Question 1

Does San Antonio's SBA office cover Corpus Christi loans?

Accepted Answer

No. Nueces, San Patricio and Aransas counties are covered by the SBA Lower Rio Grande Valley District Office in Harlingen, not San Antonio. The San Antonio district's published county list does not reach the coast; Harlingen's 14-county list includes all three Corpus Christi metro counties. It is the kind of detail an out-of-area broker gets wrong, and it matters because district relationships and local SBA staff differ. We are not tied to a single district office; we place files through more than 20 partner SBA lenders nationally, so which district technically covers Nueces County does not limit where your loan can go. See the SBA program page for how we structure a file.

Question 2

Can I close an SBA purchase here before the building has windstorm coverage?

Accepted Answer

Practically, no, and this is the step out-of-market lenders miss. All three counties in the Corpus Christi metro are first-tier coastal counties in the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association's catastrophe area, and TWIA wrote 54% of Nueces County's residential wind exposure in 2025, with the private market covering the rest of the gap unevenly. TWIA eligibility requires the property be maintained in insurable condition with no unrepaired damage, and any structural work done since January 1, 1988, including a re-roof, needs a windstorm certificate of compliance (a WPI-8) before the building can carry wind coverage. An SBA lender will not fund without proof of insurance on the collateral, so the certification trail has to be in order well before your closing date, not chased at the last minute.

Question 3

What does the 51 percent occupancy rule mean for a marine services or port business here?

Accepted Answer

You have to actually run your business out of at least 51% of the building you buy, and this metro's owner-occupant base fits that rule well. Under 13 CFR 120.131, an existing building needs your operating business in at least 51% of the rentable space, with the rest permanently leasable; new construction requires 60% occupancy with only 20% permanently leased and an absorption plan for the balance. Marine services yards, port logistics operators, and trades serving the refining and petrochemical complex along the ship channel are the kind of businesses that occupy the whole building they buy rather than lease out space, which is exactly the SBA's intended use case. Talk to your attorney or CPA about how a lease-back or partner arrangement lines up against the rule before you commit to a purchase.

Question 4

Is there a cap on how big a Corpus Christi building I can insure for wind, if I'm financing it with a 504 loan?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and it can matter on a larger 504 project. TWIA's maximum limit of liability for commercial risks is $4,424,000 per property, effective 2026-01-01, with a 1% per-item, per-occurrence deductible standard (2% and 5% options exist). The 504 portion of a project can run up to the SBA's own $5 million cap (or $5.5 million for a small manufacturer) under 13 CFR 120.931, and since that portion covers no more than 40% of the project, the building itself can be worth well more, so a larger owner-occupied purchase or ground-up build here can outrun what TWIA alone will insure for wind, and the balance needs surplus lines coverage. Size the windstorm insurance conversation into the deal at the same time you size the loan, not after the appraisal comes back.

Question 5

How much property tax will I carry on a Corpus Christi building once I own it?

Accepted Answer

Budget roughly 2.2% of assessed value a year, with no homestead relief on a business property. Stacking the 2025 adopted rates for a City of Corpus Christi parcel, county 0.289789 plus hospital district 0.089495 plus city 0.599774 plus Corpus Christi ISD 0.9583 plus Del Mar College about 0.276 per $100 of value comes to about 2.21%. Special districts like Nueces County Drainage District No. 2 sit outside that stack and are not included, so verify the specific parcel on the Nueces Central Appraisal District account before you underwrite. Run that carry alongside your windstorm and flood premiums when you size debt service on an owner-occupied purchase.

Question 6

I heard SBA fees were waived. Is that still true for a loan I close on a Corpus Christi building this year?

Accepted Answer

No. Fees came back for fiscal 2026, and any page still saying otherwise is stale. For loans approved between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026, the 7(a) upfront guaranty fee is back at 2% to 3.5% and up depending on size, after being zero under $1 million in fiscal 2025. The 504 upfront fee returned at 0.50%, with the annual service fee cut to 0.209%. There is a real carve-out for small manufacturers (NAICS 31 to 33): no 7(a) upfront fee at or under $950,000, waived 504 fees, and the higher $5.5 million 504 cap. If your Corpus Christi business runs manufacturing operations alongside the refining and petrochemical trades that anchor this metro, say so on the first call.

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