virginia counties held 185,377 residents, 50.7% of the metro: Cabell 91,183, Putnam 56,885 and Wayne 37,309 [3]. Median household income was $57,395, below the state's $61,340, and median gross rent $944 against $921 statewide [20][21].

The City of Huntington layers its own revenue lines on top of the state's, and its audit and budget show each one.

Table 9. City of Huntington revenue lines that touch a project

Source: City of Huntington audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025 [33]; approved fiscal year 2026 budget [34].

Each line answers a different study question.

• Room demand. Huntington's hotel occupancy tax is 6% on every room inside the corporate limits [35]. The audited collections of $1,146,336 for fiscal year 2025, up 4.0% on the year before [33], imply about $19.1 million of taxable room charges inside the city at that rate [33][35]. That is an FSC calculation that ignores collection timing and any exempt stays, but it is a local measure a hotel study can test against the rooms in its competitive set. The budget carries $1,000,000 for both fiscal 2025 and 2026 [34], and the audit recorded 14.6% more than that for 2025 [33][34], so the budget reads as the city's caution, not as a forecast of room demand.
• The business itself. The city's business and occupation tax brought in $16,221,978 in fiscal year 2025, down 12.8% from $18,612,996 [33]. This page carries no rate schedule for it, so a business inside Huntington takes its classification and rate from the city before the study sets that expense.
• The property tax. The audit notes give the city's Class IV levy as 44.00 cents per hundred dollars on $1,198,236,506 of assessed value and its Class II levy as 22.00 cents per hundred dollars on $615,480,266 [33]. Both rates are 88% of the municipal maximums of 50.00 and 25.00 cents [33][36]. Class IV, which inside a city takes in every commercial parcel [5], holds 66.1% of the assessed value in the two classes [33]. Ad valorem revenue rose 9.5% between the two audited years [33].
• Retail. The 1% municipal tax has applied since January 1, 2012 [37], and the Department distributed $10,281,338.55 of it for the four imposition quarters of fiscal year 2026 [30]. The city's budget shows $9,996,529 of sales tax actually received in fiscal year 2024 and $8,500,000 approved for 2026 [34]. The two series run on different calendars, so a study cites the Department's distribution for market activity and the city's budget only for what the city expects.
• Construction. A Huntington building permit carries a $20.00 application fee, the permit fee itself is set by the cost of labor and materials, and the city lists the 2018 International Building Code among its codes [38]. Permit fee revenue was $339,716 in fiscal year 2024, then budgeted at $205,000 for 2025 as amended and $300,000 for 2026 [34].

Huntington is also one of the two Municipal Economic Opportunity Development District returns the Tax Department lists, the other being South Charleston Park Place [32]. Inside such a district a 6% special district excise tax replaces the 6% state sales tax, and the 1% local sales tax still applies [32]. The customer sees the same rate; what changes is where the 6% goes [32], which matters to a project financed through the district and not to a tenant's price list.

The metro's other West Virginia cities extend the retail map. Barboursville's distribution rose 10.3% to $5,626,336.04 in fiscal year 2026, 54.7% of Huntington's [31][30], and Hurricane received $2,214,209.85 [30]. Both have levied the 1% tax since July 1, 2020, and Wayne since January 1, 2018 [11]. A retail study in this metro therefore compares sites across four taxing cities and the unincorporated land between them, where the 1% municipal tax does not apply and Class III takes the place of Class IV [11][5].

Two anchors complete the local record. Huntington Tri-State Airport is updating its master plan with a 20-year outlook [39]. The economic impact figures on its site come from a 2006 study, which put the airport's output at $50.4 million and its state and local tax revenue at $3.5 million [40]; at twenty years old they describe a different airport economy and serve here only as history. Marshall University is the other.

Table 10. Marshall University enrollment and research

Source: Marshall University Quick Facts [41].

For student housing and for restaurants and lodging tied to campus visits, the out-of-state share is the figure to watch: 21.4% of students in fall 2024 came from outside West Virginia [41], another source of demand the state's resident count does not show. A student housing study pairs the fall headcount by level with the university's own housing capacity, which this page does not carry.

By asset type, then: lodging works from the city's 6% tax [35] and its implied room charges; retail compares four taxing cities; housing faces a rent of $944 and a renter share of 27.9% [21][19] with a student market on top; and care projects face a metro that is smaller than in 2020 [3] under the same certificate of need rules as the rest of the state.

