Case Study · Texas · Truck Stop & Travel Center · SBA 504
Truck Stop Feasibility Study, Texas — An SBA 504 Worked Case
This is how our independent feasibility study company and feasibility consultant team analyzed a new-build interstate travel center underwritten to an SBA 504 credit, from corridor freight and Class 8 truck traffic through the diesel, inside-sales, foodservice, and truck-parking cash flow, to the debt-service coverage a lender must document. It is an anonymized, representative composite of the methodology — not a specific client deal — set off a major interstate interchange on a growing Texas freight corridor.
A ground-up travel center on a Texas interstate interchange.
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 the bank and its Certified Development Company would commit. The subject is an anonymized, representative composite: an approximately 18-acre parcel at an interchange on a major Texas freight corridor — the I-35 trade route from Laredo north through the Texas Triangle — carrying roughly 14,000 trucks per day on the mainline. The build program is a 5,000-square-foot travel-center store, a high-throughput diesel forecourt with dedicated truck islands and a separate gasoline forecourt, a co-branded quick-service restaurant (QSR), and professional-driver amenities: roughly 55 truck-parking stalls, several with reservable striping, plus showers.
A travel center is valued as a going concern — real estate plus FF&E and equipment plus business and goodwill, on cash flow — like a gas station or car wash, not on a rent roll.16 So the lender's question is not “what is the dirt worth” but “can this specific interchange generate the diesel gallons, inside sales, foodservice, and parking revenue to service this specific loan.” Owner-occupied single-site travel centers are eligible special-purpose going concerns under SBA 7(a) and 504, which is precisely the condition that turns a discretionary feasibility study into an expected one on a ground-up deal.14 The subject carries no gaming, so it clears the SBA one-third-of-gross gambling test and stays eligible.15 Our scope was the independent demand, diesel-volume, competition, and debt-service analysis that supports that credit.
Diesel volume follows freight, not car counts.
The demand read starts with trucks and freight tonnage, not a capture rate applied to a total traffic count. Diesel throughput at a travel center is a function of Class 8 truck volume and corridor freight, and it is cyclical, so the model underwrites a mid-cycle base and a multi-year ramp rather than a peak.
U.S. transportation-sector diesel consumption ran about 123 million gallons a day in 2025, roughly 75 percent of total distillate, and diesel demand tracks freight, which moves about 67 percent of U.S. tonnage by weight.19 That base is cyclical: 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, so 2021–22 gallons are peaks, not baselines.2 A long-haul Class 8 truck averaging roughly 6 to 7.5 miles per gallon consumes far more per fill than any motorist, which is why the forecast is built on truck-specific counts and freight flows rather than passenger AADT.18 On roughly 14,000 trucks a day, a new high-capacity diesel forecourt building professional-driver and fleet-card loyalty supports a stabilized diesel throughput near 4.5 million gallons a year — capturing well under one percent of passing trucks, and well above NATSO's historical single-site average of about 812,500 gallons, consistent with a high-volume interstate placement.8
The profit, though, sits inside the building. Diesel is the dominant revenue line by dollars and the thinnest by margin, because fleet-card discounting compresses the spread on the single largest controllable cost a carrier has.3 Non-fuel and foodservice gross profit is the resilience metric: NACS reports foodservice at 28.5 percent of in-store sales but 38.9 percent of in-store gross profit, and fuel at 65.0 percent of sales dollars but only 38.8 percent of gross profit.7 On the corridor freight, truck capture, and travel-center format, the model supports stabilized inside-store sales near $2.8 million, a foodservice and QSR line around $1.6 million, and a truck-parking, shower, and driver-amenity line near $0.70 million a year.
| Demand driver | Basis | Supported figure |
|---|---|---|
| Corridor truck traffic | ~14,000 trucks/day (AADTT), Class 8 long-haul9 | Primary diesel capture |
| Freight base | I-35 premier international-trade truck corridor10 | Structural, cyclical demand |
| Stabilized diesel throughput | High-volume interstate site (> NATSO ~812,500 gal historical avg)8 | ≈ 4.5M gallons/yr |
| Gasoline (four-wheeler) | Interchange passenger-vehicle capture | ≈ 1.3M gallons/yr |
| Inside-store sales | Driver + traveler capture, 5,000 sf store | ≈ $2.8M/yr |
| Foodservice / QSR co-brand | Branded daypart capture7 | ≈ $1.6M/yr |
| Truck parking, showers & amenities | ~55 stalls incl. reservable; shower revenue4 | ≈ $0.70M/yr |
Diesel volume tied to truck AADTT and corridor freight, not total vehicle counts; volume ramps over multiple years as fleet-card agreements mature. See sources 1–3, 8–10. Figures are illustrative of the engagement type.
