Travel Center Feasibility Study at Hankamer, Texas: An I-10 Truck Stop on a USDA B&I Loan

A travel center's customer is mostly passing through. Federal Highway Administration's calibrated truck parking model assigns 77% of truck rest parking demand to commercial truck stops and 23% to public rest areas [51], and the drivers who stop at Hankamer are hauling between Houston, Beaumont and Louisiana. That is why this study defines the primary trade area as the I-10 mainline from Exit 810 to Exit 820 rather than a radius of households, and why the missing TxDOT count matters more here than any Census figure.

Local demand is a second, growing layer. Chambers County had 57,594 residents in July 2025, up 23.8% from 46,539 in 2020 [5], while Texas grew 1.25% in the single year 2024 to 2025 [9]. The county's 17,229 households average 2.97 persons [6], its median age is 35.1 [8], and its median household income was $109,804 (plus or minus $10,467) against $78,476 for Texas in the 2020 to 2024 survey, with per capita income of $42,258 against $40,752 [7]. New subdivisions along SH 61 south of I-10 were reported only in marketing material, which this study does not rely on; a lender should confirm their size and pace from the county's plat filings.

SH 61 also carries recreation traffic south toward Anahuac and the coast. Texas Gatorfest in Anahuac expects about 10,000 visitors in September, timed to the alligator season [21], and the national wildlife refuge near Anahuac, renamed the Jocelyn Nungaray refuge on July 24, 2025 [22], is a seasonal draw for hunting and birding. Visitor counts and monthly fuel seasonality were not found. These are useful for car traffic and the store, not for diesel.

The fuel market is volatile. EIA put the 2025 retail diesel price at $3.66 a gallon and forecast $5.19 for 2026 and $4.49 for 2027 [52]. Margins, not prices, pay the debt, but high pump prices squeeze fleet buyers and push them toward discount programs at the chains. The largest operator's results show the pressure: Pilot's 2025 pre-tax earnings fell to $190 million from $614 million on revenue of $42.2 billion, down from $46.9 billion [49].

The hypothetical travel center sits on about 10 acres with access from the I-10 frontage road in the Hankamer segment of the corridor, the stretch from Exit 810 to Exit 820 around the SH 61 interchange, in unincorporated Chambers County [4]. No particular tract is assumed: the site's position, its ramp access and its frontage are conditions. The land cost in the model, $800,000, is an assumption at $80,000 an acre, set inside the land evidence the research holds for the area. At the low end, two SH 61 tracts set back from the interstate are listed at 16.27 acres for $995,000, or $61,156 an acre [2], and 73.62 acres for $2,576,700 with 1,035 feet of frontage [3]. At the high end, 6.82 acres of I-10 frontage at Exit 814, marketed for a truck stop, sold on June 5, 2026 for a disclosed $482,001 to $552,000 after listing at $668,428 [1]. Interstate frontage, which a truck lot needs, belongs toward the top of that range. A lender should test the land price against an appraisal and a signed contract before it accepts the cost.

Unincorporated Chambers County has no zoning, so a travel center needs no rezoning wherever the site falls in the corridor [1]; the lender confirms that no deed restriction on the chosen tract bars the use. Approvals are ministerial instead: a drainage review with a $1,000 deposit, commercial building permits of $150 to $450 per structure by size, plat review at $200 and construction plan review at $400, fire-code review at $100 per 10,000 square feet, $150 per fuel tank, a $300 flammable liquids permit per building, a $460 commercial septic permit if the site is not sewered, and food permits of $150 to $250 by risk class; work without a permit doubles every fee [23]. The county publishes no approval timeline, which is a condition.

The flood rule matters more than the fees. Chambers County requires all new construction to sit at least 24 inches above base flood elevation regardless of flood zone, and revised its floodplain rules in June 2025 [24]. The site's FEMA zone must be confirmed on FEMA's map before the loan is sized. Raising a store pad, a fuel canopy area and a heavy-duty truck lot two feet above base flood elevation across a 10-acre site on the coastal prairie is a material cost, and the model's site line is an assumption until an engineer prices it.

Utilities are not confirmed for the site. The county's fee schedule names the Trinity Bay Conservation District for water and sewer releases and charges a $25 utility release fee per site for water or sewer and for electric service [23]; the district's tap and impact fees, the electric provider and natural gas service were not found. The Exit 814 comparable also advertised public water and sewer [1], and the 73.62-acre tract lists an 8-inch waterline and 4-inch force main nearby [3].

