Gas Station Feasibility Study in Missouri

The cancellation record is the story

Missouri gas station lending is distinguished by how often approved loans never fund. The cell holds 68 SBA loans from FY2017 to FY2026, worth $73.3 million. Looking at approvals made from FY2017 to FY2024, no fewer than 28.1% were cancelled, and the ceiling that counts undisbursed loans is the same 28.1%. That cancellation measure is the one that sets the cell apart from both Missouri's overall lending and gas stations nationally. A lender reading this should expect many approvals to die before disbursement, and a borrower should expect scrutiny of the things that usually kill a fuel deal.

Size and weight

The median loan of $825,000 sits at 0.78x of the class median nationwide, and half the loans fall between $397,500 and $1.5 million. Missouri places 22 of 53 states for the class, yet gas stations and truck stops are only the 13th of 39 classes Missouri tracks, and a location quotient of 0.56x shows the sector carrying well under its national share. Franchise loans make up 29.4% of the cell, reflecting fuel brands that license their sites. The 7(a) program carried 57 loans and 504 carried 11.

Lenders and places

OakStar Bank leads with 11 loans and $15.1 million. The Bank of Houston has 6 loans and $6.9 million, and Equity Bank 5 and $4.9 million. Rural Missouri, Inc. is the 504 name, with 6 loans and $5.4 million. Saint Louis City records 8 loans, with Greene, Jackson and Saint Louis counties at 6 each. Annual counts swing widely: FY2021 had 11 loans and $14.2 million, FY2025 only 3 loans and $3.6 million, and FY2026 rebounded to 8 loans and $14.4 million. No charge-off rate can be given for Missouri, because too few loans have funded long enough to form a cohort of 30.

What a study has to test

Given the cancellation floor, a Missouri study should show why this deal will close. Environmental condition comes first: tank age, leak history, and the cost and timing of any remediation, which can stall a project for months. Next is fuel economics, meaning gallons, margin per gallon and the competing stations on the same traffic corridor, together with inside sales if a store is planned, which often carries more of the profit than the pump. Franchise terms and brand image spend belong in the cost line. Debt service coverage should survive a fuel margin squeeze, not only the base case. The appraiser will treat the site as special purpose real estate, so the equity injection and a realistic going concern value matter.

A coding limit

The code reflects the borrower's industry, truck stops and travel centres cannot be broken out, and electric vehicle charging has no entry in the 2022 index, so a charging project is not visible here.