Car Wash Feasibility Study in the Ogden, UT Metro Area

Car washes with a high quotient

Two ranks describe Ogden: 8 of 39 for car wash on Ogden's own class list, and 29 of 458 for the area itself. SBA approved 25 loans worth $21.2 million from FY2017 to FY2026: Weber County has 13 and Davis County 12. By location quotient (2.43x), SBA lending in Ogden gives car wash loans a larger share than the national one.

Half of the Ogden loans exceed $638,000, which is 0.69x the national median throughout car washes, and loans in Ogden's middle band run from $330,700 up to $1.3 million. The loans split almost evenly between the programs: 13 under 7(a) and 12 under 504. No franchise brand shows up in the 0.00% franchise share. All above describes SBA loans in Ogden; other funding for car wash projects in Ogden lies outside these figures.

Year and floors

Only one year is shown, FY2018: 6 loans and $4.7 million. No lender is recorded for Ogden's car wash cell. We withhold Ogden's both loss-side rates as the Ogden FY2017 to FY2021 set of loans holds under 30 loans, so in Ogden our own method bites. A blank rate in Ogden does not mean none.

One code takes in car washes, truck washes and mobile washing, which keeps the Ogden cell from separating formats. A study for Ogden should name its format and size its volume forecast to that format.

Ogden's proposal should begin with how much passing traffic turns into paying customers, and whether that volume can carry the land, the equipment and the labour. Cover for a loan near $638,000 has to be shown, with a quiet first year as the downside. Because the quotient is so high, the study must also show why this trade area has room for another site, and explain how an appraiser will price a land purchase and the equipment. The federal delineation draws Ogden, so loans from counties Ogden fails to match are excluded from the totals.

Reading the Ogden figures

The even split between 7(a) and 504 means both routes have real precedent in this metro area, which matters for a project that buys land: 504 is the route that funds real estate and equipment. Weber County and Davis County between them hold every printed loan, so a site outside those two counties has fewer direct comparables. The franchise share of 0.00% means a lender will treat these as independent operators, and a borrower planning a branded format has no local comparison on this Ogden page.