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV: Jefferson County

West Virginia's part of the national capital region is one county of 63,102 residents, 1.0% of a metro of 6,465,724 [3]. That share is too small for any metro median to describe it. The metro's median household income of $131,346, renter share of 37.2% and median gross rent of $2,168 [20][19][21] are set by its counties in the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland, and a Jefferson County study takes the county's own tables before it uses any of them. The metro's migration also runs the other way from West Virginia's: it lost 23,791 people to domestic migration in the year to July 2025 and gained 44,804 from abroad [3].

The local record is the State Tax Department's. Charles Town and Ranson have levied the 1% municipal tax since July 1, 2015, and Harpers Ferry since July 1, 2016 [11]. Ranson's distribution rose 10.5%, from $2,424,833.45 in fiscal year 2025 to $2,679,652.40 in 2026 [31][30], the fastest of the cities in Table 8 and nearly twice the statewide 5.7% [30]. Charles Town received $2,030,247.76 in fiscal year 2025 [31], so the two cities together took in $4,455,081.21 that year [31].

By asset type:

• Retail and restaurants. Ranson's growth is the strongest municipal sales signal on this page [30], and with three taxing cities in one county, a site study maps which side of each corporate limit the site and its competitors are on.
• Housing. No Jefferson County rent or income figure is on this page, and the metro's $2,168 rent [21] is not a stand-in for it.
• Lodging. No hotel occupancy tax rate for Jefferson County or its cities appears on the State Tax Department's facilitator entries used here [6], so a lodging study asks the county and the city in writing.

Charleston, Morgantown and the cities outside the three metros

Most of West Virginia's larger cities sit outside the three metros, and the State Tax Department's records reach them the same way. Kanawha County had 172,381 residents in July 2025, 8,352 fewer than at the 2020 base [9]. Charleston still produced the largest municipal distribution on this page: $20,074,722.15 in fiscal year 2026, down 2.2% [30]. Its 1% tax dates from July 1, 2015 [11], and its hotel occupancy tax is 6% on the Department's facilitator list [6]. West Virginia International Yeager Airport has a 6,715-foot asphalt runway and became an international airport in 2022 [42]. South Charleston Park Place is the second Municipal Economic Opportunity Development District on the Department's list [32].

Monongalia County grew 2.1% to 107,991 residents [9]. Morgantown's 1% tax began July 1, 2020 [11], its distribution was nearly flat at $10,399,192.23, up 0.6% [30], and its hotel occupancy tax is 6% [6]. Wheeling and Parkersburg have levied the 1% tax since July 1, 2015, and Beckley, Fairmont and Clarksburg since July 1, 2016 [10]. Wheeling's hotel tax is 6% and Greenbrier County's is 3% on the facilitator list [6], which the Department warns may not be complete [6]. A study in any of these cities follows the same steps as in the metros: confirm the corporate limit, take the city's tax date and distribution, and get the room tax from the body that levies it.

Which West Virginia rules change the numbers for each asset family?

Three kinds of rule do: taxes that start or stop at a municipal or county line, licensing gates that decide whether and when a project may open, and incentives that pay only after an approval. Each family below lists the rules from those three groups that move its projection.

Lodging, short-term rentals and campgrounds

A West Virginia room bill is assembled locally. The 6% state consumers sales tax applies [10], the local sales tax of up to 1.0% [4] applies inside the 101 municipalities that levy it on the Department's list issued October 22, 2026, and in six more from January 1, 2027 [11], and the hotel occupancy tax comes from the county or city, which administer it in place of the State Tax Department [6]. Stays of more than 30 consecutive days per person at the same facility are exempt from the state consumers sales tax [17], a line that matters for extended-stay and workforce lodging.

Table 11. What a West Virginia room night can carry

Source: State Tax Department municipal sales tax, tax overview and hotel occupancy tax pages [10][4][6] and its list of municipalities imposing the tax, issued October 22, 2026 [11]; City of Huntington remittance form [35]; Division of Economic Development incentives page [17].

