SBA 7(a) Car Wash Feasibility Study in Missouri

Missouri car washes under 7(a) are small-ticket projects: the median loan of $347,000 is only 0.44x the nationwide 7(a) car wash median, a low ratio for a class that finances express tunnels elsewhere. Half of the 44 loans fall between $140,800 and $824,100, and the cell totals $37.7 million for FY2017 to FY2026. Counting loans, Missouri is 17th for washes, and the use ranks 16 of 39 among Missouri's asset types. Not one loan was franchised, so every borrower was an independent operator.

What the ratio implies

A median at less than half of the national figure points toward older-format or self-serve and in-bay sites, conversions, and equipment upgrades rather than new tunnel construction. That is an inference from the size, not a fact in the record, and a study should confirm the format of the actual project. Lenders reading the record should note that small loans make a project easier to carry on a modest income, but also that an owner with a thin margin has less room to absorb a poor season.

The single listed lender and the counties

Only OakStar Bank is listed, with 5 loans and $820,100, an average far below the cell median, so its small book probably rests on modest sites. Nothing in that figure speaks to how the bank lends. Saint Charles County leads with 8 loans, Jackson follows with 7, Saint Louis has 5, Lawrence 4, Jasper 3, and Butler, Newton, Randolph and Wright 2 each.

Years and floors

Counts swung widely: 4 in FY2017 at $6.5 million, a lone loan in FY2018 at $261,000, 7 in FY2019 at $10.4 million, and 3, 5 and 7 over the following three years. FY2023 brought 2 loans for $256,000, FY2024 4 loans for $8.0 million, and FY2025 8 loans for only $1.6 million. Cancellations were no fewer than 9.1% of approvals made through FY2024, with a ceiling at the same level. No charge-off experience is printed, as the loans are too few and too young, and no number should be read into the gap.

What a Missouri wash study has to settle

Mobile units, truck washes and ordinary car washes are filed together, so the report should specify exactly what is built or purchased. Test traffic on the road, visibility, competing washes within a drive, water and drainage rules, and chemical and utility cost per car. Weather matters: model a winter in which freezing temperatures shut a self-serve bay. Since a wash is largely equipment, the appraisal should separate the land from machinery that loses value quickly, and the study should say what happens to the site if the business stops.