Car Wash Feasibility Study in Tennessee

Large tickets, concentrated lending

Tennessee car wash lending runs above the national middle. The cell holds 43 SBA loans from FY2017 to FY2026 worth $73.7 million, and the median of $1.3 million is 1.36x the national class median. Half of the loans fall between $362,100 and $2.2 million. The state ranks 21 of 53 for car washes, the class sits at 14 of 39 within Tennessee, and a location quotient of 1.13x puts washes a little above their national weight. Median, cancellation and charge-off give no outlier reading here, so the cell is a reference record rather than an outlier.

Who funds the washes

The 7(a) program carried 33 loans and 504 carried 10. Celtic Bank Corporation is the sole lender named, at 7 loans and $22.0 million, a large average that signals the biggest tunnel projects, while franchise loans are 4.7% of the cell. Rutherford County has 8 loans, Davidson and Williamson 6 each, and Shelby 4, so a few counties lead.

A boom in 2019 and 2020

FY2019 recorded 8 loans and $12.9 million and FY2020 recorded 4 loans with $15.0 million, followed by 6 loans and $14.6 million in FY2023. Since then volume has thinned, with 2 loans in FY2024, then 3, then 2 in FY2026. Cancellation after approval stands at a floor of 10.5%, and the ceiling is the same. Tennessee has no printed loss rate: too few early loans have funded.

What a Tennessee wash must show

The numbers imply projects of institutional scale, so the study should prove the volume. Cars per day come from traffic counts, access and visibility, and the share of customers who join a monthly membership drives revenue stability. Compare the site with the washes within a short drive, including any recent openings, since express tunnels cluster. Costs include equipment, land, utility connections, water and wastewater rules, and the labour for a staffed site. A loan near $1.3 million often includes real estate, so land and site work need clear lines. Run coverage on a slow ramp and on a lower membership count. The appraisal treats a wash as special purpose, so equity and conservative volumes protect the lender.

A coding limit

The code groups car washes, truck washes and mobile washes, so the format cannot be separated here.