SBA 504 Feasibility Study Case Study: A 4.82-Acre Truck Terminal and Yard on Guy Paine Road in Macon, Georgia, Bought by the Carrier That Will Run It, Feasible with Conditions

A regional truckload carrier with 35 tractors proposes to buy the fenced and lit 4.82-acre truck terminal at 475 Guy Paine Rd, Macon, Bibb County, Georgia, listed by Burr and Temkin at $995,000, with a 1958 cross-dock building of 11,500 square feet and 45 doors, a 1,000 square foot shop with a maintenance bay, and concrete dolly pads, 1.9 miles from Interstate 75 and 4.9 from Interstate 16, through an eligible passive company financed with an SBA 504 loan. The carrier will occupy the whole site as its terminal, which makes it an eligible owner-user project at the standard 10 percent contribution, and at a total project cost of $1,535,300, including $218,000 of yard resurfacing, $45,000 of lighting, $120,000 of shop and dock work and a Phase II allowance, the real estate entity needs rent of $160,000 a year, or about $2,770 per acre per month, below the $3,000 to $6,000 per acre that brokers report for industrial outdoor storage in secondary markets, to cover debt service of $118,000 at a debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) of 1.25 times; the carrier's cash flow covers its total occupancy cost 1.6 times after its own equipment debt and distributions, and the two entities together cover all debt service at 1.28 times in Year 1 and 1.46 times in Year 5. Determination: feasible with conditions, the conditions being a conditional use permit or confirmation of the terminal's approved status under Macon-Bibb's land development resolution, a Phase I environmental site assessment covering the maintenance bay, a pavement survey confirming the resurfacing scope, and confirmation of the parcels' zoning, assessment and flood status.

Model study prepared by MMCG Invest | Michal Mohelsky, J.D., FMVA | October 3, 2026

MMCG concludes that the proposed acquisition of the Guy Paine Road terminal is feasible with conditions. The site is the kind of asset a regional carrier should own rather than lease: 4.82 fenced and lit acres with a cross-dock, a shop and dolly pads, 1.9 miles from Interstate 75 and 4.9 from Interstate 16 at the center of Georgia's north-south and east-west freight corridors, adjacent to Norfolk Southern's lines in the same city as its Brosnan Yard, two miles from downtown, which sorts about 10,000 railcars a week, in a county that has drawn Bob's Discount Furniture's 801,000 square foot distribution center, Irving's $600 million expansion and BrightFarms' 1.5 million square foot facility in the last two years. At $995,000 the price is $206,400 an acre with 12,500 square feet of buildings, against $316,000 an acre for a fenced trailer yard with a credit tenant at Calhoun on Interstate 75 and $622,000 for a terminal in Tulsa, and the market for yards is the tightest in industrial: CBRE puts national industrial outdoor storage vacancy at 2.5 percent against 6.7 percent for buildings, CompStak puts market rents 29.8 percent above in-place rents, and Matthews reports secondary-market yard rents of $3,000 to $6,000 per acre per month with vacancy of 6 to 8 percent.

The capital stack works without restructuring. A 504 loan on 90 percent of a $1,535,300 project, which carries the resurfacing, lighting, shop and dock work the site needs, costs $118,000 a year, and the real estate entity covers it at 1.25 times on a rent of $160,000 that is below what the yard would earn from a third party; the carrier's cash flow of $900,000 before occupancy, after $430,000 of tractor and trailer debt service and $175,200 of income taxes and distributions, covers its total occupancy cost of $184,300 by 1.6 times, and the two entities together cover total debt service of $548,000 at 1.28 times in Year 1. The determination is conditioned, not restructured, because the risks in the file are on the site and not in the stack: Macon-Bibb's use table lists a transportation terminal as a conditional use in every industrial district, so the terminal's approval status or a conditional use permit must be in hand before closing; the shop's maintenance bay and the 1958 vintage make a Phase I mandatory in practice and a Phase II possible, and the budget carries an allowance; the resurfacing is scoped at a mill and overlay of about two acres, and a full heavy-duty rebuild of the yard would raise the cost to $1,750,400 and cut coverage to 1.10 times; and the parcels' district, assessed value, millage and flood zone were not retrievable at the study date.

