Case Study · Georgia · Truck Stop & Travel Center · SBA 504
Truck Stop Feasibility Study, Georgia — An SBA 504 Worked Case
This is how our independent feasibility study company and travel center feasibility consultant team analyzed a new-build interstate truck stop and travel center underwritten to an SBA 504 credit, from corridor freight and diesel demand through the debt-service coverage a lender must document. It is a representative, anonymized worked example of the methodology — not a specific client deal — set at an interstate interchange on Georgia's I-16 freight corridor between Macon and the Port of Savannah.
A ground-up travel center on a rising Georgia freight corridor.
A sponsor came to our feasibility study company with a ground-up interstate travel center and an SBA 504 lender that needed the projected cash flow independently tested before it would commit. The subject is a roughly 15-acre parcel at a full-movement diamond interchange on I-16, the freight artery that connects the I-75 corridor at Macon to the Port of Savannah, in a stretch of Georgia where truck traffic is rising but interstate fueling-and-service supply is thin. The build program is a 12,000-square-foot travel center, a high-throughput diesel and gasoline forecourt, roughly 120 dedicated truck-parking spaces, driver showers, a co-branded quick-service restaurant (QSR) cluster, and truck-service bays.
Because a travel center is a going-concern operating business rather than a passive real-estate play, the lender's question is not “what is the dirt worth” but “can this specific site generate the diesel gallons, inside sales, and margin to service this specific loan.”7 Truck stops are also named special-purpose properties under SBA rules, which is precisely the condition that turns a discretionary feasibility study into an expected one on a ground-up deal.11 Our scope as the feasibility consultant was the independent demand, diesel-throughput, competition, and debt-service analysis that supports that credit.
Corridor freight and diesel demand.
The demand read for a travel center starts with freight and Class 8 truck traffic, not metro population or a capture rate applied to a total vehicle count. Diesel throughput is a function of trucks on the corridor, and I-16's truck base is being lifted by the Port of Savannah and the Hyundai Metaplant freight cluster it feeds.
Diesel volume is the primary value driver, and it tracks freight rather than cars. Trucks move about 67 percent of U.S. tonnage by weight and 73 percent by value, and U.S. transportation-sector diesel consumption ran roughly 123 million gallons a day in 2025.51 On this corridor the freight base is genuinely rising: the Port of Savannah moved nearly 5.7 million TEUs in 2025 and is self-financing a $4.5 billion expansion, and the $12.6 billion Hyundai Metaplant that opened in March 2025 sits directly in the I-16 drayage shed.89 A new, high-capacity travel center on that corridor, with dedicated parking on a route that is short of it, supports a stabilized diesel throughput near 6.0 million gallons a year — roughly 500,000 gallons a month, well above NATSO's dated historical single-site survey average of about 812,500 gallons and consistent with a high-volume interstate site.7 The profit, though, lives inside the building: diesel is the thinnest-margin line, while merchandise and foodservice carry the gross profit, with NACS putting foodservice at 38.9 percent of in-store gross profit on 28.5 percent of in-store sales.6 On the corridor traffic, parking draw, and format, the model supports stabilized inside sales near $3.2 million and a foodservice/QSR line around $2.0 million.
| Demand driver | Basis | Supported figure |
|---|---|---|
| Corridor freight (I-16) | Port of Savannah ~5.7M TEUs; Hyundai Metaplant drayage; Class 8 truck AADTT8 | Rising truck-trip base |
| Stabilized diesel throughput | High-volume interstate site (above NATSO's dated ~812,500-gal historical average)7 | ≈ 6.0M gallons/yr |
| Gasoline throughput | Four-wheeler and local capture at the interchange | ≈ 1.5M gallons/yr |
| Inside-store sales | Travel-center C-store format6 | ≈ $3.2M/yr |
| Foodservice / QSR co-brand | Prepared-food and branded daypart capture6 | ≈ $2.0M/yr |
| Parking, showers & truck service | Reservable spaces, showers, light truck service4 | ≈ $0.55M/yr |
Volume and inside-sales logic grounded in EIA diesel data, NACS in-store economics, NATSO single-site diesel context, and Georgia Ports Authority throughput; see sources 1, 6, 7, and 8. Deal figures are illustrative of the engagement type.
