Car Wash Feasibility Study in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA Metro Area

Inland Empire car washes: heavy tickets, uneven lenders

Car wash lending around Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario is heavy and uneven. The median is $1.5 million, 1.67x the nationwide class median, and $703,500 and $2.6 million are the quartile edges. The cell holds 84 approvals worth $149.8 million between FY2017 and FY2026. Riverside-San Bernardino stands 8 of 458 for car washes, the class holds 11 of 39 in its own table, and a location quotient of 1.55x shows car washes outweighing their national share. San Bernardino County, CA has 45 loans and Riverside County, CA 39.

SBA 7(a) carried 68 loans and SBA 504 carried 16, a fixed-asset side that fits land, tunnel equipment and water systems. The franchise share is withheld, as are the cancellation upper bound and the write-off rate, so none turns up and no blank reads as nil. At least 10.3% of FY2017 to FY2024 approvals were cancelled. Truck and mobile washes are counted inside the car wash code, so the file cannot isolate them, and a study must say which kind of wash it measures.

Lenders

The two named SBA 7(a) lenders differ sharply. U.S. Bank, National Association holds 11 loans but only $275,000 in total, a tiny average, while Commonwealth Business Bank holds 8 loans worth $11.0 million. On SBA 504, AMPAC Tri-State CDC, Inc. holds 6 loans and $12.0 million. A borrower should ask why the averages differ so widely before assuming one lender's pattern applies to another. Nothing in these rows speaks to practice; they are SBA's holder entries.

Approvals started at 10 loans and $20.8 million in FY2017, reached 15 loans and $36.2 million in FY2022, and fell to 5 loans and $7.4 million in FY2023 before 8 loans and $8.6 million in FY2024. FY2025 and FY2026 are withheld, so recent momentum cannot be read. County placement under the 2023 delineation decides which loans count for this metro.

What an Inland Empire car wash study has to settle

A study should count traffic and the wash types already operating near the site in either county, then cost tunnel or bay equipment, land and water systems against $1.5 million. Cars per day, membership share and utility costs must repay the loan, and an appraiser separates land from equipment. Loan Analytics staffs each Riverside assignment; Daniel Smith, MAI, stands behind it, and 84 approvals bind no lender.