SBA 7(a) Gas Station Feasibility Study in Oregon

Big-ticket, branded stations

Oregon's fuel-station lending under SBA 7(a) totals 115 loans and $248.4 million gross. Oregon ranks 13th among states for the pairing, while stations and truck stops are the 6 of 39 class within Oregon. What separates it is size. The median loan is $1.8 million, 1.61x the national median, and half the loans run from $951,750 to $3.4 million. Franchise brands appear on 65.2% of loans. This is a different business from the small independent stations seen in some states: larger sites, branded fuel supply and frequently a store attached.

Celtic Bank Corporation leads with 17 loans. PCB Bank and Readycap Lending, LLC each have 13, Open Bank 12 and Columbia Bank 11. The lenders are therefore close in size, and several are specialty small-business lenders. SBA's holder file is the source here, and it cannot tell us how any bank approaches a station. Geography is distinctive: Lane County has 17 loans, Multnomah 16, Umatilla 15 and Clackamas 13, so the eastern Umatilla corridor, along the interstate, matters as much as Portland. Marion and Yamhill have 7 each.

The loss record

Cancelled approvals reach at least 7.2%, with an equal ceiling. Among 45 loans funded early in the span, no charge-off shows at the floor, either to date (0.00%) or by year five (0.00%). That says no charge-off had been recorded, not that none can occur. Volume has built from 14 loans and $19.0 million in FY2017, with a dip to 4 loans in FY2018, up to 20 loans and $48.8 million in FY2026, the largest year in the span.

Format, regulation and site value

Because the code follows the borrower's industry, a travel center is indistinguishable here from a plain station; charging for electric cars has no home in the 2022 index, and the same code holds truck plazas next to stations that have no store. An Oregon study must name the format and then test fuel volume against state and local regulation, the rival stations along the road, the store and food margins, and tank and soil conditions. With a large ticket, it must also show the price paid against site value. Debt service should be tested at a lower gallonage, and the appraisal will treat land, building and business together.