Worked Example: Conventional Bank Gas Station Feasibility Study in Missouri
A worked example of the feasibility study a lender would read for a gas station project in Missouri, financed with a conventional bank loan.
What SBA's own loan files show about lending in the Cape Girardeau, MO-IL Metro Area, every asset class together, and what a feasibility study for a project there has to test.
SBA files rank Cape Girardeau 455 of 928 by loans: 106 approvals in FY2017 to FY2026, $38.9 million gross. Median loan: $181,550 in Cape Girardeau, 0.87x the national median. That makes Cape Girardeau a smaller-ticket market. In Cape Girardeau, the middle half of loans runs from $90,600 to $352,625. Because $90,600 and $352,625 frame the middle half, a Cape Girardeau borrower should weigh any Cape Girardeau request against $181,550 in Cape Girardeau.
Program mix in Cape Girardeau: 97 under SBA 7(a) and 9 under SBA 504. As SBA flags them, 7.5% of Cape Girardeau loans are franchise loans. Asset by asset, Cape Girardeau shows limited-service restaurant with 7, medical office with 6 and full-service restaurant with 5. A further 70 Cape Girardeau loans sit in no named class. The class lines for Cape Girardeau therefore never sum to 106. County by county, Cape Girardeau reads Cape Girardeau County, MO with 94 and Bollinger County, MO with 12. A state line crosses Cape Girardeau. Rules differ by side in Cape Girardeau. Name the state behind each Cape Girardeau input.
In Cape Girardeau, each line reflects SBA's record of loans a bank retains or retained, under the holder note, and they describe a book only. Cape Girardeau holders should be read that way. The Cape Girardeau SBA 7(a) table opens with The Bank of Missouri with 46 loans worth $13.0 million; Commerce Bank with 8 loans worth $1.1 million. No holder in Cape Girardeau, MO-IL reaches the 504 table threshold. The Cape Girardeau 504 side carries no lender names. In Cape Girardeau, concentration among top holders says little. A Cape Girardeau study should stand on evidence alone in Cape Girardeau.
Of Cape Girardeau approvals from FY2017 to FY2024 in Cape Girardeau, at least 9.8% were cancelled after approval. Cape Girardeau has a ceiling of 9.8% when undisbursed loans count as cancelled. The Cape Girardeau charged-off figure on FY2017 to FY2021 loans that funded remains hidden, cohort thin; the Cape Girardeau gap is not zero and not estimated. Cape Girardeau's busiest printed year was FY2017, with 25 loans. Cape Girardeau years with few loans are suppressed given how few loans stand behind them, and we offer Cape Girardeau no estimate for them. Placement in Cape Girardeau hinges upon its project county, matched by name on the July 2023 delineation, thus that loan with an unmatched county goes uncounted in any area. The 106 loans in Cape Girardeau, MO-IL include those in no named class in Cape Girardeau.
Cape Girardeau demand comes first. Count the customers within reach of the site, instead of the metropolitan area, and let a weak first year pass. Then cost in Cape Girardeau. The middle half runs $90,600 to $352,625, even if an outlier needs explaining, including a reserve for slow Cape Girardeau months. Debt service coverage decides Cape Girardeau. Present the ratio for the amount alongside a weaker revenue case, with interest and term stated for Cape Girardeau. Expect a Cape Girardeau appraiser to test values, so each source behind the numbers must explain any gap in Cape Girardeau. Inside Cape Girardeau, MO-IL, submarkets differ widely. Its 106 loans average across them all, so a Cape Girardeau study must name the Cape Girardeau submarket it means. At 0.87x of the national median, Cape Girardeau projects run modest. A large project must show why Cape Girardeau can absorb its scale, against $181,550.
| Loans approved, FY2017 to FY2026 | 106 |
|---|---|
| Gross dollars approved | $38.9 million |
| Median loan | $181,550 |
| Middle half of loans, from | $90,600 |
| Middle half of loans, to | $352,625 |
| SBA 7(a) loans | 97 |
| SBA 504 loans | 9 |
| Franchise share of loans | 7.5% |
| Rank among metro and micro areas by loans | 455 of 928 |
| Median loan against the national median | 0.87x |
| Cancelled after approval, FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor) | 9.8% |
|---|---|
| The same, counting loans still undisbursed as cancelled (a ceiling) | 9.8% |
| Charged off to date, FY2017 to FY2021 disbursed loans (a floor) | withheld |
Both rates are floors. SBA withholds the status of open loans, so a loan counts as charged off only once SBA reports it; a rate needs at least 30 loans in its cohort and is otherwise not reported.
SBA loans approved in the Cape Girardeau, MO-IL Metro Area, by fiscal year
| Fiscal year | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| FY2017 | 25 | $4.1 million |
| FY2018 | 9 | $6.0 million |
| FY2019 | 10 | $4.7 million |
| FY2020 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2021 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2022 | 12 | $4.5 million |
| FY2023 | 9 | $897,600 |
| FY2024 | 9 | $2.7 million |
| FY2025 | 13 | $8.4 million |
| FY2026 | 11 | $4.8 million |
| Asset class | Loans |
|---|---|
| Not in any of the 39 asset classes | 70 |
| Limited-service restaurant | 7 |
| Medical office (physicians) | 6 |
| Full-service restaurant | 5 |
Classes with 5 or more loans; smaller ones are withheld, and more where a small one could be derived.
| Lender | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| The Bank of Missouri | 46 | $13.0 million |
| Commerce Bank | 8 | $1.1 million |
Lenders with 5 or more loans here; a lender with fewer is not listed, and loans SBA or a receiver holds are counted but never listed as a lender.
| County | Loans |
|---|---|
| Cape Girardeau County, MO | 94 |
| Bollinger County, MO | 12 |
Counties with 5 or more loans; smaller ones are not listed.
Metro is the CBSA (metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area) of the loan's project county, July 2023 delineation (OMB Bulletin 23-01). The county is matched by name (manifests/ld2/county-cbsa-map.csv); a loan whose county cannot be placed in a 2023 CBSA is left out of every metro.
All assets: every 7(a) and 504 approval in the metro, including those outside the 39 asset classes.
A value marked withheld rests on fewer than 5 loans, or is withheld so that such a figure cannot be derived from other published figures.
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, 7(a) and 504 loan-level FOIA files (data.sba.gov), as of 2026-09-30; areas from the U.S. Census Bureau CBSA delineation, July 2023 (OMB Bulletin 23-01); Loan Analytics metro cell MT-16020.
A worked example of the feasibility study a lender would read for a gas station project in Missouri, financed with a conventional bank loan.
A worked example of the feasibility study a lender would read for a gas station project in Illinois, financed with an SBA 504 loan.
Loan Analytics prepares the feasibility study a lender reads before it commits: for a commercial project in the Cape Girardeau, MO-IL Metro Area, financed under SBA 7(a), SBA 504, USDA Business and Industry or a conventional bank loan. Tell us the project and the lender's deadline, and we reply with scope, timeline and fee.
Start with the data.
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