Car Wash Feasibility Study in Illinois

Illinois car washes borrow like property projects

An Illinois car wash borrows like a real estate project. Its median SBA loan is $1.0 million, 1.10x the national car wash median, and the central half of approvals spans $424,000 to $2.1 million. Across FY2017 to FY2026 Illinois approved 127 such loans for $185.1 million, ranking 7 of 53 among states, while car washes sit 14 of 39 among Illinois classes. A location quotient of 0.97x shows the class at about its national weight in the state. No metric passes our distinctness screen, so the cell reads as a typical car wash market operating at scale.

Development companies and big-ticket banks

SBA 504 carries 44 of the approvals and SBA 7(a) 83, a strong 504 showing that fits a business built on land and equipment. SomerCor 504, Inc. and Small Business Growth Corporation each hold 19 of the 504 loans, worth $24.8 million and $20.9 million. On the 7(a) side, Byline Bank and The Huntington National Bank each hold 12, but Byline's total is $24.6 million against $7.4 million, and Celtic Bank Corporation's 7 loans come to $27.5 million, the largest dollar block among 7(a) holders. Millennium Bank holds 7 for $10.3 million and U.S. Bank, National Association 9 for $4.1 million. Franchised washes are 5.5% of loans. Cook County alone has 64 approvals, with Lake at 14 and DuPage at 12.

Outcome floors in Illinois

Cancellation after approval is at least 8.2% of the FY2017 to FY2024 Illinois wash approvals; counting loans still waiting to disburse as cancelled raises the ceiling to 11.2%, a wide gap that reflects projects slow to draw their funds. No charge-off has yet been recorded among the 58 washes funded in FY2017 to FY2021, giving 0.00% both to date and within five years. Those floors can rise as the loans age.

With tickets this large, the feasibility study carries real weight in an Illinois car wash deal. Demand has to be shown at the site: traffic counts, access from the road, the competing express and full-service washes within a short drive, and whether a membership model can hold. Cost means land, site work, the tunnel and its equipment, priced from contractor and vendor bids, together with the construction timeline that drives the cancellation ceiling. Debt service coverage should be run on wash volume and average ticket through a ramp period and a weak season. The appraisal is the hard part: an Illinois wash is a special-purpose building, and the study must give the appraiser comparable sales and an income approach the lender's reviewer can follow.

A single code covers car washes and truck washes alike, mobile washes included, so the Illinois figures mix tunnel washes with operators whose business looks quite different.