Gas Station Feasibility Study in North Carolina

North Carolina stations: big loans, one dominant bank

North Carolina ranks 10 of 53 among states for gas station lending, with 151 SBA approvals worth $151.6 million from FY2017 to FY2026. The North Carolina median was $882,000, or 0.84x the national class median, and loans between the quartiles ran from $473,000 to $1.2 million. The class is 10 of 39 among North Carolina asset classes, and the location quotient of 0.95x places it near its national weight. Against both the North Carolina all-asset book and stations nationally, none of the three headline gauges passes our distinctness margin, so the North Carolina cell is best read through its lenders and its closing record.

One lender stands out. Citizens Bank holds 36 North Carolina station loans worth $38.3 million, followed by Pinnacle Bank with 11 worth $13.2 million, Readycap Lending, LLC with 8, HomeTrust Bank with 6 and Metro City Bank with 5. SBA 7(a) carries 134 approvals and SBA 504 17, where Business Expansion Funding Corporation holds 8 and Carolina Business Capital, Inc. 5 worth $7.2 million. Branded operators account for 37.7% of North Carolina loans.

Floors for North Carolina stations

North Carolina lost at least 11.9% of FY2017 to FY2024 station approvals to cancellation, and up to 14.4% once undisbursed loans are counted. That gap suggests some recent approvals are still in process. Funded loans have performed: across 69 North Carolina station loans funded in FY2017 through FY2021, charge-offs read 0.00% to date and 0.00% for the first five years, floors on loans North Carolina borrowers are still repaying. Approvals reached 23 in both FY2017 and FY2021, the latter worth $26.8 million, and 20 in FY2025.

What a North Carolina station study must cover

The county list is spread out: Mecklenburg holds 18 approvals, Alamance 11, Wake 8, Cumberland 7 and Pasquotank 6, so the North Carolina record is not confined to one market. A feasibility study must test traffic counts, fuel volume and inside sales against nearby competition, and the fuel supply and branding terms. Cost has to include tanks, dispensers, canopy and store build-out at current pricing. Coverage of the payment should rest on fuel margin and store margin together, at loans that can reach $1.2 million. The appraisal must split real estate from going-concern value and address environmental condition. One limit of the data: because the SBA code describes the borrower's industry rather than the site, North Carolina truck stops and travel centers sit inside the station code and cannot be split out, and the 2022 NAICS index gives electric vehicle charging no code of its own, so North Carolina charging sites are invisible here.