Inside Huntington, then, a room sale can carry the 6% state sales tax, the 1% municipal tax and the city's 6% hotel occupancy tax, 13% in all [10][35], before any county hotel tax, for which this page has no Cabell County rate. The guest pays these, so they reach DSCR only when the market will not absorb them and the hotel gives up rate to hold occupancy. They also supply a local yardstick of demand: the city's hotel tax collections convert to room charges, as the Huntington section shows.

Liquor licensing prices the amenities. A private hotel license costs $2,150 a year, and a private resort hotel license starts at $7,650 for one to five licensed areas and rises to $22,650 at the top of the scale, plus a $100 operational fee for each licensed location [43].

The Tourism Development Act can return part of what a lodging project collects. An approved business takes a 25% credit against the consumers sales tax collected on gross receipts from daily operations, or 35% for a project on an abandoned surface mine or on or next to a state or national forest or park; the credit is taken one tenth a year over 10 years, and credit still unused after the thirteenth year is forfeited [17]. The sales tax base must also increase annually for the project to receive the full credit [17]. Illustrative model B shows why a study reports coverage without it.

Construction follows the State Fire Code and the State Building Code, Title 87 Series 1 and Series 4 [44], and plans for the State Fire Marshal have gone through its Plan Review Request Portal since March 1, 2025 [16]. The state had 298 hotels and motels and 33 RV parks and campgrounds in 2023 [25], and visitors spent $0.869 billion on lodging of all types in 2024, 2.8% more than in 2023 [2]. For a campground or glamping site, the study checks whether the land is on or next to a state or national forest or park, the category that lifts the Tourism Development Act credit to 35% [17].

Food and beverage: a license class, a local sign-off and a commissioner's count

An alcohol license in West Virginia starts with a local signature. Inside a city, the municipality completes the zoning form; outside a city, the county commission approves or denies by letter [14]. That is the municipal line again, this time deciding which government a restaurant has to satisfy before it can pour a drink. The Alcohol Beverage Control Administration says licensure takes about a month, provided the application is complete and the premises are ready for inspection [14], so a study does not put bar revenue into the opening month of a building still under construction.

Most licenses are Class A for drinking on the premises or Class B for sales off the premises [43]. The 2-year residency requirement is gone, but every licensee must list an on-premises manager who meets the manager requirements [14], and BYOB without a license is not legal [14]. Under the private club rule, 175 CSR 2, the Commissioner may refuse a license where the number of licenses in the locality would make another detrimental, weighing the population and the number of similar licensees [26]. A study for a new bar in a town that already has several licensees addresses that test head on, because there the market argument and the licensing argument are the same argument.

Table 12. Alcohol Beverage Control Administration license fees for common formats

Source: Alcohol Beverage Control Administration licensing page [43].

The fees are small next to a restaurant's payroll; the timing and the local sign-off are what move a projection. The state had 3,271 food service and drinking places in 2023 [25]. Distilleries, mini-distilleries and micro-distilleries fall under 175 CSR 10 and farm wineries under 175 CSR 3 [45], which a craft beverage study reads before it models tasting room sales. A restaurant sale inside a 1% city is presumed taxable at the 7% combined rate unless an exemption is clearly provided [10][32], and inside Huntington's development district and South Charleston Park Place the 6% special district excise tax stands in for the state tax [32], with no change to the rate the customer pays.

Fuel, auto service and car washes: no state fund behind the tanks

West Virginia has no state trust fund for underground storage tank financial responsibility or cleanup, and owners meet the requirement with private insurance or another mechanism the federal rules allow [15]. That single fact shapes a fuel projection more than any fee: the insurance premium is a fixed operating cost, and the cost of a release falls on the owner and its insurer, not on a state fund.

The fees themselves are modest: $90 per tank per year for registration plus $5 per tank for the groundwater protection program [15], or $380 a year for four tanks [15]. A buyer of an existing station must register the tanks within 30 days and submit proof of financial responsibility, and may operate only tanks that are already registered [15]; fuel deliverers must check that the owner holds a valid certificate and proof of financial responsibility [15]. A study of an acquisition therefore counts any days between closing and registration as days without fuel sales unless the registration is filed first.

Table 13. Tank rules a West Virginia fuel study reads

Source: Department of Environmental Protection tank FAQs, tank program page, leaking tank page and UECA-LUST page [15][46][47][48].