Five taxing units levy on land in this part of the county. The model adds the 2025 county and conservation district rates, the 2024 school district rate, which the research assumes was unchanged for 2025, and the 2024 hospital and navigation district rates, which are the latest found [25][26][27], and applies the sum to land and improvements at cost, because Texas appraises at full market value [28]. The county's rate has fallen each year since 2021 [25], but the official 2025 rate sheet, the 2025 hospital district rate and the primary 2025 school district adoption were not found. Hankamer collects only state sales tax and the county health services tax [29], a small advantage for the store.

There is no TxDOT count for the interchange. TxDOT's public ramp count layer, updated January 6, 2025, is the source a lender should read for ramp volumes [30], together with the department's vehicle classification counts for truck share [31].

No operating ratios for travel centers are published; the asset class's public evidence is the large chains' consolidated results. The model therefore builds costs line by line. Payroll starts at $640,000 for a store, kitchen and fuel desk staffed around the clock, and grows with 3.0% a year. For scale, the Texas chain reported salaries and benefits of $200.9 million across 448 stores in fiscal 2025 [44], and Pilot attributed its 2025 earnings decline partly to employee compensation, insurance and maintenance [49].

Card fees are the line most new operators underestimate. NACS put card fees at 8.4 cents a gallon in 2023 [53], and the model applies that to every gallon, diesel and gasoline alike; at the underwritten volume the fees are the second-largest expense. Utilities, repairs, supplies and marketing start at $200,000; convenience store operating expenses rose 23.3% between 2021 and 2025 [43]. Insurance starts at $110,000, a placeholder: Chambers County is on the Gulf coast, wind and flood premiums were not found, and a quote is a condition.

Property tax is applied to land, building, site and fuel system at cost at the combined rate of the five taxing units [25][26][27]. The USDA annual retention fee is not an expense line here; it is folded into the loan's all-in rate, so it declines as the loan amortizes, as it does in practice. Net operating income is $717,343 in Year 3, a margin of 33.3% of gross profit.

A B&I loan is a single conventional loan from an approved lender with a partial USDA guarantee. For fiscal 2026 the guarantee is 85% for loans under $5 million and 80% for loans of $5 million to $25 million, the program maximum; the initial guarantee fee is 3.0% of the guaranteed amount and the annual retention fee 0.55%, and a guarantee issued before construction is complete costs a further 0.50% [32]. This model assumes a construction-to-permanent loan guaranteed before completion, so it adds that 0.50% to the initial fee. USDA announced the move to 85% for smaller projects on March 27, 2026 [33]. Both the sponsor's request and the restructured loan exceed $5 million, so the model applies 80%. A lender that trimmed the restructured loan below $5 million would gain the higher guarantee, at the cost of more sponsor equity.

USDA sets no rate. Rates are negotiated between lender and borrower, fixed, variable or a mix, and a variable rate must track a published base rate the Agency accepts [35]. The model's all-in rate of 9.44% is an assumption: Prime of 7.00% on October 9, 2026 [54] plus two points, plus the retention fee on the guaranteed share. The term may run to the justified useful life of the project or its collateral, at most 40 years [35]; the model uses 25 years, blending long-lived buildings with shorter-lived fuel equipment.

The feasibility study is mandatory here, which sets B&I apart from SBA lending. Under 7 CFR 5001.306(a)(3)(i), a guaranteed loan of more than $1,000,000 to a new business requires a study by an independent qualified consultant acceptable to the Agency; at $1,000,000 or less the Agency may still require one [34]. The projections in the application must run at least two years at full capacity or stable operations, with assumptions listed and a pro forma closing balance sheet [34], and the lender's credit evaluation must include its own written evaluation of the study [36]. By contrast, 13 CFR 120.160(b): SBA may require professional appraisals, a survey, or a feasibility study [56]. The note on USDA's five feasibility components shows how the study maps to the Agency's review, and the USDA Rural Development practice page describes how we scope these studies.

