Gas Station and Convenience Store Feasibility Study, Versailles, Ohio: An SBA 7(a) Worked Case

Nothing about the subject is real except its setting. The sponsor is hypothetical, and so is the store: a branded fuel and convenience store with a pizza and breakfast kitchen on about two acres of business-zoned land with state route frontage in the Village of Versailles. The parcel is hypothetical, and its district, its route and its land cost are assumptions. The village's code, its competitors, its taxes and its festival calendar are real, and each is dated below.

A village this size cannot be studied by radius alone. The research set the trade area as the incorporated village, because all three competitors and the meeting of SR 47, SR 121 and SR 185 lie inside it, and treated Wayne Township as the next ring. Our note on why the trade area is the study explains why that choice matters more than any single statistic.

Stable, older and middle-income

The village's population barely moved between the 2020 Census and the latest survey [1][2], and its median age of 46.0 sits well above Ohio's 39.8 [4][5]. Households are small, 2.15 people on average, and owners occupy 865 of 1,249 homes [1]. The median household income of $70,717 is close to the state's $72,212 [3][5], though the village estimate carries a margin of error of $8,049 [3]. This is a settled, middle-income community. It will not grow a store's volume on its own; it will not shrink it quickly either. For an underwriter that cuts both ways: the downside is limited, and so is the upside.

Daytime demand from industry

The village's daytime population is larger than its census count. Midmark says its headquarters, innovation hub and largest manufacturing facility are in Versailles [7]. No dated headcount for Midmark or any other Versailles employer was found; the county's own employer list gives no date, so the study uses no employment figure, and a dated employer list is a lender condition. The county markets two industrial parks in Versailles inside a Community Reinvestment Area [13]. Workers on shifts buy coffee, breakfast and lunch on the way in and fuel on the way home, which is the trade a pizza-and-breakfast store is built for.

One weekend that changes the town

Poultry Days, now in its 75th year, filled the village on June 12 to 14, 2026 with free admission [8]. The festival served 40,179 chicken dinners in 2025 and more than 1.2 million since 1952 [8][9]; local press describes thousands of visitors but no count was published [10]. That is a peak weekend, not a season, and no monthly fuel volumes exist to measure it. The model carries no festival revenue.

Ohio's store base

Ohio had 5,833 convenience stores at the end of 2025, 38 more than a year earlier [30]. The state is still adding stores slowly, while chains such as Casey's look for small towns without one of their stores [31]. Versailles already has its Casey's, which makes it a less obvious target for another chain entrant and a harder market for an independent.

The subject is a hypothetical parcel of about 2 acres with frontage on one of the three state routes that meet in the village, SR 47, SR 121 and SR 185 [12]. Its zoning is an assumption: a district that permits a convenience store, to be confirmed with the village. The code reading below quotes the rules of B-2, the business district the research read in full, as a guide to how the village treats the use. The research holds no vacant commercial land sale for the village. The one recorded commercial sale nearby, the improved Main Street property described in the competitor section [17], prices a building rather than raw land. Land therefore enters the model as an allowance of $75,000 an acre, and an appraisal replaces it before the loan is sized. Land is a small share of this project, so the loan does not turn on that line.

What the zoning code allows

The village adopted a new zoning code by Ordinance 26-01 on February 11, 2026 and revised it by Ordinance 26-36 on July 22, 2026 [14]. In B-2, "Drive-Through Carry Outs and Convenience Stores" are permitted by right under Section 305.2. "Automobile Service Stations" are conditional uses under Section 305.3, and Section 413 makes filling stations conditionally permitted in the business and industrial districts [14]. A fuel station therefore needs a conditional use permit from the Board of Zoning Appeals under Section 441, with a development plan under Section 413.D [14]. Should a rezoning ever be needed, Section 209.4 sets public hearings at least 30 days after notice at both the Planning Commission and Council, each with a 30-day decision window [14].

The filling station standards

Section 413 sets the physical program. A filling station site must have at least 12,000 square feet and 100 feet of frontage [14]. Buildings sit 40 feet from the front lot line and pumps 15 feet, with 20-foot side and 40-foot rear yards [14]. The site needs at least two driveways at least 20 feet apart, with curb cuts no wider than 40 feet; canopy lights must be recessed and deliver at least 1.0 foot-candle at grade; a 6-foot screen is required next to residential districts; and one pole sign is allowed [14]. A two-acre parcel meets all of these comfortably.

The rule that can end the fuel side

Section 424 governs the Drinking Water Source Protection Plan Zone. It prohibits underground storage of petroleum products inside the zone, requires existing and new underground tanks to meet the federal UST rules in 40 CFR 280 and 281, and sends non-residential uses in the zone to Planning Commission site-plan review [14]. A fuel store stores its fuel underground. If the subject sits inside the zone, it cannot sell fuel, and the project falls back to a convenience store without fuel. The research did not find the zone map, which makes the zone determination the first lender condition, ahead of the market questions.

Utilities, access and environment

Utilities are a condition here, not a finding. The study relies on no record of which providers serve a given parcel, so water, sewer, electric and gas service to the site, with tap and connection fees, must be confirmed in writing with the village and the gas utility before the loan is sized. The site's flood zone must likewise be confirmed on FEMA's map before the loan is sized [52]. A parcel identifier, an ODOT traffic count for the subject's route [51] and the nearest interstate exit were not found. A Phase I environmental site assessment and documented tank testing go into every gas station loan file regardless of loan size [42].