A parking-starved corridor, with chains the dominant risk.
Six competing fuel-and-service sites sit within a workable radius of the interchange, but the decisive competitive variable for an independent is not the standing set — it is whether a national chain lands a few exits away. The corridor is also chronically short of truck parking, which is where the subject fills a genuine gap.
| Competitor | Type | Diesel positions | Truck parking | Distance | Read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Competitor A | National chain travel center | 12 diesel | ~120 spaces | 14 mi / 2 exits | Fleet-card network; primary threat |
| Competitor B | Major chain | 10 diesel | ~90 spaces | 22 mi | Cross-corridor; loyalty program |
| Competitor C | Independent truck stop | 6 diesel | ~45 spaces | 9 mi | Dated; no reservable parking |
| Competitor D | Regional chain | 8 diesel | ~70 spaces | 31 mi | Strong QSR; off primary flow |
| Competitor E | Fuel-only / fleet | 8 diesel | None | 6 mi | Price-led; no amenities or parking |
| Competitor F | Independent | 4 diesel | ~30 spaces | 27 mi | Aging site, trailing-edge |
Competitive set surveyed for the engagement; anonymized. Announced and permitted chain projects were scanned, not just the standing set, because a new Love's, Pilot, or TA within a few exits is the dominant competitive risk to an independent. See sources 8 and 11.
The nearest full-service chain travel center sits about 14 miles and two exits away; the closest sites are a dated independent and a fuel-only station with no professional-driver amenities and no truck parking. That is the gap the subject fills. The truck-parking shortage is structural, not cyclical: FHWA's Jason's Law survey counted roughly 313,000 marked spaces nationally against about 3.58 million drivers — about one space for every eleven trucks — with 98 percent of surveyed drivers reporting difficulty finding safe parking.45 A rigorous study does not stop at the standing set; it scans announced and permitted chain supply, because the majors bring loyalty programs, fleet-card acceptance, and national fuel purchasing an independent cannot match, and a new chain a few exits away can devastate an independent's diesel volume.11 Here the read is a genuinely underserved interchange — freight and rooftops are outrunning full-service capacity on the segment — with the parking and amenity gap credited only where the site's land, striping, and truck routing actually support it.
Texas macro: a freight tailwind, priced against cost.
The state backdrop is a structural tailwind for an interstate travel center, tempered by construction cost and by the freight cycle. Texas is the nation's second-largest economy at roughly $2.9 trillion of GDP, and one of the two largest truck-freight states in the country.
Texas held about 31.3 million residents as of July 2024 and continues to lead the country in in-migration, with exurban cities on the metro edges among the fastest-growing in the nation.11 More decisively for a travel center, Texas and California are the two largest truck-freight states, and the I-35 corridor is the premier international-trade truck route, running from the Laredo border crossing north through the Texas Triangle to the Midwest and Canada.910 The state also carries no personal income tax and, decisively for retail and fuel supply, no general Certificate of Need regime, so travel-center supply is set by the market rather than a permit gate.12
Two realities offset the tailwind. The first is the freight cycle: diesel throughput moves with tonnage, and a study anchored to peak-freight volumes overstates stabilized cash flow, so the model is built to a mid-cycle base with a graded diesel ramp.2 The second is cost. A ground-up travel center with a large diesel underground-storage-tank system, truck aprons, canopies, parking, and a QSR build-out is capital-intensive, so the feasibility test turns on whether stabilized cash flow covers a leveraged cost basis, not on optimistic top-line growth. One recent change cuts in the sponsor's favor: the Texas business personal property tax exemption rose to $125,000 per location effective January 1, 2026, easing the carry on FF&E and fuel equipment.12 Texas also ranks second nationally in SBA 7(a) volume and is served by six SBA district offices, so both the SBA channel and the Certified Development Company network here are deep.13
Why the interchange captures the corridor.
For a travel center, the site test is a threshold screen before it is a demand curve: loaded 18-wheelers have to be able to reach, enter, and maneuver the site, and the truck-routing and ramp geometry decide viability before any traffic count matters.
