Gas Station Feasibility Study in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Metro Area

Where fuel retail is twice as common as usual

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell shows a location quotient of 2.17x for gas station and truck stop loans, so fuel retail is over twice as large a part of Georgia's metro SBA lending as of lending nationwide. The area ranks 2 of 600 for the class, though inside the area the class is fifth among the 39 asset classes. Between FY2017 and FY2026 SBA approved 333 loans worth $512.9 million, and 60.7% bear a franchise flag, a sign that brand supply contracts shape much of the book. Gwinnett County has 45 loans, Cobb County 35, DeKalb County 34, Fulton County 30 and Cherokee County 24.

Loan size is the other mark of the Atlanta file: a $1.2 million median, or 1.18x what the class reaches nationally, with half of loans between $699,000 and $2.2 million. SBA 7(a) accounts for 303 loans and SBA 504 for 30. At these sizes the loan usually funds land, canopy, tanks and a store, which is why the real estate and the environmental condition of the site weigh heavily.

Holders and what the tables mean

SBA's lender tables list the present holder of each loan. In the 7(a) list, HomeTrust Bank holds 38 loans worth $44.6 million, Georgia's Own Credit Union 37 worth $74.7 million, Metro City Bank 35 worth $48.7 million, Embassy National Bank 24 worth $32.6 million and PromiseOne Bank 16 worth $24.9 million. The credit union's average loan is the largest of the five. For 504, Capital Partners Certified Development Company holds 13 worth $15.6 million. This is a record of holdings; it does not describe what any institution requires.

Cancellation is the standout in this cell: no fewer than 21.4% of approvals from FY2017 to FY2024 never funded. Two other values are withheld by SBA for Atlanta: the upper bound on cancellation, and the charge-off rate so far. Too few loans lie beneath them, so the page prints neither, and an empty cell must not be read as a zero. Approvals peaked at 59 in FY2021, worth $84.7 million, and fell to 20 in FY2022.

What an Atlanta fuel-retail study must test

Traffic leads the work: counts on the road frontage, turning access, and the competing pumps within the trade area, large-format stores among them. Fuel margin is thin and volatile, so the income case has to rest on in-store sales and a stated gallons-per-month assumption, with debt service tested against a fall in margin. Environmental history of the parcel, tank age and closure obligations belong in cost and in the appraisal, since a contaminated site can be worth far less than the improvements. Two cautions about the data apply. Classification follows the borrower's stated industry, so travel centers and truck stops cannot be split out and stay inside this class, beside stations without a store, while EV charging is absent from the 2022 index altogether. Atlanta totals are also minimums, because a project county that fails to match the July 2023 list removes the loan.