A parking-short corridor as freight outruns service supply.
The nearest chain travel center is a full exit band away, and the I-16 run between Macon and Savannah is a documented truck-parking shortage node. The corridor is adding freight faster than it is adding fueling-and-parking capacity.
| Competitor | Brand tier | Diesel / parking | Distance | Read |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Competitor A | National chain | 8 lanes / ~90 spaces | ~14 mi | Nearest chain; strong fleet-card program |
| Competitor B | Regional travel plaza | 6 lanes / ~60 spaces | ~22 mi | Dated site, limited foodservice |
| Competitor C | Independent truck stop | 4 lanes / ~40 spaces | ~28 mi | Price-led, thin inside sales |
| Competitor D | National chain | 10 lanes / ~120 spaces | ~35 mi | Full-service; farther up-corridor |
| Competitor E | Branded fuel + QSR | 6 lanes / ~30 spaces | ~40 mi | Small-format, parking-short |
| Competitor F | Unbranded independent | 3 lanes / ~25 spaces | ~46 mi | Aging site, trailing-edge |
Competitive set surveyed for the engagement; anonymized. Announced and permitted chain supply was scanned, not just the standing set, consistent with institutional site-selection practice.
Only one chain travel center sits inside the nearest exit band, and the corridor between it and the subject runs thin on truck parking — a national shortage that FHWA's Jason's Law survey quantified at roughly one marked space for every eleven trucks, with the Southeast among the worst-cited regions.4 A rigorous study does not stop at the standing set: the fastest way to overstate an independent's diesel forecast is to ignore a new Love's, Pilot, or TA a few exits away, so we scan announced and permitted chain projects, which bring loyalty programs, fleet-card acceptance, and national fuel purchasing an independent cannot match.5 Here the read is a genuinely undersupplied stretch — freight growth from the port and the Metaplant is outpacing new fueling-and-parking capacity, and the subject fills the gap rather than splitting a saturated corridor.
Georgia macro: a freight tailwind with a cyclical caution.
Georgia is three unrelated economies wearing one flag — a digesting metro Atlanta, the Savannah port-and-Hyundai coast, and a flat-to-shrinking rural south — and this corridor sits squarely in the second. The backdrop is a tailwind, tempered by the freight cycle.
Georgia holds roughly 11.2 to 11.3 million residents, and metro Atlanta, at about 6.4 million, is the eighth-largest U.S. metro, but a travel center is underwritten to the corridor, not the metro.10 What matters here is that the Port of Savannah moved nearly 5.7 million TEUs in 2025 and is self-financing a $4.5 billion expansion, and the $12.6 billion Hyundai Metaplant near Savannah is the largest economic-development project in state history — both genuine demand engines for the I-16 truck base.89 The Metaplant carries real timing risk, though: it opened in March 2025 targeting 8,500 jobs by 2031 but employed about 3,200 as of late 2025, so sizing absorption to peak projected freight before it materializes is a Georgia-specific failure mode a careful study avoids.9
The offsetting reality is the freight cycle. Diesel throughput rises and falls with tonnage: the ATA For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index fell 3.2 percent year over year in December 2024 during the 2023–24 freight recession before posting its first year-over-year gains since 2022 in early 2026, which is exactly why the model is underwritten to a mid-cycle base rather than to 2021–22 peak-freight gallons.2 The state backdrop otherwise cuts in the sponsor's favor: Georgia moved to a flat 4.99 percent personal income tax for 2026 and carries an effective property-tax rate near 0.79 to 0.92 percent.13 One genuine overlay belongs in the file — Hurricane Helene's September 2024 inland wind track caused more than $500 million of damage around Augusta and pushed regional insurance premiums up, so windstorm insurance and reserves are underwritten, not assumed away.14
Why the interchange captures the corridor.
