Gas Station Feasibility Study in Connecticut

The lowest ticket against the national picture

What sets Connecticut apart in fuel retail is the modest size of its loans. Between FY2017 and FY2026 79 gas station and truck stop loans were approved by SBA in the state, adding up to $61.2 million, and the median loan was $400,000. That median is only 0.38x the nationwide gas station median, so a Connecticut station borrows well under half what the typical SBA fuel borrower does elsewhere. The class ranks 21 of 53 among states and 10 of 39 within Connecticut, with a location quotient of 0.86x, so fuel retail is a slightly thinner slice of Connecticut approvals than of the national book. Half of the loans fall between $64,000 and $1.1 million, a very wide band.

Program mix, franchising and lenders

SBA 7(a) dominates with 68 loans against 11 under SBA 504, so most of this lending finances business purchases and working needs rather than ground-up construction. Franchise affiliation reaches 13.9% of loans, a notable share given how rarely other classes in the state carry a flag. Celtic Bank Corporation holds 16 of the 7(a) loans with $34.0 million, an unusually large dollar figure per loan. Santander Bank, National Association holds 14 loans, Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company 10, TD Bank, National Association 9 and Newtek Small Business Finance, LLC 5. Capitol planning region leads the areas with 14 loans and Hartford follows with 10, then Naugatuck Valley with 8.

Cancellations and the missing loss rate

Cancellation sits at a floor of 23.5%, while the undisbursed-as-cancelled ceiling stays at 23.5%. That is a high floor, and it is the distinctive outcome for this cell: roughly a quarter of approvals never reached disbursement, which a lender should weigh when pricing pipeline risk. We withhold the charge-off rate because the disbursed FY2017 to FY2021 group holds fewer than 30 loans, so we publish no number for it and do not treat it as zero. Volume swung widely, from 3 loans in FY2018 to 17 loans and $12.9 million in FY2023, and then 4 in FY2026.

Reading the limits and the study questions

Industry coding follows what the borrower does, so truck stops and travel centers cannot be split out and sit with gas stations that have no convenience store. New charging projects cannot be picked out of these counts, because that activity has no industry entry yet. A study for a Connecticut station has to test fuel margin and inside sales on the specific corner, the environmental cost of tanks, and the debt service coverage after those costs. The valuation work has to split bricks and tanks from the operating business, because small tickets suggest many deals are acquisitions. Loan Analytics gives both parties the same SBA record to start from.