When a release happens, the state's response funds go only to state-lead cleanups: an emergency, a responsible party that cannot pay or refuses to act, or no responsible party at all [47]. Any leaking tank site may instead enter the UECA-LUST program, which closes a release on risk-based standards with land use covenants and ends in a No Further Action letter [48]. For a site with an old release, the covenant matters as much as the letter, because it limits what the land can become later.

Two sales tax rules split a convenience store's receipts. The municipal sales tax does not apply to motor fuel subject to the state's motor fuel excise taxes, and motor vehicle sales carry a 5% DMV sales tax in place of the municipal tax [10]. Inside a 1% city, the store's taxable merchandise carries the 7% combined rate while its fuel carries no municipal sales tax [10], so a study splits gallons from inside sales before it applies any local rate. The state had 837 gasoline stations with convenience stores and 80 car washes in 2023 [25], and the Tax Department presumes every sale of a service taxable unless an exemption is clearly provided [32], which a car wash projection reflects in its price after tax.

Housing: a class that depends on who lives there, and BUILD WV

Housing is where West Virginia's property classes need the most care. Class II covers owner-occupied residential property used only as a residence, along with farm land used by its owner or tenant [5], and each levying body's maximum regular levy on Class II is half its levy on Classes III and IV [36]. A rental building is not owner-occupied, so a rental project does not take Class II rates as the Department describes the class [5]; a study confirms the parcel's class with the county assessor, who values residential and commercial property [49], before it sets the tax line. Assessed value is generally 60 percent of fair market value [49].

BUILD WV is the state's housing incentive. It offers a state sales and use tax exemption on building materials and a 10-year property value adjustment refundable tax credit to offset building costs, for a non-refundable $5,000 application fee, and the project must apply and be approved before construction is complete [17]. Timing is the whole risk: a project that finishes construction before approval loses the incentive, so a housing study shows it only when the approval date precedes completion, and it shows the project without it as well.

Factory-built homes have their own sales tax rule. A buyer who will use the home as a principal year-round residence pays the 6% tax on half the sale price [32], an effective 3% of the full price [32], which a manufactured housing study reflects in the price a buyer can carry.

Statewide there are 188,868 renter households, 25.3% of the total, paying a median of $921 a month in gross rent [19][21], and only 146 units in buildings of five or more units were authorized in 2025 [22]. Higher rents appear in the metro figures for Hagerstown-Martinsburg, at $1,287, and Washington, at $2,168 [21], but both blend in counties outside West Virginia, so a housing study in Berkeley or Jefferson County works from county rows and its own survey.

The State Building Code is Title 87, Series 4 [44], and Huntington lists the 2018 International Building Code [38]. West Virginia confirmed 52 census tracts for the Opportunity Zone 2.0 program [50], which a housing or mixed-use study checks against the site's tract.

Storage: self-storage, RV and boat storage, cold storage and warehouses

Storage projects turn on the property tax line and on exemptions aimed at goods in transit. The state had 42 lessors of miniwarehouses and self-storage units and 62 warehousing and storage establishments in 2023 [25]. For self-storage and RV and boat storage, the West Virginia rule that bites is the class: the same building is Class III outside a municipality and Class IV inside one [5], and the difference at maximum regular levies is the 50.00 cents per $100 of assessed value that only a municipality can levy [36]. Illustrative model A converts that into coverage.

For warehouses and cold storage that hold goods moving through the state, the Freeport Amendment exempts from property tax goods brought in from outside West Virginia, held briefly in a warehouse and shipped out of state, as well as finished goods made in West Virginia and stored briefly before interstate shipment [17]. Certain purchases of tangible personal property by qualified warehouse and distribution centers may be exempt from the consumers sales and service tax [17]. A study for a distribution or cold storage building asks which of its tenants' inventory qualifies, because the exemption follows the goods while the building stays on the tax roll.

Senior care, health care and child care

Health care in West Virginia runs through the Health Care Authority's certificate of need, and the Authority's own pages give two different expenditure thresholds. Its certificate of need home page says a provider needs a certificate before exceeding a capital expenditure threshold of $5,803,788, before adding or expanding services, before buying major medical equipment and before developing or acquiring a facility [13]. Its frequently asked questions page gives the current expenditure minimum as $5,100,000 [23]. This page does not choose between the two. A project whose capital cost falls between them asks the Authority for a ruling before the study treats it as outside review, and a request for a reviewability ruling costs $100 [23].