The program itself carries risk. B&I obligations reached $2,111,702,000 in fiscal 2025, up from $1,828,800,000, and Texas took $289.2 million, 13.7% of the national total [38]. Fiscal 2026 program levels conflict: $1,428,899,083 in USDA's own table and $1,750,000,000 in the enacted language as CRS reports it [38][39]. The fiscal 2027 budget request proposes no B&I program level at all [38]. Participation has narrowed: loans fell from 309 in fiscal 2015 to 176 in fiscal 2024 while the average loan rose from $2.75 million to $8.1 million [40], and on May 12, 2026 USDA removed ten lenders whose portfolios held about $620 million of delinquent loans, about 47% of Rural Development's delinquencies, leaving over 750 approved lenders [41]. USDA's loan-level Lender Lens data, published January 19, 2026, is where a sponsor finds the lenders still active in Texas [42].

Two siblings on this site use the same guarantee: the Bastrop County RV park case applies it to a campground, and the Texas meat processing case to a plant. The Terrell truck stop case finances the same asset class on I-20 with SBA 504, where gas stations sit on SBA's special purpose list [55]; reading the two together shows how differently the programs treat equity and coverage.

USDA's rules reviewed for this study set no single coverage ratio for B&I; the lender's credit policy governs, and the Agency's eligibility determination asks whether repayment is reasonably assured. The model tests an assumed 1.25x floor in Year 3, the first year of stable operations, which satisfies the two-year projection requirement [34]. The equity minimum of 25.0% of project cost is the model's reading of 7 CFR 5001.105(d) for a new business whose guarantee issues before construction is complete [37]; the lender confirms the measure at application.

As proposed, the sponsor puts in $1,160,111, 15.0% of cost, and borrows $6,573,960, expecting the guarantee to carry the rest. The structure fails both tests: equity is below the minimum, and annual debt service of $685,950 is covered only 1.04x in Year 3.

As restructured, the loan is sized to the floor. Raising equity to the minimum is not enough, so the engine raises it to the smallest share that meets 1.25x in Year 3: 28.7%, or $2,210,990. The loan becomes $5,492,808 with debt service of $573,139, and coverage is 1.25x in Year 3 and 1.27x in Year 5.

That is a feasible project and an expensive one for the sponsor. A lender should read the determination as a statement about debt capacity: the projected cash flow carries $5,492,808 of debt on $7,703,799 of cost. A sponsor who cannot fund the equity should shrink the cost, starting with the store and truck lot, the largest line, before asking the guarantee to do more.

The matrix moves the two inputs that make diesel gross profit, volume and margin, by up to 20% each way. Coverage in Year 3 ranges from 0.67x to 1.97x. Because gross profit is volume times margin, a 10% shortfall on either axis does about the same damage, and a shortfall on both, which is what a price war with the chain centers would produce, takes coverage well below debt service.

Margin is the axis a lender can least control. The Texas chain's 43.1 cents on diesel in fiscal 2025 [44] came in a year when Pilot's earnings fell on lower wholesale fuel and store margins [49]. An operator's fuel supply contract and its fleet card program should be in the file before the margin input is accepted.

• Volume without a count. Every gallon in the model is benchmarked; the only traffic figure is a broker's claim for a nearby tract [1]. If truck share on this segment is lower than the benchmark site's, the cushion disappears.
• Interchange competition. Country Boys' Shell plaza already has diesel lanes and truck parking at the SH 61 interchange [16], and an Exxon store sits on SH 61 [18]. Their response to a new entrant, on price or on parking, is unknown.
• Chain discounting. Love's, TA and a Flying J at Exit 789 sell fleet diesel under national programs, and Love's is adding 1,500 truck spaces in 2026 [50]. The subject competes for the same fleets with no network.
• Flood and storms. The county's freeboard rule [24] raises costs, wind and flood premiums were not found, and a Gulf coast storm can close an interstate fuel stop for days.
• Environmental liability. Underground tanks are the asset's main loss channel; the county permits tanks [23], but state tank registration and a Phase I assessment were not found.
• Program funding. The fiscal 2027 request would end new B&I lending [38], and the lender base has narrowed [40][41]. A delay in Texas allocations could stall the project after design costs are spent.
• Rural eligibility. If USDA finds the site ineligible under the population test [33], the program assumption fails and the project needs a different structure.
• Fuel price swings. EIA's forecast of $5.19 diesel in 2026 and $4.49 in 2027 [52] shows how fast pump prices move; high prices squeeze fleet buyers, and falling prices can compress retail margins in a price war.

The special purpose property note explains why a fuel-and-store building is hard collateral to resell, which is the bank's exposure on the unguaranteed fifth of this loan.