Gas Station Feasibility Study in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA Metro Area

Riverside against the national picture

SBA's loan files carry 202 approvals for fuel stops and truck stops in Riverside from FY2017 to FY2026, with $461.6 million in gross dollars approved. Measured by location quotient, 1.87x, gas stations and truck stops claim a larger share of the area's approvals than the whole nation. In rank terms, Riverside is 7 of 600 within metro and micro areas, and gas and truck-stop businesses take 5 of 39 among the area's own asset classes. At $2.1 million, the Riverside median sits above the national class median, a ratio of 2.03x. The central half of loans stretches from $1.2 million to $3.1 million.

The Riverside lender and program record

The program split is 161 approvals under 7(a) and 41 under 504; this split tells an applicant which program fuel stops and truck stops projects use in Riverside. 69.3% of the Riverside loans went to franchised businesses. On the 7(a) side, Commonwealth Business Bank leads at 21; behind it come Open Bank (20) plus Bank of Hope (13). Across 504 lending, 11 approvals sit with Advantage Certified Development Corporation, 8 with The Mortgage Capital Development Corporation and 6 with AMPAC Tri-State CDC, Inc.. Each lender listed currently holds the loans SBA credits to it; the table shows where the loans sit and says nothing about lending practice.

Riverside by county and fiscal year

By project county, San Bernardino County, CA accounts for 128 approvals of gas station loans. The yearly record peaks in FY2021 at 35 loans and $91.1 million, and bottoms out in FY2019 at 12 approvals and $29.1 million.

Floors that may only move up for gas stations and truck stops

The category behind these Riverside loans is the borrower's self-reported line, so a travel plaza is counted with plain fuel stops, as a rule, and plug-in charging is not a category in the 2022 list. Riverside is best read as a county-based figure: on this record, SBA's county of the project, on this record, paired by name to 2023 boundaries, determines which approvals enter for gas stations and truck stops. Among FY2017 to FY2024, 12.1% at the least of Riverside gas station approvals were cancelled after approval, a minimum (no ceiling is shown). Too few disbursed gas station loans from FY2017 to FY2021 exist in Riverside for Loan Analytics to print a charge-off rate, and a blank there is not a zero.

Feasibility questions for gas and truck-stop businesses around Riverside

Demand comes first for gas and truck-stop businesses in Riverside: pump count against site size, then store sales behind the pumps. Institutions have approved 202 loans in the category, yet that history tells a borrower little about a single site until local figures are built. An appraiser for a Riverside project will have to speak to land value against business value and the store and fuel split. Coverage of debt service is the key test for gas stations and truck stops in Riverside: it has to hold when sales ramp slowly, since the floors above show called off and charged-off approvals in the area. The decision to lend belongs to banks, not studies; an analysis for fuel stops and truck stops in Riverside provides the proof a lender can weigh against the record. Costs to price include fuel inventory working capital and fuel supply and brand terms; the sum is then set beside Riverside approvals of $1.2 million to $3.1 million, with $2.1 million at the center.