SBA 7(a) Car Wash Feasibility Study in Indiana

Large loans and an empty lender table

Indiana's car washes drew 31 approvals across FY2017 to FY2026 totaling $31.6 million, a median of $580,000 that reaches 0.74x of what washes borrow elsewhere, and a central half stretching from $170,600 to $1.3 million. No holder appears for the cell in SBA's lender listing. Indiana ranks 22 among states by count, and car washes hold 19 of 39 among its asset types. Franchise brands account for 6.5%.

A thin county list

No county dominates. Clark County leads with 3 loans, and Floyd, Hamilton, Lake, Marion, Marshall and Porter follow with 2 each, so the state's washes are spread widely and the cell cannot be tied to one market. The strongest year in dollars was FY2021, with 4 loans and $9.0 million, and FY2024 shows 2 loans worth $6.6 million, the next biggest. Smaller years include 1 loan in FY2019.

Code scope and absent rates

One code serves truck washes, car washes and mobile operations alike, so a mobile detailer and an express tunnel are counted together. For Indiana washes the file offers no cancelled percentage and no charged-off percentage, because the early groups are too small; absent does not mean zero. Indiana lenders and borrowers must therefore lean on site-level facts, such as traffic and water service, in place of class experience.

What the Indiana study has to prove

A car wash is a bet on volume at a given site, so the study should build from traffic counts at the entrance, how many passing cars turn in and the price per wash. The format matters: self-serve bays, in-bay automatics and express tunnels differ in cost, labor and capacity, and subscription memberships change the revenue pattern. Water supply, sewer capacity, discharge rules and stormwater approvals can decide whether a site is buildable, and the budget for equipment and building should be tested against the $580,000 median. Indiana winters reduce visits in some months and salted roads raise them in others, so the study should model a monthly calendar. Competing washes within a few minutes' drive should be mapped. Debt service must be covered at a conservative count of cars, and the appraisal should reflect what another operator could pay for the property, since the improvements have a narrow use.