SBA 504 Gas Station Feasibility Study in Texas

Texas ranks second nationally for fuel-station lending under 504 when loans are counted, and this cell reads accordingly. Approvals total 61 loans between FY2017 and FY2026 for $75.2 million, and the median sits at $991,000, about 1.15x the nationwide 504 median for fuel sites, with the middle of the distribution spanning $498,000 to $1.7 million. Among Texas asset classes this one ranks 8 of 39. What separates the cell from its parents is the combination of a large franchise share, 57.4% of loans, with a heavy reliance on development companies rather than banks.

The development companies

Under 504 the lenders listed are certified development companies, and three carry most of the book. North Texas Certified Development Corporation has 20 loans worth $20.3 million, Capital Certified Development Corporation has 18 worth $24.1 million, and LiftFund, Inc. has 8 worth $11.2 million. Holder records of this kind name who carries or carried each note, and they pass no verdict on a company. For a borrower, the concentration means a small set of companies has seen many Texas fuel projects and will ask the same questions again: brand supply agreement, fuel volume, and the real estate under the pumps.

Where and when

Harris County leads with 10 loans, followed by Jefferson, Kaufman and Tarrant with 4 each, then Bexar and Travis with 3, and Bastrop, Camp, Collin and Dallas with 2. Yearly approvals were 5 in FY2017 and FY2018, 7 in FY2019, 4 in FY2020, a peak of 9 in FY2021, then 6, 8 and 7 through FY2024, and 5 in each of FY2025 and FY2026. Dollars climbed more than the loan count, to $11.8 million in FY2025 and $9.5 million in FY2026, against $4.7 million in FY2017.

Cancellation floor and the withheld rate

Among Texas fuel approvals dated FY2017 through FY2024, 19.6% were cancelled before funding at the very least, and 33.3% if loans still undisbursed are also counted as cancelled. The gap between those two numbers is a reminder that many projects in this class stall before funding. The charged-off rate is held back, since too few of these loans were funded for a rate to mean anything, so no figure appears here, and the gap should not be taken to mean losses never happened.

Coding limits and what a Texas study must prove

Classification here comes from what the borrower does, which hides truck stops and travel centers inside the same bucket and leaves electric charging without any entry in the 2022 NAICS index. Highway plazas share a code with pump-only stations that have no store, so very different sites are blended in these statistics. A Texas feasibility study should test fuel gallons against traffic counts, the brand's wholesale terms, store sales, environmental history of the tank field, and debt service coverage across both parts of a 504 structure. Ask the appraiser to price the land and canopy apart from the fuel-and-store operation that runs on it.