The subject occupies a hard corner at a signalized interchange with full diamond ramps and a truck-route designation, so loaded trucks can enter and exit in both directions of the mainline without a restrictive turn — the make-or-break geometry that sinks otherwise well-located sites. Highway visibility from both approaches, apron depth for a full diesel forecourt, and striping for roughly 55 truck stalls convert corridor freight into captured trips rather than pass-bys. The surrounding exurban trade area carries a median household income comfortably above the level at which QSR and premium-fuel attach rates strengthen, supporting the four-wheeler and foodservice lines that ride alongside the diesel base.
Amenity design does the rest. The chronic parking shortage means reservable, revenue-controlled stalls are a defensible incremental line where the land supports them — but only a measured one, because the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026 created the first dedicated $200 million line-item for free, publicly accessible truck parking, so a plan that assumes drivers will pay a premium in a market conditioned to free parking is overstated.6 The model therefore credits parking and showers at a conservative capture, sizes the QSR and inside store to the driver-plus-traveler mix, and treats the diesel forecourt as the volume engine and the building as the profit engine — the same inversion the going concern turns on.
The SBA 504 structure.
Total project cost lands at $12.5 million. The 504 program is purpose-built for owner-occupied real estate and construction, and it uses a two-part structure — a bank first mortgage, a CDC debenture in second position, and borrower equity — which is why a fixed-asset-heavy, ground-up travel center routes here.
| Cost component | Amount |
|---|---|
| Land (~18-acre interchange parcel) | $2.40M |
| Site work, truck aprons & utilities | $1.90M |
| Building shell (5,000 sf travel center) | $2.20M |
| Fuel systems: diesel islands, canopy, USTs & MPDs | $2.30M |
| Truck parking, showers & scales | $1.10M |
| C-store FF&E | $0.70M |
| QSR build-out | $0.55M |
| Soft costs & contingency | $0.85M |
| Working capital, interest reserve & fees | $0.50M |
| Total project cost | $12.50M |
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Bank first mortgage (50%) | $6.25M |
| CDC / SBA 504 debenture (30%) | $3.75M |
| Borrower equity injection (20%) | $2.50M |
| Term / amortization | 25-year amortization, both tranches |
| Illustrative bank rate | ~9.5% |
| Illustrative debenture rate | ~6.5% |
| Blended annual debt service | ≈ $0.96M |
Structure per SBA 504 conventions under SOP 50 10 8; owner-occupancy 60% for new construction; equity rises for projects that are both special-purpose and start-up. See sources 14 and 15.
The equity injection sits at 20 percent, not the baseline 10 percent, and that is deliberate: SBA policy raises the required injection for a project that is both special-purpose and, as a ground-up build, effectively a start-up, and a travel center is both.14 That escalation moves the standard 504 split from 50/40/10 to a 50 percent bank first mortgage, a 30 percent CDC debenture, and 20 percent equity; the $3.75 million debenture sits within the CDC program's per-project ceiling. On a 25-year amortization, the $6.25 million bank first mortgage at an illustrative 9.5 percent carries roughly $655,000 a year, and the $3.75 million debenture at an illustrative 6.5 percent adds about $304,000, for blended annual debt service near $0.96 million — the number the projected coverage has to clear. The study exists to support exactly that coverage, tested against an independent read of diesel volume and segmented revenue rather than the sponsor's own projection, and against the special-purpose going-concern appraisal and elevated environmental scope the collateral requires.15
Feasible and bankable, on coverage the credit can document.
The stabilized model builds gross profit from six profit centers — diesel, gasoline, inside merchandise, foodservice, parking and showers, and light truck service — nets operating expense, and carries the coverage through a graded ramp to the lender floor and beyond.
| Profit center | Basis | Gross profit |
|---|---|---|
| Diesel | 4.5M gal × ~$0.16/gal gross (fleet-discounted)3 | ≈ $0.72M |
| Gasoline | 1.3M gal × ~$0.30/gal gross | ≈ $0.39M |
| Inside merchandise | $2.8M sales × ~32% margin7 | ≈ $0.90M |
| Foodservice / QSR | $1.6M sales × ~50% margin7 | ≈ $0.80M |
| Parking, showers & amenities | $0.70M × ~80% margin | ≈ $0.56M |
| Light truck service | $0.40M × ~55% margin | ≈ $0.22M |
| Total gross profit | Fuel + inside + foodservice + parking + service | ≈ $3.59M |
| Operating expenses | Labor, card fees, utilities, R&M, insurance, property tax, G&A | ≈ ($2.25M) |
| Net operating income (NOI) | Gross profit less operating expense | ≈ $1.34M |
Diesel gross margin runs far thinner than retail-gasoline margin because fleet-card discounting compresses the spread on the carrier's single largest controllable cost; non-fuel and foodservice gross profit carries about two-thirds of site gross profit. See sources 3 and 7.
