What SBA's own loan files show about gas station and truck stop lending in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metro Area, and what a feasibility study for a project there has to test.
Gas stations and truck stops are a light class in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington. The location quotient of 0.37x is far below the national share, and the class is 17 of 39 locally, yet the area is 21 of 600 nationally, because the metro is so large. SBA approved 52 loans from FY2017 to FY2026 for $48.5 million. The loan record is spread over four states and several counties, led by Philadelphia County with 11 loans and followed by New Castle County, Delaware, and Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, with 8 each, then Camden County, New Jersey, and Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with 7 each.
Loans cluster at a midpoint of $528,000, only 0.50x the national figure, with the typical range wide, from $87,500 to $1.3 million. Franchised stations account for 23.1% of loans. Program counts are withheld, so no split between 7(a) and 504 should be assumed.
What the code records is the borrower's line of business. Travel centers and truck stops share their code with fuel stations lacking a convenience store, and no field separates them. A charging-only project would be invisible in this record, because EV charging is absent from the 2022 industry index altogether. A study for a station with a convenience store, a car wash or charging should say so.
TD Bank, National Association is listed on 14 loans worth $5.1 million, the only holder named, on SBA's current-holder basis. Cancellation after approval was 16.7% or more among FY2017 through FY2024 approvals, a floor. A ceiling variant is held back, and charge-offs are not shown. Years printed are FY2019 with 5 loans and $3.5 million, FY2021 with 13 and $14.8 million, FY2023 with 7 and $7.9 million, and FY2024 with 8 and $9.7 million.
The study must start with the fuel and the store separately: gallons per day at the site, fuel margin, and the inside sales that carry the business. It should test traffic counts, competing stations at the same intersections, environmental condition of the site, since tanks and past use affect value and liability, and state-by-state rules in a four-state metro. A purchase should be tested against what the station earns. Coverage of the loan payment should hold if fuel margins compress, while the appraisal must separate real estate, equipment and the going concern.
| Loans approved, FY2017 to FY2026 | 52 |
|---|---|
| Gross dollars approved | $48.5 million |
| Median loan | $528,000 |
| Middle half of loans, from | $87,500 |
| Middle half of loans, to | $1.3 million |
| SBA 7(a) loans | withheld |
| SBA 504 loans | withheld |
| Franchise share of loans | 23.1% |
| Rank among metro and micro areas for gas station and truck stop loans | 21 of 600 |
| Rank of gas station and truck stop among the classes in this area | 17 of 39 |
| Location quotient (share of loans against the national share) | 0.37x |
| Median loan against the national median for the class | 0.50x |
| Cancelled after approval, FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor) | 16.7% |
|---|---|
| The same, counting loans still undisbursed as cancelled (a ceiling) | withheld |
| Charged off to date, FY2017 to FY2021 disbursed loans (a floor) | withheld |
Both rates are floors. SBA withholds the status of open loans, so a loan counts as charged off only once SBA reports it; a rate needs at least 30 loans in its cohort and is otherwise not reported.
SBA gas station and truck stop loans approved in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metro Area, by fiscal year
| Fiscal year | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| FY2017 | 0 | $0 |
| FY2018 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2019 | 5 | $3.5 million |
| FY2020 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2021 | 13 | $14.8 million |
| FY2022 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2023 | 7 | $7.9 million |
| FY2024 | 8 | $9.7 million |
| FY2025 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2026 | withheld | withheld |
| Lender | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| TD Bank, National Association | 14 | $5.1 million |
Lenders with 5 or more loans here; a lender with fewer is not listed, and loans SBA or a receiver holds are counted but never listed as a lender.
| County | Loans |
|---|---|
| Philadelphia County, PA | 11 |
| New Castle County, DE | 8 |
| Montgomery County, PA | 8 |
| Camden County, NJ | 7 |
| Bucks County, PA | 7 |
Counties with 5 or more loans; smaller ones are not listed.
Metro is the CBSA (metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area) of the loan's project county, July 2023 delineation (OMB Bulletin 23-01). The county is matched by name (manifests/ld2/county-cbsa-map.csv); a loan whose county cannot be placed in a 2023 CBSA is left out of every metro.
The code is the borrower's industry. Truck stop or travel center cannot be split out. EV charging has no entry in the 2022 NAICS index.
Shared code: Truck stops and travel centers sit inside 457120 with gas stations that have no convenience store.
A value marked withheld rests on fewer than 5 loans, or is withheld so that such a figure cannot be derived from other published figures.
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, 7(a) and 504 loan-level FOIA files (data.sba.gov), as of 2026-09-30; areas from the U.S. Census Bureau CBSA delineation, July 2023 (OMB Bulletin 23-01); Loan Analytics metro cell MA-37980-C01.
A worked example of the feasibility study a lender would read for a gas station project in Pennsylvania, financed with a USDA Business and Industry guaranteed loan.
Loan Analytics prepares the feasibility study a lender reads before it commits: for a gas station and truck stop project in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metro Area, financed under SBA 7(a), SBA 504, USDA Business and Industry or a conventional bank loan. Tell us the project and the lender's deadline, and we reply with scope, timeline and fee.
Start with the data.
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