For a travel center the trade area is the corridor, not a residential ring, and the interchange geometry converts freight flow into truck stops — the literal kind.
The subject occupies a full-movement diamond interchange with truck-legal ramps and generous deceleration for Class 8 vehicles, on the side of the corridor that captures both the port-bound and the return leg. Its captive base is professional drivers, fleets, port drayage, and Metaplant-related freight, layered over four-wheeler and local capture at the interchange — a very different demand structure from a commuter gas station, and one where dedicated, well-lit parking is itself a draw on a route that is short of it.4
Volume geometry does the rest, but it takes time. Diesel throughput at a new site ramps over several years as it builds professional-driver loyalty and signs fleet-card and fleet-fueling agreements, and the demand base is overwhelmingly small-business — the great majority of carriers run ten or fewer trucks — so volume is won relationship by relationship rather than on day one.3 A ~120-space parking field and a shower-and-service package lengthen dwell time and lift the inside ticket, which is why the model credits the subject with a high-volume throughput placement that is nonetheless graded up over a multi-year ramp rather than assumed at stabilization from opening day.
The SBA 504 structure.
Total project cost lands at $15.0 million. The 504 program is purpose-built for owner-occupied fixed assets and ground-up construction, which is why an owner-operated, special-purpose travel center routes here: a conventional bank first mortgage, a CDC-SBA debenture in second position, and borrower equity.
| Cost component | Amount |
|---|---|
| Land (~15-acre interchange parcel) | $2.20M |
| Site work, paving & truck parking | $2.60M |
| Building shell (12,000 sf) | $2.90M |
| Diesel/gasoline forecourt, canopies & USTs | $2.40M |
| C-store FF&E | $1.10M |
| Foodservice / multi-QSR build-out | $1.40M |
| Truck-service bays & shower facilities | $0.90M |
| Soft costs & contingency | $0.70M |
| Working capital & fees | $0.80M |
| Total project cost | $15.00M |
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Bank first mortgage (50%) | $7.50M |
| CDC-SBA 504 debenture (30%) | $4.50M |
| Borrower equity injection (20%) | $3.00M |
| Bank first: term / rate | 25-year amortization / ~9.5% |
| Debenture: term / rate | 25-year, fully amortizing / ~6.5% fixed |
| Blended annual debt service | ≈ $1.15M |
Structure per SBA 504 conventions under SOP 50 10 8; owner-occupancy 60% for new construction; special-purpose, ground-up equity injection of 20%. See sources 11 and 12.
The equity injection sits at 20 percent, not the baseline 10 percent, and that is deliberate: SBA policy escalates the required injection for projects that are both special-purpose and, as a ground-up build, effectively a start-up.11 The structure is a 504, not a single 7(a) note, because the project is fixed-asset-heavy and owner-occupied, and the 504 splits the risk cleanly: a conventional bank first mortgage at 50 percent (about $7.50 million on a 25-year amortization at an illustrative 9.5 percent), a CDC-SBA debenture at 30 percent (about $4.50 million, fully amortizing over 25 years at an illustrative 6.5 percent fixed), and 20 percent borrower equity. The $4.50 million debenture sits within the 504 debenture ceiling, and because only the debenture is SBA-capped — the bank first mortgage is conventional — the total project can exceed the combined 7(a)-plus-504 loan cap that rose to $10 million in mid-2026.11 Blended annual debt service is about $1.15 million — the number the projected coverage has to clear.