The village publishes its tax breakdown without naming the tax year, and the Darke County Auditor's abstract for tax year 2025 was not found, so the auditor's figure is a lender condition. The municipal and school income taxes fall on business profits below the operating income line; the model leaves them out of operating expenses, but a sponsor's personal cash flow analysis should include them.

The store opens 17 hours a day, matching the 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. hours Casey's keeps on Main Street [18], with 2.2 people on the floor on average, at the 2025 national c-store wage of $15.04 an hour [33] plus 18.0% for employer costs. A pizza oven and a breakfast counter need a second person through most of the day, which is why staffing sits closer to Yesway's 2.6-per-shift average [36] than a fuel-only kiosk would.

Fuel card fees cost 8.4 cents a gallon, the 2023 industry figure [34]; inside the store, card costs follow the industry's 2025 relationship between card fees and total sales [33]. Property tax follows Ohio's method: real property at 35.0% of market value [29], taxed at the commercial effective rate the village publishes [16]. The model applies that to the cost of land, building, tanks and site work, and leaves dispensers and fixtures out of the real property base. The remaining cost lines are allowances, each justified in the inputs table.

Operating expenses total $572,730 in Year 3, and net operating income is $247,467. The first year, at $68,272, carries full staffing before the village has changed its habits.

The rules are those of SOP 50 10 8.1 with Technical Policy Updates, which governs applications SBA receives from October 1, 2026 [46]. For a start-up the minimum injection is 10%, and coverage on the projections has to reach 1.15x within two years; this case tests Year 2. With real estate above half the proceeds, the loan can amortize over 25 years. Pricing starts from Prime of 7.00% [48] and adds SBA's maximum variable-rate spread for a loan of this amount, giving 10.00%; the lender fixes the real rate at pricing. SBA's guaranty on loans of this size is 75.0% [45].

Under the FY2027 fee notice, a rural borrower whose loan stays at or below $700,000 pays no upfront guaranty fee, rural meaning a county that the U.S. Census Bureau has defined as at least 30 percent rural [47]. Darke County's Census rural share was not part of the research, and both the proposed and restructured loans exceed the cap, so the model charges the fee. A sponsor who shrank the project below the cap in a qualifying county would save it.

The state's lending market sets the context for a loan this size. Across Ohio, 135 active lenders made $1.12 billion of 7(a) loans to 2,909 businesses in 2025, an average of about $386,000 a loan, and Huntington led with $291.4 million across 1,453 loans [53]. The restructured loan here, $1,481,677, is several times that average, and a fuel store with tanks and a kitchen is special purpose collateral, so the sponsor should approach lenders with an active gas station book rather than the nearest branch. No 7(a) loan to a Darke County borrower for 2024 to 2026 was found in primary sources.

A fuel store carries its own program points. SBA lists gas stations among special purpose properties [46], which governs how the appraiser values the going concern. SBA treats a fuel contract covered by the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act as a franchise [46], so the brand contract is reviewed like a franchise agreement. Ownership has been limited to U.S. citizens and nationals since March 1, 2026, when SBA also withdrew a short-lived allowance for small foreign stakes [50]. On the study itself, 13 CFR 120.160(b): SBA may require professional appraisals, a survey, or a feasibility study [49]. On a start-up whose fuel use still needs two approvals, the lender will want one.

Ohio has 320 Opportunity Zones designated in 2018, and new designations take effect on January 1, 2027 [44]; whether the subject's tract is or will be in one was not found. Whether the parcel lies in the village's Community Reinvestment Area, which covers the industrial parks [13], was not found either.

As proposed, the store covers $299,649 of debt service 0.62x in Year 2 and 0.82x in Year 3. Even settled, it does not earn its payments. The shortfall is not a matter of a weak ramp; the stabilized store is simply too small for the loan.

At 50.9% equity the loan falls to $1,481,677 and debt service to $161,568, Year 2 coverage reaches 1.15x and the stabilized years hold above the floor. For a lender that is a modest, well-covered loan against a special purpose property in a stable market, conditional on the zoning answers. For the sponsor it is a much larger check than planned.

One scenario sits outside the model. If the wellhead zone rules out tanks, the project becomes a store without fuel. Sunoco's APLUS franchise disclosure for 2025 put a newly built no-fuel store at $808,950 to $1,973,600 all in, and the building alone for about 3,000 square feet at $375,000 to $1,100,000, as a contractor relays those figures [41]. That is a much cheaper project, but it gives up the fuel line, which is the largest single source of gross profit in this model, and it would compete with three stations that sell both. The study does not run that case; a lender who faces it should ask for a separate test rather than scaling this one.

The three start-up cases in this set fail for three different reasons. In Lockhart, Texas the town grows fast but the land is priced for that growth. In Lake Wales, Florida the highway is busy but national chains hold its customers. Here land is cheap and competition is settled, and the limit is simply the size of the village. The Opelika, Alabama acquisition and the Cartersville, Georgia interstate case show how the same asset tests when a buyer has trailing earnings or an open highway node.

Rows change fuel volume and columns change inside sales, each by up to 20% in either direction, holding the restructured equity share. The table reads the Year 2 test and spans 0.35x to 1.94x. Inside sales weigh slightly more than fuel volume, because the kitchen's margin is high and its sales are large relative to this store's fuel. A 10% shortfall on either one alone pushes Year 2 below the floor, and a 10% shortfall on both leaves the store unable to cover its debt service.