Three rules settle most senior care questions before demand is even measured. The Authority may not issue a certificate of need for new intermediate care or skilled nursing beds [23]. A skilled nursing facility of no more than 36 beds in a county that has none is exempt, but if it is later acquired its beds may not be transferred or sold until it has operated for at least 10 years [24]. Assisted living facilities and services are exempt from certificate of need, as are behavioral health facilities and services and alcohol or drug treatment facilities other than opioid treatment programs [24]. Outside the 36-bed exemption, then, a skilled nursing study works with beds that already exist [24].

Where review applies, the Authority uses population projections prepared by the Regional Research Institute at West Virginia University [23], so a study for a reviewable project reconciles its own population figures with those projections instead of presenting a rival set. A Letter of Intent goes to the Authority 10 days before the application, and an exemption application carries a nonrefundable $1,000 fee [23].

Table 14. Certificate of need figures and exemptions a care study reads

Source: Health Care Authority certificate of need home page, frequently asked questions and exemptions pages [13][23][24].

Assisted living escapes review but not licensing. The assisted living rule, 64 CSR 14, shows an effective date of May 1, 2024 and a sunset date of August 1, 2029, and the Secretary of State's index labels that version historical, so a study confirms the version in force [51]. Under that rule, a license runs for no more than one year, residents get 30 days written notice before a rate or service charge changes, and the day shift adds one direct care staff member for each 10 residents who have two or more listed care needs, on top of one base staff person [51]. The notice period puts a lag into every rate increase a pro forma assumes, and the staffing rule ties labor cost to the acuity mix rather than to the census alone. The 2023 business count found 49 assisted living establishments for the elderly in the state [25].

Child care centers, which 78 CSR 1 defines as facilities caring for 13 or more children for more than 30 days a year per child, are licensed under ratios that fix the minimum staff for every age group [52].

Table 15. Child care center ratios under 78 CSR 1

Source: 78 CSR 1, child care centers licensing rule [52].

A center applies to renew its license at least 60 days before it expires, and a change to its operation or premises needs a positive State Fire Marshal inspection report with the revised plan [52]. Illustrative model C shows how the ratios turn an enrollment mix into a staffing bill and a DSCR.

Education: students as outside demand, and a school construction exemption

Higher education is the plainest case of demand arriving from outside the resident count. Marshall University's fall 2025 headcount was 13,239, and 21.4% of its students in fall 2024 came from out of state [41]; Table 10 has the detail. Student housing, food service and visitor lodging near a campus all key off those numbers rather than off county population.

For school buildings, from July 1, 2026 purchases of services and building materials installed in a public school facility are exempt from state, local and municipal sales tax under HB 4028 [53]. That takes the 6% state rate and any 1% municipal rate [10] off the materials budget of a qualifying project [53]. The Code of State Rules lists Charter Public Schools as Policy 3300 [54]; a charter school study reads that policy itself for its facilities terms and asks the Tax Department whether its building counts as a public school facility before it models the exemption.

Recreation, venues and marinas

Recreation is where West Virginia's incentive geography is most specific. The Tourism Development Act credit rises from 25% to 35% for a project on an abandoned surface mine or on or next to a state or national forest or park [17], so a resort, outfitter or campground study checks the site against those categories before it models the credit.

For most attractions the larger pool is day visitors: 60.6 million of the state's 77.2 million visitors in 2024 did not stay the night, and day visitors spent $4.1 billion [2]. A wedding venue or barn that serves alcohol needs a private wedding venue or barn license at $1,650 a year [43], and its local sign-off follows the municipal line, from the city inside a municipality or the county commission outside one [14]. Marinas answer to West Virginia Code Chapter 20, Article 9, Boat Dock and Marina Safety, which the State Fire Marshal lists among the laws it applies [44].

Industrial, manufacturing and data centers

Industrial projects meet a different assessor. The Tax Commissioner, not the county assessor, values industrial real and personal property and natural resource land [49], so an industrial study takes its tax line from the state's valuation and the local levy.

Purchases of materials and equipment for direct use in manufacturing, including building materials for a manufacturing facility, are exempt from the 6% state sales and use tax and the 1% municipal sales tax [17], which lowers project cost before any financing is sized. Tangible personal property, servers included, used directly in a high-technology or internet advertising business is valued for property tax at 5% of its original cost [17], a rule that matters most where the equipment is worth more than the building. The Division of Economic Development offers data center projects dedicated liaisons for permitting and approvals, and its data center page lists no separate data center tax incentive [55]. Table 16 gathers the state programs a project in any family may draw on.

