Avana Capital Review: 21 SBA 504 Loan Records, 1 Charge-Off and a $1B Fund With $0 Sold

Why this review exists

Search for “avana capital” and the first results are the company's own site, business directories and profile pages. Nearly all of them repeat the company's description. None counts the SBA's public loan file, which names the lender behind each 504 first mortgage, or reads the SEC notices the company's funds have filed. This page does both, and sets the company's statements side by side so a borrower or investor can see where they agree and where they do not. For where SBA 504 and 7(a) pricing sits across the market, see our SBA 504 loan rates guide and our SBA 7(a) rates and lenders analysis.

1. Who the company is, and which name is on the note

The home page describes “AVANA Companies” as “a commercial real estate lender and investment manager focused on aligning capital with impact.” The site is branded Avana Capital; the group name is Avana Companies. Two Better Business Bureau profiles exist under the two names (section 6). The SEC filings name still other entities: Avana Capital, LLC is listed as manager of the two 2015 funds, and Avana CCIF GP LLC is general partner of the 2023 fund.

Two facts a borrower should hold onto. First, the site gives its address as 16150 N Arrowhead Fountains Center Dr., Suite 243, Peoria, AZ 85382, while the disclosures page says the company “is headquartered in Glendale, Arizona,” and the SBA file records the lender city as Peoria on some loans, Glendale on others and other cities on the rest. That may reflect an office move, but the term sheet should state the legal entity and its current address. Second, the disclosures page says Avana Capital “is licensed in California under DBO license number 603K752 and in Arizona under CBK license number 0921662.” Those numbers are the company's statement. We could not reach the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation or the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions registers, so we have not verified either license or its status.

2. What it lends, and the terms it publishes

Avana lists four programs: SBA 504, bridge, construction and conventional term. The bridge program is described as “in partnership with Oaktree Capital,” and an August 22, 2024 press release announced a “$250MM AVANA-Oaktree Private Credit Partnership” for bridge and construction loans over three years. The construction program is built around IHG hotel brands: a company news item dated September 1, 2026 says the AVANA-IHG program “offers up to 75% LTC” for hotel developers. The eligibility page puts the general loan range at $1,000,000 to $30,000,000, says the bridge and construction programs have a $5,000,000 minimum, and says “A guarantor FICO score of 680 or higher is generally required.” Loans are made to business entities, and cannabis, gas stations, gyms, land, parking, religious buildings and solar are not financed.

What stands out is the rate sheet. The rates page loads a live table from the company's own data feed, and the feed returns one row per property type. On November 10, 2026 the benchmark was the 5-year Treasury at 4.81%.

The sheet carries the notes “Rates subject to credit approval and market conditions” and “Not a commitment to lend.” It prints no origination points, no extension or prepayment terms and no third-party cost estimate for conventional loans, so the sheet alone cannot give an all-in cost. The company's general guide says to compare on “all-in cost,” which is the right test; ask for the full fee schedule in writing. Brokers are paid from the loan: the broker page says “Your broker fee is paid directly from loan proceeds at closing,” so ask whether a referral fee is in your closing statement.

The SBA 504 structure

The SBA 504 page describes the standard stack: 50% Avana first mortgage, 40% SBA debenture, 10% borrower equity, up to 90% financing, a total loan of up to $20 million, the first mortgage priced at “5-year CMT + 2.50% to 4.00%” with a reset at the end of year 5, and the debenture at “10-Year Treasury + 2.75%.” On November 10, 2026 that first-mortgage formula works out to 7.31% to 8.81% (our arithmetic, 4.81% plus 2.50 to 4.00 points). The company's separate rates article, last refreshed May 22, 2026, gives a first-mortgage range of 6.5% to 7.5%, a debenture range of 5.5% to 6.0% and a blended rate of 6.4% to 6.7%. The two pages are six months apart and the benchmark moved, so a borrower quoted from the older article should expect the current formula to price higher. The same article says total one-time fees “typically” run 2.5% to 4% of the total loan amount, which is a general SBA 504 range and not an Avana fee schedule. SBA 504 rates and fees across lenders are in our SBA 504 loan rates guide.

3. What the SBA's own loan file shows

The SBA publishes loan-level 7(a) and 504 data under FOIA. We searched all six files as of September 30, 2026 for any Avana name in the lender fields.

7(a): no match for Avana Capital. None of the four 7(a) files lists Avana Capital as the lender. They list a different name, “Avana Bank” of Abilene, Texas, on 10 loans; nothing connects that bank to this company. This fits the company's own statement that it is not a 7(a) lender, and it corrects a common assumption that Avana is an SBA 7(a) lender. For who does lead 7(a), see our 7(a) lender analysis.

