Car Wash Feasibility Study in Georgia

Georgia car wash loans run large

Georgia is one of the heaviest car wash lending markets in the country, and its loans are big. The median Georgia car wash loan was $1.7 million, 1.84x the class median nationwide; that typical Georgia size stands apart, beyond our distinctness margin, from Georgia's lending in every other class as well as from car washes nationwide. The state ranks 4 of 53 for car wash loans, with 222 approvals worth $426.6 million from FY2017 to FY2026. A Georgia location quotient of 2.05x means Georgia gives car washes a far bigger slice of its SBA lending than the nation does. Within Georgia the class ranks 11 of 39. The middle half of loans runs from $708,125 to $2.8 million, the range of ground-up express tunnels and acquisitions with land, not of equipment refits.

Georgia's lenders are concentrated. Metro City Bank holds 41 Georgia car wash loans worth $109.1 million as current holder, by far the largest book in the state. Georgia's Own Credit Union and Celtic Bank Corporation hold 10 each, worth $19.7 million and $13.0 million, and Open Bank holds 6 worth $16.3 million. SBA 7(a) carried 166 approvals and SBA 504 carried 56; for Georgia 504 deals, Florida Business Development Corporation leads with 22 loans worth $27.4 million; Capital Partners Certified Development Company follows with 13 and Small Business Access Partners, Inc. with 12. Only 3.2% of the loans went to franchised washes. Gwinnett County leads with 29 approvals, Fulton follows with 27, and Cobb and DeKalb have 16 each.

A boom that has cooled

Georgia approvals peaked with 32 loans for $74.8 million in FY2021 and 34 for $71.0 million in FY2022, then fell to 17 in FY2023, 13 in FY2024, 12 in FY2025 and 8 in FY2026. Cancellations were heavy: Georgia lost at least 13.4% of its FY2017 to FY2024 wash approvals before closing, and the ceiling reaches 15.3% if every undisbursed loan is counted. Losses have been light so far, with 2.6% of the 115 Georgia washes funded in FY2017 to FY2021 charged off so far and 0.00% lost inside their first five years, but these are floors on loans that are still open.

What a Georgia car wash study has to prove

A Georgia car wash study has to justify a loan well above the national norm . Demand testing means traffic counts, the site's access and visibility, and an honest count of tunnels already open or permitted in the trade area, since Gwinnett, Fulton and Forsyth have drawn many of the projects. Cost testing means land, site work and tunnel equipment at current bids. Debt service coverage should be run on membership and wash counts that a new entrant can actually win from established competitors, not on peak-year volumes. The appraisal is pivotal: a Georgia lender at $1.7 million or more is relying on land plus a special-purpose tunnel building, and the study should support a value that holds up if the wash underperforms.

The class boundary is broad: Georgia truck washes and mobile wash operators sit in these figures alongside car washes, because all of them use one code.