Worked Example: SBA 504 Gas Station Feasibility Study in Illinois
A worked example of the feasibility study a lender would read for a gas station project in Illinois, financed with an SBA 504 loan.
What SBA's own loan files show about lending in the Ottawa, IL Micro Area, every asset class together, and what a feasibility study for a project there has to test.
SBA approved 101 loans across the Ottawa, IL micro area from FY2017 through FY2026, carrying $76.3 million across every asset class. Ottawa holds rank 466 of 928 against every other statistical area, Ottawa among them. A typical Ottawa loan is $500,000, with half of all loans between $200,000 and $900,000. Against the country, Ottawa borrowers take larger loans, with a median 2.40x of the national one. Nationally, Ottawa loans run smaller than they do here.
The program split in Ottawa is 86 under 7(a) and 15 under 504. Ottawa is a 7(a) Ottawa market first. Franchise brands account for 17.8% of loans. On the 7(a) side, Midland States Bank leads with 13 loans and $8.7 million. Second place is Byline Bank: 7 loans, $5.1 million. The count for The Huntington National Bank is 6 loans, with 5 more at Peru Federal Savings Bank. On 504, SomerCor 504, Inc. comes first: 7 loans, $2.3 million. Every lender Ottawa row is SBA's record of holdings. Midland States Bank Ottawa appears since SBA names it as the Ottawa holder; that says nothing about how Byline Bank underwrites.
Most of the Ottawa total sits outside the tracked asset classes: 54 loans that carry codes outside the Ottawa table. The Ottawa class rows therefore describe a minority of Ottawa lending. Hotel and motel is the largest listed class, at 12 loans, Ottawa then gas station and truck stop with 7, and self storage at 6. Smaller Ottawa classes Ottawa follow, among them full-service restaurant at 5 loans and liquor store at 5. LaSalle County, IL is the largest source of loans, with 83. Demand differs between these counties, so the Ottawa figure hides some spread.
A minimum of 9.3% of Ottawa approvals made in FY2017 to FY2024 Ottawa never funded; the ceiling, treating undisbursed Ottawa loans as cancelled, is also 9.3%. No charge-off rate is shown for Ottawa: too few Ottawa loans reached the funded cohort, so Ottawa gets no rate, and a blank not signals none. Volume crested in FY2024, at 17 loans and $13.8 million, while FY2017 was the low point before FY2026, at 7 loans and $3.4 million. Years that rest on very few Ottawa loans are withheld from the Ottawa table, and no stand-in Ottawa figure is supplied for them. Membership in the Ottawa, IL micro area follows the project county: LaSalle County, IL, LaSalle County, IL and the rest. Then the 2023 Ottawa delineation of statistical areas sets the line, with Ottawa counties matched by name.
Any Ottawa feasibility study should be built for one Ottawa site and one Ottawa county, given how unlike its Ottawa counties can be. Since hotel and motel leads the Ottawa class table, it has to examine room-night demand by segment and the brand and flag question, then the pipeline of new rooms. An Ottawa request in gas station and truck stop turn on environmental history of Ottawa sites, with pump count against queues close behind. Cash flow for an Ottawa loan Ottawa should be run against a downturn; the Ottawa appraisal has to rest on local Ottawa comparables and income. In Ottawa, with larger tickets common in Ottawa, the request should be tied to what the Ottawa site earns, whatever the area norm.
| Loans approved, FY2017 to FY2026 | 101 |
|---|---|
| Gross dollars approved | $76.3 million |
| Median loan | $500,000 |
| Middle half of loans, from | $200,000 |
| Middle half of loans, to | $900,000 |
| SBA 7(a) loans | 86 |
| SBA 504 loans | 15 |
| Franchise share of loans | 17.8% |
| Rank among metro and micro areas by loans | 466 of 928 |
| Median loan against the national median | 2.40x |
| Cancelled after approval, FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor) | 9.3% |
|---|---|
| The same, counting loans still undisbursed as cancelled (a ceiling) | 9.3% |
| 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 loans approved in the Ottawa, IL Micro Area, by fiscal year
| Fiscal year | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| FY2017 | 7 | $3.4 million |
| FY2018 | 12 | $5.0 million |
| FY2019 | 8 | $7.9 million |
| FY2020 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2021 | 15 | $11.8 million |
| FY2022 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2023 | 10 | $6.7 million |
| FY2024 | 17 | $13.8 million |
| FY2025 | 17 | $12.4 million |
| FY2026 | 9 | $7.9 million |
| Asset class | Loans |
|---|---|
| Not in any of the 39 asset classes | 54 |
| Hotel and motel | 12 |
| Gas station and truck stop | 7 |
| Self storage | 6 |
| Full-service restaurant | 5 |
| Liquor store | 5 |
Classes with 5 or more loans; smaller ones are withheld, and more where a small one could be derived.
| Lender | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| SomerCor 504, Inc. | 7 | $2.3 million |
| Lender | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| Midland States Bank | 13 | $8.7 million |
| Byline Bank | 7 | $5.1 million |
| The Huntington National Bank | 6 | $2.3 million |
| Peru Federal Savings Bank | 5 | $3.6 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 |
|---|---|
| LaSalle County, IL | 83 |
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.
All assets: every 7(a) and 504 approval in the metro, including those outside the 39 asset classes.
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 MT-36837.
A worked example of the feasibility study a lender would read for a gas station project in Illinois, financed with an SBA 504 loan.
Loan Analytics prepares the feasibility study a lender reads before it commits: for a commercial project in the Ottawa, IL Micro 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.
Contact Us