Prepared for lenders, CDCs, and federal agencies to SBA SOP 50 10 8, USDA RD Instruction 5001, and conventional underwriting standards. Fiduciary duty runs to the lender and the agency, never the borrower. More than 4,000 studies since 1998 covering $40.2 billion in evaluated project value.
Express car wash feasibility is traffic conversion under membership economics. The study converts AADT and retail co-tenancy into wash volume through capture modeling, tests the membership-penetration assumptions that now carry the industry's revenue model, and maps every competing tunnel — operating and announced — because site saturation has become the category's defining risk. Labor-light operating economics are modeled honestly, including the chemical, utility, and equipment-reserve loads that compress the apparent margin.
Methodology combines DOT traffic counts, competitive census with pricing and membership offers, ICA industry benchmarks, and equipment-supplier capital costs independently tested. The model presents retail and membership revenue separately, with membership churn sensitivity, against the program's coverage requirement.
Every Wert-Berater financial model is fully linked with no hardcoded values, so any reviewer can stress any input. Deliverables comprise a complete narrative report and the linked Excel model, with ten-year pro forma, sensitivity analysis at ±5, 10, and 15 percent, interest-rate stress from +0.5 to +3.0 percent, and ratio analysis benchmarked against RMA and IBISWorld data.
SBA engagements are prepared to SOP 50 10 8, including its debt-service-coverage minimums of 1.15x operating and 1.00x global. USDA engagements follow RD Staff Instruction 5001 across the Business & Industry, Community Facilities, REAP, and Value-Added Producer Grant programs. Conventional engagements are built to the lender's stated coverage standard, typically 1.20x. Car washes are financed under SBA 504 and 7(a) — with SOP special-purpose treatment — and conventional structures for multi-site operators; the study addresses saturation risk to the standard reviewing officers now expect.
The firm evaluates car wash projects within its fuel-retail and roadside-commercial practice, applying the same capture-rate discipline developed across its gas station and travel center record. Independence is non-negotiable: determinations follow the evidence and are not revised under pressure, and studies are built to pass lender, agency, and third-party review without exception items.
Qualify a project. Tell us about the project and the program. We will tell you the truth about it — scope, timeline, and fee confirmed before work begins.
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