You finance a ground-up gas station and convenience store by splitting the project into what each lender type will actually fund: a construction-to-permanent loan or SBA 504 package for land and building, SBA 7(a) or an equipment lender for the fuel system and store fixtures, and, for developers who do not plan to operate, a sale-leaseback to a net-lease buyer as the exit. Because a new site has no operating history, the credit decision rests on the feasibility study, the operator's fuel-retail experience, the fuel supply agreement and the traffic counts — not on trailing income.
The figures below were read on the cited federal and state pages on October 7, 2026. Lender-specific pricing and leverage are set by each lender's credit policy, so treat the table as the rulebook each lender type works inside, not as a quote.
What does a lender underwrite on a new station with no operating history?
A construction lender on a ground-up fuel and convenience site underwrites a forecast instead of a rent roll: a third-party feasibility study, the sponsor's record running fuel and store operations, the signed fuel supply agreement, site traffic and access, and the environmental compliance plan for the tank system. Equity and guarantees carry the rest of the risk.
That forecast-first posture is written into the SBA's own loan conditions. Under 13 CFR 120.160, SBA may require professional appraisals, a survey, "or a feasibility study," and holders of at least a 20 percent ownership interest generally must guarantee the loan. Conventional bank lenders apply the same logic through their own credit policies.
What each document does in underwriting:
- Feasibility study: projects fuel gallons, inside-store sales and margins from traffic, competition and demographics. It is the substitute for the trailing-twelve-month statements an acquisition lender would read.
- Sponsor experience: a first-time operator is the single largest risk on the file. Lenders want to see prior stations operated or a management agreement with an experienced operator.
- Fuel supply agreement: sets the brand, supply terms and any incentive money, and tells the lender whether a fuel supplier is sharing in the project.
- Site and traffic: ingress, egress, signal access and daily traffic counts drive the revenue projection, and an appraiser will test them.
- Tank and environmental plan: the underground storage tank system is the largest environmental exposure the lender is collateralized by, and federal rules govern how it is built (covered below).
Which lender types finance ground-up fuel and convenience construction?
Four lender types fund most new-build stations: banks on a construction-to-permanent loan, SBA 504 lenders paired with a Certified Development Company, SBA 7(a) lenders, and equipment lenders for the fuel system. A fifth source, the net-lease buyer in a sale-leaseback, is an exit rather than a construction lender. Each sizes the deal differently.
| Lender type (rules read 2026-10-07) | How the loan is sized | Equipment treatment | Recourse | Exit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bank construction-to-permanent | Supervisory LTV limit of 80% for commercial construction and 65% for raw land (12 CFR Part 34, Subpart D, App. A); actual leverage set by bank policy | Usually inside the building budget; some banks carve fuel equipment out | Set by lender; personal guarantee typical for owner-operators | Converts to a term loan, or refinances at stabilization |
| SBA 504 (bank first lien + CDC second lien) | Third-party loan at least 50% of project cost for a new business or limited/single-purpose asset; borrower injects 15%, or 20% when both apply (13 CFR 120.910, 120.920) | Long-term equipment with at least a 10-year useful life is an eligible 504 use (sba.gov) | Owners of 20%+ generally guarantee (13 CFR 120.160) | 10-, 20- and 25-year maturities (sba.gov); no takeout needed |
| SBA 7(a) | Maximum loan $5 million (sba.gov) | Machinery and equipment purchase and installation are eligible uses (sba.gov) | Owners of 20%+ generally guarantee (13 CFR 120.160) | Long-term amortizing loan |
| Equipment lender | Secured by the tanks, dispensers, canopy and store equipment; terms set by lender | The whole loan is the equipment | Set by lender | Amortizes over the equipment's life |
| Net-lease buyer (sale-leaseback) | Purchase price driven by the lease rent and the tenant's credit | Lease defines who owns and maintains the fuel system | Lease obligation, not a loan | Developer sells at completion and repays construction debt |
Leverage basis: bank construction loans are sized on loan-to-cost and loan-to-value, whichever binds first. Supervisory limit: the 12 CFR Part 34 figures are a supervisory limit, not a ceiling; banks may exceed them for a limited volume of exception loans. SBA cap: $5 million for 7(a); $5,000,000 outstanding 504 debenture for most projects (13 CFR 120.931).
On the bank row, the OCC appendix states that the aggregate of loans above the supervisory loan-to-value limits should not exceed 100 percent of total capital, and that commercial and other non-1-to-4 family loans within that bucket should not exceed 30 percent of total capital. That is why an exception for a single-purpose station is a committee decision, not a given. You can compare bank and private construction structures on our construction loans page.
How does SBA 504 work on a new-build station?
SBA 504 funds an owner-occupied station through three pieces: a bank first-lien loan, a Certified Development Company second-lien loan backed by an SBA debenture, and the borrower's injection. On a new business or a limited- or single-purpose building, federal rules raise the injection to 15 percent, and to 20 percent when both conditions apply.
The rules that matter for a ground-up fuel and convenience project, each from 13 CFR Part 120:
- Borrower contribution (120.910): at least 10 percent in ordinary cases; at least 15 percent if the business has operated two years or less; at least 15 percent if the project involves construction of a limited or single purpose building; at least 20 percent when both apply. Land that is part of the project can count toward the contribution.
- Bank share (120.920): the third-party loans must total at least as much as the 504 loan, and at least 50 percent of total project cost for a new business or a limited or single purpose asset.
- Debenture limit (120.931): an outstanding balance of $5,000,000 for each borrower and its affiliates; $5,500,000 is reserved for small manufacturers and certain energy-reduction or renewable-energy projects.