504: 21 records. In a 504 loan the SBA record names the CDC (the SBA's partner) and, separately, the “third-party lender” that holds the first mortgage. An Avana name appears in the third-party lender field on 21 records approved from November 2012 to September 2025, under four spellings: “Avana Capital,” “AVANA Capital, LLC,” “Avana Fund I LLC” (and “Avana Fund I, LLC”) and “Avana S/T Fixed Income Fund, LLC.” The file does not say how the Fund I names relate to the company; the S/T fund name matches the 2015 Form D issuer whose manager is Avana Capital, LLC. One Houston project appears twice, approved on September 9 and again on September 12, 2016.

Read these with the sample size in mind: 13 funded loans is small, and one charge-off moves the share by almost eight points (our arithmetic for every share and sum in this table). The charged-off loan is a hotel in Wyoming approved on December 10, 2013 under the name Avana Fund I LLC, with Wyoming Capital Access as the CDC, an SBA debenture of $1,703,000 and a first mortgage of $3,083,000; the SBA data show a gross charge-off of $1,576,424.35 on July 23, 2018. The file records the SBA side only. It does not say what happened to the first mortgage held by the lender, and we do not infer it.

By year, the approvals are 1 in fiscal 2013, 3 in 2014, 5 in 2015, 6 in 2016, 1 in 2017, 1 in 2018, 1 in 2020, 1 in 2022 and 2 in 2025. Of the five records from fiscal 2018 on, one was funded and paid in full (January 17, 2018); the others show as cancelled (October 2019, October 2021 and March 2025) or not funded (September 22, 2025). A cancelled record means the approval was cancelled before the loan closed; the file does not give the reason, and a borrower walking away is as possible as a lender decision. The pattern still matters for a borrower: this lender's visible SBA 504 volume is concentrated in 2014 to 2016, and none of the four approvals since October 2019 funded. The company's claim of “$1.7 Billion in Loans Closed to Date” covers all products over 23 years, and the 504 file cannot test it; the $71 million of funded first mortgages in the file is a fraction of that, and the other loan types are not in public loan-level data.

Hotels dominate: 12 of 21 records and 7 of the 13 funded loans, consistent with the company's own pitch of SBA loans for hospitality. A borrower with a hotel project is the customer this lender's record fits best; a borrower with an office or retail building has little to compare against.

4. The investor side: Form D filings

Avana runs funds as well as loans, and the disclosures page says it relies on “Section 4(2) and Regulation D” and does not register its offerings with the SEC. A reader who is an investor, not a borrower, should know what the filings say.

The two 2015 funds report first sales on October 28, 2015, with Avana Capital, LLC as manager. Each has two investors and no later filing. The SBA file shows the S/T fund name as first-mortgage lender on two 504 loans, $17,785,900 in October 2015 and $8,199,000 in March 2016, far more than the $800,000 its Form D reports as sold. The two figures measure different things (a recorded lender amount against capital raised), and the filings do not say how the loans were funded.

The 2023 fund is an institutional pooled fund. Its Form D claims the Rule 506(b) and Section 3(c)(7) exemptions, says the date of first sale is “yet to occur,” and states that its general partner and affiliates “will receive customary management fees and/or carried interest payments.” The amendment filed February 20, 2025 still reports $0 sold and no investors, and the offering is marked as lasting more than one year. EDGAR lists three filings for the fund and none after February 20, 2025. The filings do not say whether the fund has closed an investor since. The company's investors page lists accredited retail investors, family offices, credit unions and financial advisors among those it works with, and describes “Co-Investment / Loan Participation.” An investor should ask for the offering memorandum, the fund's audited financials and its loan-level performance, since none of those is in the public file. Separately, an SEC issuer called “AVANA GAP Holdings, LLC,” filed a Form D on February 4, 2025 in care of Oaktree Capital Management; it is not an Avana Capital filing and we make no link between the two.

5. What the company says about its own size

On November 13, 2026 the company's pages gave three different cumulative totals:

• Home page: “$ 1.7 Billion in Loans Closed to Date.”
• Investors page: “6.5 $ Billion in Loans Closed to Date.”
• Press release, August 22, 2024: “AVANA has funded $1B in loans to minority entrepreneurs.”

These may describe different things (all loans against a subset, or originations against closings), and the pages do not explain. Treat the largest number as marketing until the company states what it counts. We found no independent source for any of the three.

6. Complaints and what we could not check

Two BBB profiles exist. The profile for AVANA Companies (Peoria, business started May 8, 2017) shows an A+ rating, accredited since October 5, 2022, no complaints filed in the last 3 years and 0 customer reviews. The profile for AVANA Capital LLC (Glendale, business started August 18, 2010) shows A+, accredited since May 6, 2020, 0 complaints in 3 years and 0 reviews. The BBB says it does not verify information supplied by third parties, and zero reviews means there is little consumer record either way. We read both pages through a fetch tool, as the raw pages block automated requests.

