My Journey into Outdoor Hospitality Lending

I grew up on a beef cattle ranch in Central Texas. My father was a public school teacher and administrator. My mother worked for IRS in Austin. With hard-earned savings and financing from the Veterans Administration, they bought their first ranch property when I was eight years old. While working full-time jobs, they also worked for over twenty years to build a ranch with several hundred cattle. In our home, hard work was the utmost virtue, and vacations were a rare indulgence.

In August, it is very hot in Central Texas! Long after I left home and the ranch to my parents and younger brothers, my parents bought an RV and started leaving Texas for the mountains in Colorado or New Mexico each summer in August. I couldn’t believe they would leave work on the ranch to actually take such a long break each summer, and I was impressed!

As a banker who specialized in financing small business properties, I started to research RV parks and campgrounds to learn about this growing industry. I started making a few loans to buyers of RV parks and campgrounds. For over a decade, I continued to provide financing for all types of small business properties with SBA loans, and I mixed in a few campground loans along the way. In 2017, I joined Fidelity Bank with the goal to specialize in financing Outdoor Hospitality properties with SBA loans and USDA loans. Who would have guessed that a worldwide pandemic would later cause an explosion of growth in this industry due to permanent changes in the way people take their vacations?

Fidelity Bank (which later merged with Ameris Bank) gave me the ability to offer both the SBA and USDA federal small business loan programs. While I continue to offer financing for all types of small business properties, I am pleased to report that I have gained national recognition in the Outdoor Hospitality Industry for financing RV parks, campgrounds, marinas, RV/boat storage facilities, and other related property types. While other lenders have been slow to embrace financing in this industry, I have been privileged to become a leader in this financing specialization. SBA and USDA loans allow borrowers to qualify for lower down payments and longer repayment terms than conventional bank loans. Funds may be used for business acquisition, partner buyout, business expansion, business startup, new construction, and refinancing existing business debt for better terms.

I love working in this vibrant industry, and I look forward to accommodating many new Outdoor Hospitality business owners. For more information about these loan programs, please visit my web site at www.BruceHurta.com.