Table 16. West Virginia incentives and the line each changes

Source: Division of Economic Development incentives and Opportunity Zones pages [17][50].

How do West Virginia's property classes, levies and credits move DSCR?

Through the class a site falls in, the levies stacked on that class, and the credits and licensing rules that change cash flow after opening. Table 17 shows the levy ceilings every West Virginia property tax line starts from.

Table 17. Maximum regular levies, cents per $100 of assessed value

Source: State Tax Department property tax rates page [36]; assessment ratio [49]; the Class I total and the shares of market value computed by FSC [36].

The Department's own totals stop at 150.00 cents for Class III, without the municipal levy, because Class III property lies outside every municipality [36][5]. That 50.00-cent gap is the property tax version of this page's thesis [36]. At the 60 percent assessment ratio it is the difference between 0.90% and 1.20% of market value [36][49].

The ceilings are not the end of the line. A county commission or a municipality can raise its regular levy by up to 50 percent with an excess levy, and a county board of education by up to 100 percent, each for up to five years [36]. County and municipal excess levies and general obligation bond levies need at least 60 percent of the vote, while school levies need a majority [36]. A study records each excess levy on the parcel with its expiry year, because a levy that lapses or is renewed inside the loan term changes coverage in that year. Table 18 lists the dates that fix and collect the tax.

Table 18. The West Virginia property tax calendar

Source: State Tax Department property tax, notification and due date pages [12][56][57].

Illustrative model A: one building on either side of a municipal line. The model takes an assumed commercial building with a market value of $5,000,000, assessed at the general 60 percent ratio to $3,000,000 [49]. It assumes net operating income (NOI) of $560,000 before property tax and annual debt service of $400,000 [36]. Outside a municipality the building is Class III; inside one it is Class IV [5]. The model applies the maximum regular levies as assumed stand-ins for the parcel's actual rates [36]. It then adds a Huntington case using the city's actual Class IV rate of 44.00 cents with the county and school levies still at their maximums [33][36], cases with every available excess levy at its ceiling [36], and a case paying both halves early for the 2.5 percent discount [57].

Table 19. Illustrative model A: property tax and DSCR by class and levy

Source: assessment ratio [49]; property classes [5]; regular levies and excess levy limits [36]; Huntington's Class IV rate [33]; early payment discount [57]; model arithmetic [36]. Assumed by FSC: market value, NOI and debt service; every other figure follows from those inputs and the cited rules.

Crossing the municipal line costs this building about 0.04 of coverage at regular maximums [36]. Excess levies at their ceilings cost more than twice that: about 0.09 outside a municipality and 0.11 inside [36]. Huntington's actual rate saves $1,800 a year against the municipal maximum [33][36], and the early payment discount is worth $1,500 a year [57]; neither moves the rounded ratio. The lesson for a West Virginia study is to document the parcel's actual levy order, including every excess levy and its expiry, and to know which side of the municipal line the parcel is on. The statewide maximums only bound the answer.

Illustrative model B: a lodging project with a Tourism Development Act credit. The model takes an assumed lodging and attraction project approved under the Tourism Development Act. The Division of Economic Development describes the credit as 25% from consumers sales tax collected on gross receipts from daily operations, 35% at qualifying sites, taken one tenth a year over 10 years beginning with the year the project opens to the public unless the approved company elects to start in the next taxable year, carried forward when unused and forfeited after the thirteenth year [17]. It adds one condition: the sales tax base must be increased annually to receive the full credit [17]. The summary does not say how large the approved credit is, or how much of it is lost in a year when the base does not grow [17], so the model counts no credit dollars. It follows an assumed project through three years: an opening year with $1,500,000 of receipts taxable at the 6% state rate [10] and NOI of an assumed $380,000, a second year with $2,500,000 of taxable receipts and NOI of an assumed $640,000, and a third year with receipts and NOI flat at the second year's level; annual debt service is an assumed $560,000 [17].

