Gas Station Feasibility Study in Georgia

Georgia's gas station approvals cancel often

The figure that separates Georgia from its parents is cancellation. Of Georgia gas station approvals from FY2017 to FY2024, at least 20.8% were cancelled after approval, and 21.5% on the ceiling that counts undrawn loans as cancelled too. For a borrower it is the most practical number on the page, because a cancelled approval is the outcome a borrower most needs to plan around.

A concentrated, big-ticket market

Gas stations carry great weight in Georgia. The location quotient is 2.61x, gas stations place 4 of 39 among Georgia classes, and Georgia ranks 4 of 53 among states, with 559 approvals worth $782.0 million from FY2017 to FY2026. At $1.1 million, the Georgia median is 1.02x the class figure nationwide, and the central half of approvals stretches from $615,700 to $1.9 million. A franchise code appears on 55.8% of loans. SBA 7(a) carried 509 loans and SBA 504 carried 50. Metro City Bank holds 58 loans worth $75.2 million, HomeTrust Bank 56 and Georgia's Own Credit Union 45 worth $85.7 million; Capital Partners Certified Development Company, with 20, leads the 504 side. Gwinnett County leads with 45 loans, then Cobb at 35 and DeKalb at 34. FY2021 was the busiest year by far, with 106 loans and $140.2 million.

Few losses, so the risk is in getting to close

Once funded, these loans have held up. Just 0.36% of the 277 Georgia station loans funded in FY2017 to FY2021 have ended in charge-off, and 0.00% within five years of approval, although open loans can still fail. Read with the cancellation floor, the record puts the weight before funding, so the study should cover the environmental review of the tanks, the appraisal, the fuel supply agreement and the seller's records. A feasibility study for a gas station in Georgia has to test fuel gallons and inside sales against traffic counts and the competing stations on the same corridor, cost any tank, canopy or store work, and show debt service coverage on fuel margins and store sales the site can actually produce. It should give the appraiser a supportable income case.

Coding limits matter here. Every loan is classed by the borrower's line of business, and the code also holds truck stops and travel centers, which cannot be separated from stations without a convenience store. Charging-only sites are missing altogether, since the 2022 edition of the NAICS index gives electric vehicle charging no line of its own.