- Occupancy (120.131): on new construction the borrower must permanently occupy no less than 60 percent of the rentable property, and may permanently lease up to 20 percent to tenants. A quick-service restaurant tenant in the building has to fit inside that split.
- Eligible costs (120.882): a construction contingency of no more than 10 percent of construction cost, plus professional fees such as architectural and engineering costs, environmental studies, and legal fees related to zoning, permits or platting.
Ask the Certified Development Company early whether it will classify your station as a limited- or single-purpose building. Fuel islands, canopies and tank systems have few alternative uses, and the classification moves your injection by five points of project cost. For the program comparison in depth, see SBA 504 vs 7(a) for owner-occupied real estate or the SBA loans page.
Can the tanks, canopy and dispensers be financed separately?
Fuel equipment can be financed separately from the land and building, either as long-life equipment inside an SBA 504 or 7(a) package or through an equipment lender secured by the tanks, dispensers and store fixtures. Separating it keeps the real estate loan sized on the building while equipment debt amortizes over its own useful life.
The budget on a new station usually breaks into five buckets, and each one has a natural lender:
- Land: bank or SBA first lien; under the bank rules above, raw land carries the lowest supervisory LTV limit of any category.
- Building and site work: construction loan or SBA 504 project cost.
- Canopy and fuel islands: sometimes in the building budget, sometimes treated as equipment, depending on the lender.
- Tanks, piping and dispensers: equipment lender, or 504 if the asset meets SBA's 10-year useful-life test.
- Store equipment: coolers, food service and point-of-sale, typically equipment or 7(a) money.
The practical point is collateral overlap. If an equipment lender takes a first lien on the fuel system, the construction lender's appraisal and the SBA package must be sized without it, and the intercreditor terms have to be negotiated before closing, not after.
What environmental and permitting rules shape the budget and schedule?
Federal underground storage tank rules set three hard requirements for a new station: tanks and piping installed after April 11, 2016 must be secondarily contained with interstitial monitoring, the owner must notify the implementing agency within 30 days of bringing the system into use, and the owner must carry financial responsibility for releases.
Each of these is in 40 CFR Part 280:
- Construction standard (280.20): tanks and piping installed or replaced after April 11, 2016 must be secondarily contained and use interstitial monitoring. EPA's page on the 2015 rule revisions describes the change as adding secondary containment requirements for new and replaced tanks and piping, along with operator training requirements.
- Notification (280.22): the owner must submit notice of a tank system's existence to the implementing agency within 30 days of bringing it into use.
- Financial responsibility (280.93): owners or operators of petroleum tanks at petroleum marketing facilities must demonstrate financial responsibility of at least $1 million per occurrence, and at least $1 million in annual aggregate for 1 to 100 tanks.
States add their own steps on top. In Texas, for example, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality requires owners to notify it of tank installation at least 30 days before work begins, and its installation guidance adds a call to the regional office between 24 and 72 hours before work starts and tells owners to hire a licensed UST contractor. A construction lender will want those notices and the contractor's license on file before the first tank draw.
Budget consequence: the tank package, its monitoring system and the pollution-liability coverage that satisfies financial responsibility are hard costs the lender will verify, so price them in the feasibility study rather than discovering them at the first draw.
How does a developer exit through a sale-leaseback?
A developer who does not plan to run the station can exit by selling the completed property to a net-lease investor and leasing it back, or by selling to an operator-tenant's landlord, using the sale proceeds to retire the construction loan. The buyer prices the rent and the tenant's credit, so the lease is the real collateral.
How the structure changes the construction loan:
- Takeout certainty: a signed purchase-and-leaseback agreement at a known price lets a construction lender size against the exit rather than the appraisal alone.
- Lease terms drive value: term length, rent escalations, and who bears tank maintenance and environmental liability move the sale price more than the building cost does.
- Operator credit: a single-site operator's lease is worth less to a net-lease buyer than a multi-site operator's, so the identity of the tenant is a financing decision, not just a leasing one.
For owner-operators, the same tool works in reverse after stabilization: a sale-leaseback can return equity tied up in the land and building to fund the next site, at the cost of paying rent instead of debt service.
Building a station from dirt? What a construction lender needs to see
A construction lender needs a complete package before it will quote a ground-up fuel and convenience project: the feasibility study, the fuel supply agreement, the operator's résumé, the site plan and budget split by land, building, canopy, tanks and equipment, and the environmental and tank-permitting schedule. A thin package gets a thin quote.
YieldStack is a commercial mortgage brokerage, not a lender. It costs Zero upfront to submit a deal and review offers; YieldStack's broker fee is 0.50–1.00% of the loan amount and is paid only at closing. Every credit decision is made by the lender; YieldStack arranges the introductions and negotiates on the borrower's side, and no loan, rate, or closing is guaranteed. Brokerage is one route; going directly to a bank or Certified Development Company is another, and the documents above are the same either way.
The bottom line
Ground-up gas station financing works when each piece of the project goes to the lender type built for it: real estate to a bank construction-to-permanent loan or SBA 504, fuel and store equipment to SBA or an equipment lender, and a sale-leaseback as the developer's exit. With no operating history, the feasibility study, operator experience and fuel supply agreement carry the underwriting, and SBA 504 rules raise the injection to 15 or 20 percent for new businesses and limited- or single-purpose buildings. Build the tank compliance timeline — federal secondary containment, 30-day notification, financial responsibility, and your state's pre-installation notice — into the schedule before the first draw.