Table 20. Illustrative model B: coverage without the credit, and the credit's growth condition

Source: Tourism Development Act terms and the annual sales tax base condition [17]; state sales tax rate [10]; model arithmetic [17]. Assumed by FSC: receipts, NOI and debt service; every other figure follows from those inputs and the cited terms. The summary states no approved credit amount, so none is counted [17].

Without the credit the project covers its debt 0.68 times in its opening year and 1.14 times once receipts reach $2,500,000 [17]. The credit can only raise those ratios, but the summary gives no basis for a figure: it does not size the approved credit, and it pays the full credit only on a sales tax base that rises every year [17]. Year 3 holds receipts flat, as a stabilized projection often does, and a year like that does not meet the summary's condition for the full credit [17]. A study therefore shows coverage without the credit, takes the credit amount and its terms from the approval itself, and counts the full annual credit only in years whose projected receipts rise. A project whose opening year is slow can also weigh the election to start the 10-year period in the next taxable year [17]. A project that needs the credit to cover its debt at all has a demand problem, not a tax one.

Illustrative model C: a child care center under the 78 CSR 1 ratios. The model takes an assumed center with 80 children in two age mixes and staffs each group at the ratio the rule sets for its age [52]. Mix A has 8 infants of 6 weeks to 12 months, 12 children of 13 to 24 months, 16 of 25 to 35 months, 20 three-year-olds and 24 four-year-olds; mix B has 16 children of 25 to 35 months, 40 three-year-olds in two groups and 24 four-year-olds [52]. Every group stays at or under the rule's largest group size [52]. Tuition is an assumed $12,000 per child a year, each required staff position an assumed $52,000 a year including coverage across the operating day, other operating costs an assumed $220,000 and annual debt service an assumed $180,000 [52].

Table 21. Illustrative model C: staff positions and DSCR by age mix

Source: ratios and group sizes [52]; model arithmetic [52]. Assumed by FSC: enrollment, tuition, the premium, staff cost, other costs and debt service; every other figure follows from those inputs and the ratios.

The same 80 children need 11 positions in mix A and 8 in mix B, because infants and toddlers are staffed at four children per staff member and four-year-olds at 12 [52]. At equal tuition, mix A covers its debt 0.93 times and mix B 1.80 times [52]. Mix A would need about $7,800 more a year from each of its 20 children under 25 months to match mix B's NOI, and a $3,000 premium lifts it only to 1.27 [52]. A West Virginia child care study therefore prices its infant and toddler rooms from the ratio up, and a lender reading it checks the age mix before the enrollment total.

Which FSC guides apply to a West Virginia project?

FSC's national asset guides apply, because there is no West Virginia asset page and no West Virginia model study; each project starts from the guide for its asset type and adds the state and local rules covered above. Each pairing below names the guide and the West Virginia rule most likely to move its numbers:

• Hotel, glamping and RV park projects pair the guide with the local hotel occupancy rate, the long-stay exemption and the forest and park category of the Tourism Development Act.
• Wedding venue and marina projects add the wedding venue or barn license and the Boat Dock and Marina Safety article.
• Restaurant and brewery projects add the Class A or Class B license, the city or county sign-off and the Commissioner's locality test.
• Gas station, truck stop and car wash projects add tank registration, privately insured financial responsibility and the exclusion of motor fuel from municipal sales tax.
• Multifamily, manufactured housing community, mixed-use and retail projects add the property classes, BUILD WV and the municipal sales tax distributions.
• Industrial, data center, cold storage, self-storage and RV and boat storage projects add the Freeport Amendment, the manufacturing exemption and the high-technology valuation at 5% of cost [17].
• Assisted living, senior housing, skilled nursing, medical office, daycare and charter school projects add certificate of need, the assisted living rule and the child care center ratios.

Two comparison pages help before the loan is settled: SBA vs conventional feasibility studies on how the two kinds of lender review differ, and feasibility study vs business plan on two documents that borrowers often treat as one.

Who prepares a West Virginia feasibility study, and how is it different from an appraisal?

An independent consultant with no stake in the borrower writes it, and it stops short of an opinion of value, the point at which West Virginia's appraiser law takes over. The Real Estate Appraiser Licensing and Certification Act makes it unlawful for anyone, for compensation, to prepare a valuation appraisal or valuation appraisal report on West Virginia real estate without a license or certification [58]. The Act defines an appraisal broadly, as an analysis, opinion or conclusion about the nature, quality, value or utility of identified real estate, and it sorts appraisal assignments into valuation, analysis and review [58]. The Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board adds that anyone who issues an evaluation, opinion, conclusion or analysis of the value of West Virginia real property must hold the proper credential [59].