Two 504-specific conditions shape the file. First, because a travel center is a special-purpose going concern, SBA expects a going-concern appraisal that allocates value among the real estate, the FF&E, and the business goodwill, prepared by a Certified General appraiser, plus an elevated environmental scope for the large diesel underground-storage-tank system.1115 Second, one eligibility trap does not apply here: unlike a Louisiana truck stop, a Georgia site carries no video-poker gaming revenue, so the SBA rule making a business ineligible when more than one-third of gross revenue comes from gambling is not in play — the credit is clean on that test.11 Georgia's 504 channel is deep: all 159 counties are served by a single SBA district office in Atlanta, statewide Certified Development Companies route the debentures, and Georgia ranked about fifth nationally in SBA 7(a) dollar volume in 2025.12
Feasible and bankable, on coverage the credit can document.
The stabilized model builds gross profit from five engines — diesel, gasoline, merchandise, foodservice, and parking-and-service — nets operating expense, and carries the coverage to the lender's requirement and beyond on a graded multi-year ramp.
| Line | Basis | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Diesel gross profit | 6.0M gal × ~$0.20/gal through-cycle margin3 | ≈ $1.20M |
| Gasoline gross profit | 1.5M gal × ~$0.35/gal margin6 | ≈ $0.53M |
| Inside-store gross profit | $3.2M sales × ~30% merchandise margin6 | ≈ $0.96M |
| Foodservice / QSR gross profit | ~$2.0M sales × ~50% margin6 | ≈ $1.00M |
| Parking, showers & truck service | ~$0.55M revenue × ~69% margin4 | ≈ $0.38M |
| Total gross profit | Diesel + gasoline + inside + foodservice + service | ≈ $4.07M |
| Operating expenses | Labor, card fees, utilities, R&M, insurance, property tax, G&A | ≈ ($2.46M) |
| Net operating income (NOI) | Gross profit less operating expense | ≈ $1.61M |
Diesel is the thinnest-margin line; non-fuel and foodservice gross profit carries the majority of site gross profit, the resilience metric for the format. See sources 3 and 6. Figures are illustrative of the engagement type.
| Year | Stage | NOI | Debt-service basis | DSCR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | Ramp | ~$1.15M | Full amortizing ~$1.15M | 1.00 |
| Year 2 | Building | ~$1.40M | Full amortizing ~$1.15M | 1.22 |
| Year 3 | Stabilized | ~$1.61M | Full amortizing ~$1.15M | 1.40 |
DSCR computed as NOI divided by the period debt-service obligation on the blended 504 structure. The ramp year is carried by a construction-period interest reserve until diesel volume builds.
The stabilized 1.40x coverage is the figure the lender documents, and it clears the roughly 1.20x requirement for a special-purpose going concern with real headroom. By Year 2 the project already covers fully amortizing debt service at 1.22x. The Year 1 figure of 1.00x is intentionally at break-even — it is the ramp year — which is exactly why the structure carries a construction-period interest reserve through stabilization: the reserve bridges the diesel ramp, and permanent, fully amortizing coverage is measured once the site reaches its supportable throughput. Modeling mature diesel volume on day one, or tying volume to total vehicle counts rather than truck traffic, is one of the most common ways these pro formas fail review; the ramp here is deliberately graded and tied to Class 8 traffic.7
On the equity side, the $3.00 million injection earns growing levered free cash flow — roughly break-even in the interest-reserve ramp year, building to about $0.36 million a year once stabilized and net of a capital reserve for tanks, dispensers, canopy, and FF&E. The exit is valued on a going-concern basis, not a leased-fee cap rate: a travel center is an owner-operated business, and capitalizing a Year-10 stabilized NOI near $1.75 million at a going-concern overall rate around 10.5 percent — within the 8-to-12 percent range the market applies to owner-operated going concerns — implies a gross sale near $16.7 million, and roughly $6.4 million of net equity after selling costs and the outstanding bank-plus-504 balance of about $9.8 million after ten years of amortization.11 Holding diesel volume roughly flat, consistent with a mid-cycle freight base rather than a rising-gallons assumption, the blended result is an illustrative levered equity IRR of about 17 percent over a 10-year hold.2
Verdict: financially feasible and bankable. On independently derived demand, a stabilized 1.40x DSCR, and a ~17% levered equity IRR, the projections support the SBA 504 credit.