| Year | Stage | NOI | Debt service | DSCR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | Ramp — diesel & fleet-card build | ~$0.96M | ~$0.96M | 1.00 |
| Year 2 | Building | ~$1.17M | ~$0.96M | 1.22 |
| Year 3 | Stabilized | ~$1.34M | ~$0.96M | 1.40 |
DSCR computed as NOI divided by the period debt-service obligation. The Year-1 ramp is supported by the funded working-capital and interest reserve, sized to the fuel-inventory swing. See sources 2 and 14.
The stabilized 1.40x coverage is the figure the lender documents, and it clears the roughly 1.20x–1.25x coverage a special-purpose going concern is typically sized to, with real headroom.15 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, when diesel volume is still building professional-driver and fleet-card loyalty — which is exactly why the structure carries a funded working-capital and interest reserve sized to the fuel-inventory swing. Assuming mature diesel volume on day one, or anchoring to 2021–22 peak-freight gallons, is one of the most common ways these pro formas fail review; the ramp here is deliberately graded to a mid-cycle base.2
On the equity side, the $2.50 million injection earns growing levered free cash flow — roughly break-even in the ramp year, building to about $0.38 million once stabilized and net of a fuel-equipment capital reserve for tanks, dispensers, and canopy. 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 $1.54 million at a going-concern overall rate around 11 percent — within the 8-to-12 percent range the market applies to owner-operated fuel and travel-center going concerns — implies a gross going-concern value near $14.0 million, and roughly $5.4 million of net equity after selling costs and the outstanding bank-plus-debenture balance of about $8.1 million.16 A single-tenant net-leased chain asset would be the opposite instrument, valued as real estate on tenant credit near the 6.80 percent net-lease overall rate rather than as a going concern — a different question entirely.17 Holding diesel volume roughly flat through the hold, consistent with a cyclical-but-durable 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.
Verdict: financially feasible and bankable. On independently derived diesel volume and segmented revenue, a stabilized 1.40x DSCR, and a ~17% levered equity IRR, the projections support the SBA 504 credit.
Independent diesel volume, competition, and a stressed DSCR.
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 market, not to restate it — the value of the deliverable is precisely that it carries no stake in the outcome. We derived diesel throughput from corridor freight and Class 8 truck traffic, not passenger counts, then placed it on a multi-year ramp that reflects how a new site actually builds fleet-card and professional-driver loyalty. Inside merchandise, foodservice, parking, and showers were modeled at through-cycle margins on a graded ramp, with non-fuel gross profit carrying the majority of site gross profit — the resilience metric a fuel-led plan misses.
The coverage analysis was then stress-tested. We ran the debt-service coverage against diesel volume and margin downside — the two variables a travel center is most exposed to across the freight cycle — to confirm the credit still holds when gallons or the fleet-discounted spread compress. Two scope boundaries are worth stating plainly. Reservable-parking revenue was credited only where land, striping, and truck routing support it and only against the reality of expanding free public parking; and, as the feasibility consultant, we reference but do not perform the Phase I — and, given the large diesel underground-storage-tank footprint, likely Phase II — environmental site assessment, which is a separate environmental professional's engagement that runs in parallel to the study.15 That combination — independent demand, diesel volume, competition, and a stressed DSCR — is what lets the lender rely on the file.
Underwriting a Texas 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-volume, competition, and DSCR analysis behind a case like this one, calibrated to your corridor, format, and freight base.
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 Texas, Truck Stop & Travel Center, and SBA 7(a) & 504 analyses and the primary authorities they cite. Bases are labeled because they are routinely confused in this asset class: diesel gallons versus gasoline gallons, fuel revenue versus inside revenue, and going-concern value versus real-estate-only value.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), 2025 estimate: U.S. transportation-sector diesel (distillate) consumption about 2.94 million barrels per day, roughly 123 million gallons per day, 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 (ATA), American Trucking Trends 2025 and monthly For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index releases (2024–2026): index −3.2% year-over-year in December 2024; 11.27 billion tons hauled in 2024 (11.41 billion in 2023); industry revenue $906 billion (from $1.004 trillion); 3.58 million professional drivers; 91.5% of carriers operate 10 or fewer trucks; first year-over-year gains since 2022 in early 2026.
