Car Wash Feasibility Study in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ Metro Area
What SBA's own loan files show about car wash lending in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ Metro Area, and what a feasibility study for a project there has to test.
Phoenix car washes: ranked, but at the national norm
Phoenix, Mesa and Chandler ranks 12 of 458 among areas for car wash loans, and car wash ranks 12 of 39 in Phoenix, Mesa and Chandler itself. The location quotient of 1.03x puts the class within a hair of its country-wide share. Between FY2017 and FY2026 SBA recorded 59 loans for $70.6 million. The Phoenix, Mesa and Chandler median of $956,300 equals 1.03x of the national car wash median; ordinary car wash loans run $382,500 to $1.6 million. Nothing in the cell breaks from the national profile, and that is itself the finding: Phoenix looks like the typical car wash market.
Phoenix, Mesa and Chandler car wash lending leans on SBA 7(a) for 46 loans, with SBA 504 behind 13. For 7(a) paper, the table shows 5 loans ($5.4 million) held by VelocitySBA, LLC, 5 loans ($7.4 million) held by Celtic Bank Corporation and then 6 loans ($7.1 million) held by America First Federal Credit Union. Those are large tickets per loan, as wash sites with equipment tunnels cost heavily. Read the Phoenix, Mesa and Chandler lender lines as the current holder SBA lists, and nothing about VelocitySBA, LLC’s standards. This is a holding record.
For car wash loans in Phoenix, Mesa and Chandler, no figure shows for the franchised fraction, the cancellation rate, as well as the charge-off floor for want of enough loans; missing never means zero. Yearly counts for Phoenix, Mesa and Chandler read 5 loans and $1.8 million in FY2020, 8 and $6.4 million in FY2022, 6 and $7.2 million in FY2023, and 9 and $7.3 million in FY2024.
Testing a Phoenix-area wash
Car and truck washes, mobile operators included, share one code in Phoenix, Mesa and Chandler. For Phoenix, Mesa and Chandler, each car wash loan is placed on its project county under the July 2023 county list. No county match, no inclusion. The study must test traffic counts at the site, water and reclaim costs, membership versus pay-per-wash revenue, equipment cost and age, and whether land and tunnel together are supported by appraisal. We offer this record to inform any car wash engagement around Phoenix, Mesa and Chandler, under Daniel Smith, MAI, as in Phoenix signatory; approval is not implied.
SBA car wash loans in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ Metro Area
| Loans approved, FY2017 to FY2026 | 59 |
|---|---|
| Gross dollars approved | $70.6 million |
| Median loan | $956,300 |
| Middle half of loans, from | $382,500 |
| Middle half of loans, to | $1.6 million |
| SBA 7(a) loans | 46 |
| SBA 504 loans | 13 |
| Franchise share of loans | withheld |
| Rank among metro and micro areas for car wash loans | 12 of 458 |
| Rank of car wash among the classes in this area | 12 of 39 |
| Location quotient (share of loans against the national share) | 1.03x |
| Median loan against the national median for the class | 1.03x |
Cancellation and charge-off
| Cancelled after approval, FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor) | withheld |
|---|---|
| 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 car wash loans approved in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ Metro Area, by fiscal year
| Fiscal year | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| FY2017 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2018 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2019 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2020 | 5 | $1.8 million |
| FY2021 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2022 | 8 | $6.4 million |
| FY2023 | 6 | $7.2 million |
| FY2024 | 9 | $7.3 million |
| FY2025 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2026 | withheld | withheld |
Most active SBA lenders
| Lender | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| America First Federal Credit Union | 6 | $7.1 million |
| Celtic Bank Corporation | 5 | $7.4 million |
| VelocitySBA, LLC | 5 | $5.4 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.
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.
Car and truck washes, including mobile washes, share one code.
Shared code: Truck washes share 811192.
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 MA-38060-C02.
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