• Licenses. The California and Arizona license numbers are the company's own statement; we did not obtain the DFPI or Arizona registers, and we say nothing about status or enforcement actions.
• Courts. CourtListener requires an account for searches and we did not search state dockets. A web search surfaced no case naming the company, which is not a docket search. We make no statement about litigation either way.
• CFPB. The complaint database blocked automated access and a commercial-only lender may not appear in it.
• HMDA. No Legal Entity Identifier is registered under the name, and the company lends to business entities, so there is no HMDA loan-level record.

7. A worked example (our arithmetic)

Take a $2,000,000 owner-occupied industrial building, financed two ways from the company's own published terms.

Conventional, from the November 10, 2026 sheet. At the industrial row's 70% LTV the loan is $1,400,000 at 7.31%, amortized over 25 years: a payment of about $10,173 a month, $122,082 over 12 payments, of which about $101,665 is interest. The borrower brings $600,000 before closing costs. The sheet gives no points, so the estimate excludes them.

SBA 504, using the company's May 2026 ranges. The stack is $1,000,000 from Avana (50%), $800,000 SBA debenture (40%) and $200,000 equity (10%). The first mortgage at 6.5% to 7.5% over 25 years costs $6,752 to $7,390 a month; the debenture at 5.5% to 6.0% over 25 years costs $4,913 to $5,154. Together that is $11,665 to $12,544 a month, with first-year interest of $108,131 to $122,133, on a loan of $1,800,000 and equity of $200,000. If the first mortgage instead prices at today's formula of 7.31% to 8.81%, the combined payment becomes $12,179 to $13,417 a month. The company's explanatory fee range of 2.5% to 4% on $1,800,000 would be $45,000 to $72,000, which is a general SBA 504 range and not an Avana quote.

The comparison shows why the 504 is the product the company leads with: $400,000 less cash down, a larger loan, and a payment about $1,500 to $2,400 a month above the conventional payment in exchange for that lower equity. Which is better depends on what the $400,000 earns elsewhere, the fees, and the hold period; the figures are a model, not an offer.

8. Who this lender may suit, and how to compare

On its published record, Avana Capital fits a borrower who owns or is buying an owner-occupied commercial property, especially a franchised hotel, needs $1 million or more, and is comfortable with a first mortgage that resets after five years inside an SBA 504 structure. It does not fit a borrower who needs an SBA 7(a) loan, a small-balance loan under $1,000,000 or a residential investor loan. The strengths are real and checkable: a public rate sheet that updates, a stated loan range and eligibility list, and an SBA record of funded loans. The open points are the licenses, the inconsistent size claims, the low number of funded 504 loans since 2018, and the fund's unreported sales. Our rating of 3.5 out of 5 weighs the transparency of the rate sheet and the plain 7(a) disclosure against those open points; it is not a recommendation for or against borrowing or investing.

9. What a reader can do with this

• Ask for the legal name of the lender of record on your term sheet and check it against the California and Arizona license registers for the license number the company cites; request the fee schedule in writing, including points, third-party reports, extension and prepayment terms.
• For an SBA 504 loan, ask which CDC will hold the debenture and when the debenture rate locks (the company's own article says four to six weeks after closing), and ask what happens to your first mortgage rate at the end of year 5.
• If you are quoted from the May 2026 article's ranges, ask for the rate in writing against the current 5-year Treasury formula.
• Pull the SBA 504 file yourself for any lender you consider (data.sba.gov, “7(a) & 504 FOIA”) and count its funded and cancelled loans; ours is a start, not the last word.
• If you are an investor in an Avana fund, ask for the offering memorandum, audited statements and loan-level performance; the public filings show only the offering size and amounts sold.
• Compare at least two other quotes; our commercial real estate loan rates guide and hard money lenders page show where other lenders price.

Sources: Avana Capital website pages (home, about us, eligibility criteria, SBA 504 loans, SBA 504 loan rates, commercial real estate mortgage rates, broker, investors, disclosures) and its public rate-sheet data feed, read November 13, 2026; AVANA Companies press release, PR Newswire, August 22, 2024; SEC EDGAR Form D accessions 0001657123-15-000001, 0001657115-15-000001, 0001965857-23-000001, 0001965857-24-000001, 0001965857-25-000001 and 0002054840-25-000001, and the EDGAR submissions record for CIK 0001965857; SBA 7(a) and 504 FOIA loan data (data.sba.gov/dataset/7a-504-foia), files FOIA_504_FY1991_FY2009, FOIA_504_FY2010_Present and the four 7(a) files, all as of September 30, 2026, and the 7(a) and 504 FOIA data dictionary; GLEIF legal-entity register; BBB profiles for AVANA Companies and AVANA Capital LLC (read through a fetch tool). Quoted text is verbatim from the saved pages. Figures labelled “our arithmetic” are calculated by us. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice. Compiled by CrowdfundedWealth on November 13, 2026.