For a study, the working line is value. A feasibility study tests whether a project's income covers its debt; it reports no market value, and when a lender needs one, a credentialed appraiser provides it in a separate assignment. The Act's definition of the income approach, which analyzes comparable rents, operating expenses and capitalization or discount rates and bases projections on reasonably clear and appropriate evidence [58], describes an appraiser's method; a study may use the same inputs but leaves the conclusion of value to the appraiser. The Act also exempts a full-time employee's internal value opinion that is not called an appraisal and carries no fee [58]. Because the Act's definition reaches analysis assignments about the nature, quality or utility of real estate [58], a borrower unsure whether an assignment needs a credentialed appraiser asks the Board; this page gives no legal opinion on that point. FSC's feasibility study vs appraisal page explains how the two reports divide the work, and feasibility study vs market study does the same for a market study.

SBA serves the whole state from its West Virginia District Office, which covers all 55 counties from one office in Clarksburg [60]. For a USDA guarantee, a question about rural status goes to the Rural Development State Office, the office 7 CFR 5001.3 names [29]. The contents of each program's file are covered on the SBA feasibility study and USDA feasibility study pages. Table 22 lists the West Virginia bodies whose decisions become rates, dates and approvals in a projection.

Table 22. Who sets the numbers in a West Virginia projection

Source: State Tax Department pages [49][12][5][36][10][6]; City of Huntington audit [33]; Alcohol Beverage Control Administration [14][43][26]; Health Care Authority [13][24]; Department of Environmental Protection [15][48]; State Fire Marshal and the child care rule [44][16][52]; Division of Economic Development [17]; Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board [59]; SBA [60].

What belongs in a West Virginia feasibility study file?

The documents that prove which side of each line the site is on, and the approvals and records that turn each state rule into a number. Table 23 is the West Virginia list. The general list is in the feasibility study document checklist, and program-specific lists come from the SBA checklist generator and the USDA checklist generator.

Table 23. The West Virginia file: documents and what each proves

Source: State Tax Department pages [5][10][11][36][56][12][6]; Alcohol Beverage Control Administration [43][14]; Department of Environmental Protection [15][47][48]; Health Care Authority [13][23]; assisted living and child care rules [51][52]; State Fire Marshal [16]; Division of Economic Development [17]; City of Huntington [38]; Department of Tourism [2]; distributions [30]; Marshall University [41]; appraiser licensing act [58].

What drives the scope, cost and timeline of a West Virginia study?

Scope, cost and time all grow with the count of boundaries, licenses and local records the study has to document; this page states no fee or week figure. General pricing is in feasibility study cost in 2026, a figure for a specific project comes from the cost estimator, and the market vs feasibility decision tree settles whether a market study should come first. These West Virginia conditions widen the scope:

• A site near a corporate limit. The property class, the municipal levy, the 1% sales tax and the alcohol sign-off can all differ on the two sides of the line [5][10][14], so comparing two sites means documenting both.
• A room tax with no published rate. The State Tax Department's facilitator list may not be complete [6], so a lodging study outside the cities on it obtains the rate in writing from the county or city.
• A health care project between the two thresholds. A capital cost between $5,100,000 and $5,803,788 needs a ruling before the study can call the project outside review [13][23], and a reviewable project's demand case has to answer the Authority's population projections [23].
• A fuel site with a tank history. With no state fund, the study reads the insurance, the registration record and any leaking tank or UECA-LUST file [15][47][48].
• An incentive that must be approved first. BUILD WV approval has to come before construction is complete, and Tourism Development Act credits run on a fixed ten-year clock and are received in full only if the sales tax base increases annually [17].
• A metro that crosses the state line. In each of the three metros, roughly half or more of the residents live in another state [3], so the study either gathers records from more than one state's agencies or limits its trade area to the West Virginia side and says so.
• Local records the state does not publish. Hotel tax ordinances, city business and occupation tax rates, levy orders and permit records come from each county and city. Huntington publishes its budget, audit, hotel tax form and permit rules [34][33][35][38]; a study elsewhere gathers the equivalent records directly.