A New Gas Station in the I-75 Exit 296 Trade Area, Cartersville, Georgia: An SBA 7(a) Start-Up

Exit 296 is a freight interchange first. Trucks made up as much as 34% of Cass-White Road traffic at the Pilot truck stop and about 48% on the I-75 ramps when GDOT counted for the road's widening in 2019 [5]. Pilot Travel Center #67 and TA Cartersville #0146 serve those trucks at scale, with 10 fuel lanes at one and 212 truck spaces at the other [13][14]. Around them, branded stations under CITGO, Exxon, Chevron and Texaco flags work the car traffic coming off the twin roundabouts that took over the ramp traffic in March 2024 [4][15][16][19]. A new diesel-led store would enter the most contested segment of the interchange with the worst position in it.

The customer that is underserved is closer to home. Bartow County grew 11.0% between April 2020 and July 2025, twice Georgia's rate of 5.5% [2][3], and the county's newest employers sit along Cass-White Road and US 411: a 1 million square foot Amazon cross dock on Cass-White Road, the Hyundai and SK On battery plant that began production in June 2026, and the Qcells solar campus [10][7][9]. Commuters to those plants, and the households that follow the jobs, buy gasoline, coffee and breakfast on the way to work. A 4,200 square foot store with a food counter, on a commercial lot in the interchange's trade area, is built for them.

That store has a market. What it does not have is a loan at the structure the sponsor proposed. Built new at 2026 costs, the project totals $4,867,551. Financed as a 7(a) start-up with 10% down at Prime plus the maximum variable-rate spread, it carries $483,531 of annual debt service. In Year 2, the year in which a start-up must show it can reach the 1.15x standard, the store earns $291,437 of NOI, which covers that debt 0.60x. The case engine restructures to 52.3% equity, where Year 2 coverage reaches 1.15x.

A sponsor who can put more than half the cost into a single new store is rare, and the finding should be read that way. The store's earnings at stabilization, $351,674 in Year 3, are reasonable for a store of this size and volume; the problem is that a new-build cost basis and a variable rate of 10.00% on all but the 10% injection need a yield the format does not produce. The workable versions of this project are a lower-cost build, a site with frontage on Cass-White Road where volume would be higher, or a different capital structure, discussed under the loan section. On the 7(a) start-up as proposed, the determination is no.

This case sits beside two other ways to finance fuel on the interstate. The Opelika acquisition on the I-85 corridor buys an operating store and is tested on the seller's history; the Terrell truck stop on I-20 goes after the diesel customer this case avoids, with an SBA 504 loan. Our gas station and convenience store guide covers the asset class as a whole, its interstate and highway fuel page sets out how interchange position shapes volume, and the Georgia market page covers the state's regulatory and cost context.

Only stations whose brand and address appear on a brand locator or operator page made the table. Every assessor field, parcel, tax, acreage and year opened, is missing for every competitor, because the Bartow County assessor system could not be queried.

Four more stations appear in iExit's roster for the exit but have no brand locator page we could find and no assessor record: a Chevron at 873 Cassville White Road NW, a Texaco at 998 Cass White Road NE, a station listed at 997 Cassville White Road NE that may duplicate the Texaco, and A1 Food Mart on Joe Frank Harris Parkway inside the 3-mile ring [19]. The CITGO at 874 is also listed there under a 76 flag, a brand conflict the locator resolves in CITGO's favor [15][19]. At Exit 293, just outside the ring, a Marathon and a Chevron on US 411 complete the field. Every unconfirmed station is a lender condition, and so are fuel positions and prices for all of them; the price snapshots aggregators show for these stations are undated, and the study does not use them.

The travel centers set the competitive terms. Pilot and TA together offer truck parking, scales, service bays, showers and national loyalty programs that a single store lot cannot match [13][14]. Both also hold Georgia coin-operated amusement machine licenses, and TA lists a video gaming terminal [14][17]. A store off the interstate frontage should not try to win diesel; it should take the gasoline-and-coffee trip that the travel centers serve only incidentally, from drivers who live or work north of the interstate and do not want the truck traffic at the ramps.