- American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), “An Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking: 2025 Update” (released July 2, 2025): fuel $0.48 of a $2.26-per-mile total cost of operating a truck in 2024, the single largest controllable cost, which is why fleets negotiate discounts and truck-stop diesel spreads stay thin; truckload operating margins −2.3% in 2024.
- FHWA, Jason's Law Truck Parking Survey (2019 data, released December 2020): about 313,000 marked spaces nationally (40,000 public, 273,000 private); 98% of about 11,696 surveyed drivers reported difficulty finding safe parking; average about 143 spaces per stop; worst-cited shortage states include Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
- OOIDA (February 2026): “only one parking space for every 11 trucks on the road.” ATRI, “Critical Issues in the Trucking Industry” (2023): truck parking ranked the #2 industry-wide issue; drivers lose about 56 minutes per day to parking searches, roughly $6,813 in annual lost wages.
- Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026 (signed February 3, 2026): first dedicated $200 million line-item for public truck parking through FHWA's INFRA program, restricted to free, publicly accessible parking near the Interstate/NHS, which caps how aggressively private reservable-parking revenue can be underwritten.
- 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 only 38.8% of gross profit; well-run merchandise operations near 30–35% 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), against which high-volume interstate sites run well above today.
- FHWA Freight Analysis Framework (FAF, cited 2022): trucks carry about 67% of U.S. freight by weight and 73% by value; BTS Commodity Flow Survey / FAF (directional): Texas and California the largest truck-freight states, and leading freight origins and destinations.
- Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) disaggregation of FHWA FAF3: I-35 identified as the premier international-trade truck corridor (Laredo north through Texas to the Midwest and Canada).
- U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2024 Population Estimates (Texas population ~31.3 million as of July 1, 2024; leading in-migration; exurban Texas cities among the fastest-growing nationally), as compiled in the firm's Texas market analysis.
- Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Texas economy and GDP data (2nd-largest U.S. economy, ~$2.9 trillion GDP; no state personal income tax); National Conference of State Legislatures on Certificate of Need (Texas has no general CON law); Texas business personal property tax exemption raised to $125,000 per location effective January 1, 2026 (Texas Proposition 9 / HB 9).
- U.S. Small Business Administration, Texas district office directory (six district offices; Texas ranks #2 nationally in SBA 7(a) volume) and Certified Development Company network; combined 7(a)-plus-504 loan-cap increase to $10 million effective July 4, 2026.
- 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); 504 uses a two-part structure of a bank first mortgage, a CDC debenture in second position, and borrower equity; equity injection generally 10%, rising for projects that are both special-purpose and start-up (illustratively to 20%). Bank and debenture rates shown (~9.5% / ~6.5%) are illustrative current-market rates.
- SBA SOP 50 10 8: businesses deriving more than one-third of annual gross revenue (including rental income) from legal gambling are ineligible (13 CFR 120.110(g)); QSR brands must appear on the SBA Franchise Directory; special-purpose collateral requires a going-concern appraisal allocating value among real estate, FF&E, and business goodwill, elevated environmental scope for the large diesel UST system, and a DSCR sizing convention near 1.20x–1.25x for special-purpose going concerns.
- Appraisal Institute literature and Elliott & Company Appraisers; David C. Hyde, “Valuing Real Property Going Concerns”: going-concern value allocated among real estate, FF&E, and business/goodwill, via income capitalization or an EBITDA multiple; going-concern overall rates commonly 8–12% for owner-operated fuel and travel-center businesses; a high soft-collateral share on a high-LTV going-concern loan described as the “kiss of death.”
- The Boulder Group, Net Lease Research Report (Q1 2026): overall single-tenant net-lease cap rate 6.80%, with premium convenience/fuel tenants tighter; single-tenant net-lease value is real-estate-under-lease on tenant credit and lease term, and is not a substitute for the going-concern capitalization or EBITDA multiple that governs an operating travel center.
- NACFE Fleet Fuel Study (cited 2025): Class 8 trucks average about 6–7.5 mpg in real-world conditions; IEA and industry data (cited 2025): about 1,700 electric trucks sold in the U.S. in 2024 and fewer than 100 megawatt-scale public charging stations nationally, so the heavy-truck electrification horizon is long and diesel demand persists near-to-medium term while carrying long-horizon stranded-asset risk to be addressed through amortization, reserves, and reversion assumptions.