Independent demand, diesel, competition, and DSCR stress.
The engagement was scoped the way a credit committee reads it. As an independent feasibility consultant, our role is to test the sponsor's projection against the corridor, not to restate it — the value of the deliverable is precisely that it carries no stake in the outcome. We derived diesel throughput from Class 8 truck traffic, port drayage, and the competitive set, then placed it at a defensible high-volume tier rather than tying it to total vehicle counts, and we underwrote to a mid-cycle freight base rather than 2021–22 peak gallons. Inside sales and foodservice were modeled on a graded multi-year ramp at through-cycle margins, with non-fuel gross profit carrying the majority of site gross profit as the resilience metric.6
The coverage analysis was then stress-tested. We ran the debt-service coverage against diesel volume and freight-cycle downside — the two variables a travel center is most exposed to — to confirm the credit still holds when gallons or the freight cycle compress. Two scope boundaries are worth stating plainly. As the feasibility consultant, we reference, but do not perform, the Phase I environmental site assessment; the large diesel underground-storage-tank footprint is a separate environmental professional's engagement.15 And over a 20-to-30-year loan horizon, heavy-truck electrification is a genuine long-horizon risk that we address through amortization, reserves, and reversion assumptions rather than dismiss, even as diesel demand persists near-to-medium term.16
Underwriting a Georgia truck stop for an SBA loan? Start with the feasibility study.
Feasibility Study Company prepares independent truck stop and travel center feasibility studies for SBA 7(a) and 504 credits, built to the coverage standard your lender must document. A methodology briefing walks through the diesel, freight-corridor, competition, and DSCR analysis behind a case like this one, calibrated to your corridor and format.
Request a methodology briefingData sources and dates.
The deal figures are illustrative of the engagement type; the market data that grounds each dimension is real and sourced, drawn from our standing Georgia, Truck Stop & Travel Center, and SBA 7(a) & 504 analyses and the primary authorities they cite.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, EIA data via the Dallas Fed (2025 estimate): U.S. transportation-sector diesel (distillate) consumption about 2.94 million barrels per day, roughly 123 million gallons per day, in 2025, about 75% of total U.S. distillate; on-highway diesel monthly average $3.52/gallon (November 2024), down from a $4.69/gallon seasonal peak (September 2023), as compiled in the firm's Truck Stop & Travel Center analysis.
- American Trucking Associations, For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index (down 3.2% year over year, December 2024; 11.27 billion tons hauled in 2024 versus 11.41 billion in 2023; first year-over-year gains since 2022 in early 2026), evidencing that diesel throughput is cyclical and should be underwritten to a mid-cycle base, not 2021–22 peak-freight gallons.
- American Transportation Research Institute, “An Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking: 2025 Update” (fuel $0.48 of a $2.26-per-mile total cost of operating a truck in 2024, the largest controllable carrier cost, so truck-stop diesel spreads stay thin); the carrier base is overwhelmingly small-business, with the great majority of carriers operating ten or fewer trucks, so diesel volume builds relationship by relationship over a multi-year ramp.
- FHWA, Jason's Law Truck Parking Survey (2019): roughly 313,000 marked truck-parking spaces nationally against about 3.58 million drivers, roughly one space for every eleven trucks, with the Southeast among the worst-cited shortage regions; ATRI, “Critical Issues in the Trucking Industry” (parking ranked the #2 industry issue; drivers lose about 56 minutes per day to parking searches); Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026 first dedicated $200 million for free public truck parking.
- FHWA Freight Analysis Framework (trucks carry about 67% of U.S. freight tonnage by weight and 73% by value); ATRI Top Truck Bottlenecks (February 2025 and February 2026), which rank the Atlanta interchanges of I-285 at I-85 and I-75 among the worst U.S. freight bottlenecks; a new chain travel center a few exits away can devastate an independent's diesel volume, so announced and permitted chain supply must be scanned.