October prices during a tax holiday

The only operator-posted prices at the exit, TA's of October 15, 2026, were taken during a state fuel tax suspension. Georgia's motor fuel excise for 2026 is 33.3 cents a gallon on gasoline and 37.3 cents on diesel [27]. The Governor suspended it by emergency order from 12:01 a.m. on September 29 through October 29, 2026, the second suspension of the year after a 60-day holiday signed on March 20 [29][30]. TA's $3.699 unleaded price may or may not reflect the full suspension, and nothing in the record says which. It sat well below the $4.35 national average EIA reported for September 2026 [32][14]. For underwriting the point is simple: an October 2026 price check in Georgia cannot be compared with a price from any other month, and a lender who wants to judge how this store will price against the interchange should repeat the survey in November, after the excise returns. Federal excise of 18.4 cents on gasoline and 24.4 cents on diesel applied throughout [31], and Georgia's prepaid local sales tax on fuel kept running on a Department of Revenue base price of $3.000 a gallon for both fuels from July 1, 2026 [28].

The model does not depend on any of these prices, because it underwrites cents of margin per gallon, which taxes pass through. The suspension does matter to the first months of operation of any store opening during a holiday: retailers' margins can widen or narrow when the tax steps on or off, and the timing of the step is political, not seasonal.

Pipeline

No permitted or under-construction station inside the 3-mile ring was confirmed for 2025 or 2026. Two 2026 items in local news point to more supply nearby. A Texaco at 133 Cassville Road, not yet open, was refused a package beer and wine license by the Cartersville Alcohol Control Board at its August 12, 2026 meeting, after neighbors raised school proximity, traffic and loitering [20]. And the Bartow County Planning Commission recommended approval on July 27, 2026 of a convenience store rezoning at Highway 140 and Oak Grove Road, with a condition barring liquor sales, for the Commissioner's decision on August 5, 2026 [21]. The research had placed that rezoning on Cassville Road; the article puts it at Highway 140, and its distance from the subject and the final decision are lender conditions. An existing station at 165 Cassville Road, on a 0.92-acre parcel in a FEMA floodplain, went through a City of Cartersville rezoning in 2024 to broaden the uses of its vacant suites [22]. The Texaco denial is also a warning for the subject. It came from the city's board, and a store in unincorporated Bartow County would apply to the county instead, but the objections that sank it, schools, traffic and loitering, travel with any new store near homes.

Gallons. The forecourt has 8 double-sided dispensers and no truck island. Yesway's 2025 filings give two reference points for what dispensers sell: its older stores averaged 1.0 million gallons on 10 dispensers and its new large-format stores 3.1 million gallons on 27 [37]. The case ramps to 1,020,000 gallons in Year 3, a little more per dispenser than either Yesway format, because the county is growing and commuter traffic on Cass-White Road is rising. It does not go further, because a store with no interstate sightline cannot draw the travelers who give interchange stores their volume.

Fuel margin. The model takes 39.3 cents a gallon, the five-year national average retail gasoline margin to September 2026 [39]. Second-quarter 2026 margins at the listed chains ran from 35.1 to 52.6 cents after a supply shock [39]; a store opening in 2027 or 2028 should not be underwritten on that peak.

Inside sales. Merchandise and food together stabilize at $1,700,000 in Year 3, the level Yesway's smaller legacy stores averaged in 2025 [37]. Foodservice is 28.5% of inside sales, the 2025 national share NACS reported [38]. The food counter earns a 50.0% gross margin, below the 58.3% Casey's earned on prepared food and dispensed beverages in the first nine months of fiscal 2026 [41], because a single new store has neither Casey's buying power nor its recipes. Merchandise earns 32.0%.

What is not in the model. Coin-operated amusement machines, which both travel centers license [17], and lottery commissions are left out; both are real revenue at Georgia convenience stores, and both bring licensing and SBA eligibility questions that the case does not try to answer. Beer and wine sales are inside the merchandise line, which assumes the alcohol license is granted.

Year 1 is weak by design. A new store sells well below its stabilized volume in its first year and builds its regular customers over a year or more. The ramp is the reason the program tests a start-up in Year 2 rather than Year 1, and it is also the reason this store's Year 1 coverage is far below the standard even on the restructured loan.

