Car Wash Feasibility Study in Massachusetts

Fewer car washes, smaller loans, higher attrition

In Massachusetts, car wash lending trails the class nationwide on every size measure, and its cancellation floor is 22.5%. SBA approved 54 loans for car washes between FY2017 and FY2026, worth $34.8 million. The median of $475,000 is 0.51x the class's national median, the location quotient is 0.49x, and the class ranks 18 of 39 in the state while Massachusetts stands 18 of 53 on volume. Among FY2017 to FY2024 approvals, at least 22.5% were cancelled and the ceiling reaches 25.0%, so a notable share of approvals did not proceed.

Wide tickets and a split between programs

The central band runs from $46,050 to $919,750. The 7(a) programme supplied 39 loans and 504 supplied 15. No Massachusetts car wash loan carries a franchise, since the share is 0.00%. TD Bank, National Association holds 10 loans worth $7.4 million, Eastern Bank 9 worth $1.3 million, and New England Certified Development Corporation leads 504 with 7 loans worth $5.9 million. Middlesex County has 13 loans, Essex 12 and Plymouth 9, and Barnstable County has 4.

What the code covers, and what is withheld

Car and truck washes, including mobile operators, share one code, so the page cannot separate a tunnel from a hand wash or a fleet service, so no loan here can be sorted by wash type. Loan Analytics withholds the charge-off rate: fewer than 30 disbursed loans stand behind it. No rate and no claim of zero losses appear here. Annual approvals were 2 loans in FY2022 and 7 in each of FY2019, FY2021, FY2025 and FY2026.

What the study must test for a Massachusetts wash

A study should start with the question the cancellation floor raises: what could stop an approved project from closing? Site control, permitting, zoning and water or sewer capacity should be tested before the equipment budget. Next comes demand: traffic counts, vehicle density, and how weather changes volume across the year. Debt service coverage should be shown with weather-driven weeks of weak sales. The appraisal will treat the wash as an operating business plus land, so the study needs a throughput forecast an appraiser can verify.