- NACS (National Association of Convenience Stores), State of the Industry (April 2026 for 2025): foodservice 28.5% of in-store sales but 38.9% of in-store gross profit; fuel 65.0% of total sales dollars but 38.8% of gross profit; well-run merchandise operations run roughly 30% gross margin and foodservice above 50%. Convenience-channel figures, not travel-center-specific, and labeled as such.
- NATSO (trade association for travel plazas and truck stops): working definition of a truck stop (at least one shower, 15 parking spaces, and diesel for sale); historical survey average single-site diesel volume 812,513 gallons (August 2008; dated, order-of-magnitude only), with high-volume interstate sites running well above that today.
- Georgia Ports Authority, Port of Savannah container-volume release (January 27, 2026): nearly 5.7 million TEUs in 2025; self-financed $4.5 billion ten-year expansion plan, the freight engine feeding the I-16 corridor.
- Hyundai Motor Group / Atlanta Journal-Constitution, HMGMA Metaplant (2025): about $7.59 billion assembly plant, $12.6 billion with battery joint ventures, opened March 26, 2025, targeting 8,500 jobs by 2031 but employing about 3,200 as of October 2025 — a genuine demand engine that nonetheless carries timing risk if sized to peak projected freight before it materializes.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2024 Population Estimates (Georgia population ~11.2–11.3 million; metro Atlanta ~6.4 million, the eighth-largest U.S. metro), released 2025.
- U.S. Small Business Administration, SOP 50 10 8 (effective June 1, 2025) and 13 CFR 120.160(b): a feasibility study is discretionary but expected for special-purpose properties and ground-up projects; owner-occupancy of 51% (existing) or 60% (new construction); the 504 program finances owner-occupied fixed assets through a bank first mortgage, a CDC-SBA debenture, and borrower equity, with higher equity injection for special-purpose and start-up projects; special-purpose going-concern appraisal by a Certified General appraiser allocating value among real estate, FF&E, and goodwill; gaming ineligibility above one-third of gross revenue under 13 CFR 120.110(g); combined 7(a)-plus-504 cap raised to $10 million effective July 4, 2026.
- U.S. Small Business Administration, Georgia District Office (Atlanta; SBA Region IV headquarters), serving all 159 Georgia counties; Georgia ranked about fifth nationally in SBA 7(a) dollar volume in calendar 2025 (~$1.35 billion across roughly 2,047 loans); statewide 504 Certified Development Companies include the Georgia Certified Development Corporation, Coastal Area District Development Authority, Capital Partners CDC, and NGCDC.
- Georgia Department of Revenue / Georgia Budget & Policy Institute, HB 463 flat personal income-tax schedule (4.99% for 2026); Tax Foundation / AARP effective property-tax rate ~0.79–0.92% (2026).
- National Hurricane Center / FOX5 Atlanta, Hurricane Helene Georgia impact (September 2024): Augusta/Richmond County damage over $500 million and roughly 1.3 million power outages on an inland wind track; Partners Real Estate reported a 35% Atlanta-portfolio insurance-premium increase (2024), evidencing an inland-catastrophe and insurance overlay for Georgia deals.
- ASTM E1527-21 and SBA environmental policy (SOP 50 10 8): a travel center's large-diameter, high-throughput diesel underground-storage-tank system creates a materially larger environmental footprint than a retail gas station, requiring a Phase I and, where warranted, a Phase II Environmental Site Assessment; the feasibility author references but does not perform the ESA, which is a separate Environmental Professional's engagement.
- Heavy-truck electrification horizon (2024–2025 industry data): fewer than 100 megawatt-scale public charging stations exist nationally and only about 1,700 electric trucks were sold in the United States in 2024, so diesel demand persists near-to-medium term but carries genuine long-horizon stranded-asset risk on a 20-to-30-year loan, addressed through amortization, reserves, and reversion assumptions.