No local construction cost index or published regional cost per site exists for this asset, so the budget is built from dated national evidence. The building line prices 4,200 square feet at $260 a foot. An October 2026 permit filing in Fort Wayne put a 6,374 square foot Wawa's vertical construction at $1,350,000 [43], and a contractor's 2026 range for convenience store construction runs from $150 to $350 a square foot, or $2.2 million to $2.8 million all-in for a 3,000 square foot store with four dispensers [42]. Input prices for nonresidential construction rose 7.1% in the year to June 2026, and steel mill products 16.9% [44], which is why the case carries an 8.0% hard-cost contingency.

The total sits inside the franchise disclosure evidence. A 2026 Circle K disclosure puts a new store and fuel site at $3,098,500 to $9,430,500 before land, and a 2025 Holiday disclosure puts one at $3,356,200 to $7,742,500 with land [45]. The case total of $4,867,551 with land is in the lower half of the Holiday range, consistent with a modest format on an inexpensive lot.

The land line is an allowance of $220,000 an acre on about 2.5 acres. No land sale for the interchange area is in the research, and the study takes no listing's ask, so the per-acre level is an assumption for commercial land near an I-75 interchange at the northwest edge of the Atlanta region; an appraisal and a signed contract will set the value. Land is a modest share of the budget, so an error in this line does not change the conclusion.

Utilities are priced from the county's 2025 schedule: a 2-inch water meter, tap and connection, a 2-inch sewer connection, plan review and a fire-flow test, $30,990 in all [23]. Real estate makes up most of the project, so the 7(a) loan qualifies for a 25-year term on the whole amount.

The store's revenue line climbs to $2,100,860 by Year 3, up from $1,606,540 at opening, and then levels off; NOI climbs with it, from $161,445 to $351,674. The last two years grow slowly because costs rise 3.0% a year and a mature store's sales do not keep pace.

On the restructured loan, Year 3 covers debt service until gallons fall to 701,252, a cushion of 31.2%, and stays at the standard until gallons fall to 824,155. That is a wide margin, and it is the other side of the heavy equity: with less than half the cost borrowed, the stabilized store can lose a large share of its fuel volume and still pay its lender. The risk in this project is not stabilized operation. It is the ramp, the cost and the leverage.

1. A signed land contract and an appraisal supporting the land value, with the parcel identifier, assessor fair market value and 2025 tax bill.
2. A zoning verification letter from Bartow County naming the lot's district, confirming that it permits an automobile service station by right and stating the setbacks and buffers that apply.
3. Written confirmation from the Bartow County Water Department of sewer availability, the Cartersville service district capacity fee if it applies, and any county impact fees; if sewer is unavailable, a septic permit and design sized for the food counter.
4. The electric provider for the lot, its line extension cost, and natural gas availability.
5. The lot's flood zone from a FEMA map determination, and insurance quotes covering wind, flood and liability.
6. A Phase I environmental site assessment on the lot.
7. Current GDOT counts with station identifiers for the road at the site, Cassville-White Road and I-75 at Exit 296.
8. The current schedule of the Cass-White Road Phase II widening and its effect on access to the site.
9. Radius demographics for the 3-mile ring: population, households, income, median age, 2020 to 2025 change and daytime employment.
10. Current headcount at the battery plant and the Qcells campus from primary sources.
11. Confirmation, by operator page or Bartow County assessor record, of the Chevron at 873, the Texaco at 998, the station at 997 Cassville White Road, A1 Food Mart and the two Exit 293 stations, with fueling positions for each.
12. Assessor parcel, acreage, tax and year opened for every competitor.
13. A posted-price survey at all Exit 296 stations repeated after October 29, 2026, when the state excise returns.
14. The status of the Cassville Road Texaco after its license denial, the Commissioner's August 5, 2026 decision on the Highway 140 and Oak Grove Road store and its distance from the subject, and any other fuel station permitted within 3 miles.
15. The Bartow County alcohol license process and fee for the subject, and UST registration, pump inspection and retail food permit fees.
16. Fixed-price bids for site work, building, canopy, tanks and dispensers, given that no local cost index exists.
17. The final 2025 school millage and the combined millage for the parcel.
18. The parcel's HUBZone and USDA rural status, and its Opportunity Zone status, including whether Georgia nominates its tract in the round of designations that begins January 1, 2027 [36].
19. The note rate fixed at closing; the case carries the program's maximum.
20. Proof that each owner and guarantor holds U.S. citizenship or nationality and lives in the United States.
21. Evidence that the sponsor can fund the restructured equity plus a first-year operating reserve, or a revised project that reaches the standard with less.