This is an MMCG model study: a complete feasibility analysis performed on a real, publicly marketed truck terminal using public data, prepared to show 504 lenders, certified development companies, banks and owner-operators how MMCG tests an industrial outdoor storage site for an owner-user, and how the SBA 504, SBA 7(a) and conventional structures compare on it. It is not a client engagement. MMCG has no relationship with the owner, Burr and Temkin or any prospective buyer, and the analysis does not represent an offer, an appraisal or a recommendation to buy the site. The carrier is a model operator constructed for the study. Figures drawn from the listing, the Macon-Bibb County Comprehensive Land Development Resolution, the Macon-Bibb County government's millage release, the Georgia Power tariff, the National Bridge Inventory, Norfolk Southern, the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority, the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, CBRE, CompStak, Matthews and the regional listing inventory are identified as such. Figures labeled MMCG assumption are underwriting inputs set by MMCG, including the resurfacing and lighting scope, the carrier's financial profile and the bank rate. Items that could not be verified from a primary source at the study date are listed in the Conditions and Limitations section rather than estimated silently: the listing date, the parcels' assessed value and tax bill, the parcels' district on the county map, the text of the use standards for terminals and outdoor storage, the FEMA panel, the Georgia Department of Transportation count on Guy Paine Road, the electric provider, the identity of the certified development company serving Bibb County, and the site's fuel storage and environmental history.

The operating company is a regional truckload carrier organized in 2014, running 35 tractors and 60 dry van trailers with 48 employees, about $7,200,000 of revenue and a cash flow before occupancy cost and equipment debt service of 12.5 percent, or $900,000 (MMCG assumption for the model operator), serving shippers in the Interstate 75 and 16 corridors between Atlanta, Savannah and Florida. It leases a 2.5-acre gravel yard with a trailer office at $96,000 a year and runs maintenance through a vendor. Its principals will form an eligible passive company to buy the terminal and lease the whole site to the carrier under a net lease running at least the term of the loan; the carrier will occupy it entirely as its terminal, with dispatch, driver facilities and administration in the office, tractor and trailer parking on the yard, light maintenance and tire work in the shop, and the cross-dock used for freight staging and a planned less-than-truckload consolidation service. The carrier guarantees the loan.

Operations plan

The yard is resurfaced, restriped and relit in the first ninety days after closing with the carrier operating from it throughout. The office is refitted for dispatch and a driver lounge, the dock's 45 doors are retained with twelve in use for staging and the rest closed, and the shop receives a lift and compressor for preventive maintenance in house. The carrier parks 35 tractors and 60 trailers on about 2.7 of the roughly 4.4 usable acres (MMCG assumptions pending the survey), which leaves room for a trailer pool for a shipper customer or for the consolidation service.

Site program

The terminal sits at 475 Guy Paine Rd in the 31206 zip code in south Macon, on a two-lane road between State Route 247 and the Norfolk Southern main line, in the county's heavy industrial belt; the National Bridge Inventory records the Guy Paine Road bridge over the Norfolk Southern railroad, 0.7 miles east of State Route 247, at 5,510 vehicles a day in 2024, which the study uses as the corridor count pending the Georgia Department of Transportation's figure for the parcel frontage. The listing puts Interstate 75 at 1.9 miles and Interstate 16 at 4.9; Interstate 75 through north-central Macon carried 68,900 vehicles a day in 2024. The listing describes the site as adjacent to the Southern Railroad lines, and Norfolk Southern's Brosnan Yard, two miles from downtown, receives and sorts about 10,000 railcars a week. The Port of Savannah is about two hours east on Interstate 16.

Macon-Bibb County had 157,358 residents at the 2020 census base and 157,556 at the July 2025 estimate, on 249 square miles. Transportation, warehousing and utilities employment in the Macon metropolitan area stood at 6,800 in August 2026 on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' count; county-level figures for the sector were not retrieved. The Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority's fiscal 2025 report lists thirty active projects representing $4.6 billion of potential investment and more than $1 billion of private investment announced in 2024, including Irving Consumer Products' $600 million expansion and BrightFarms' 1.5 million square foot leafy-greens facility, and Bob's Discount Furniture broke ground in March 2026 on an 801,000 square foot distribution center at 4521 Cavalier Drive with about 250 jobs, its first in the Southeast. Each of those is a shipper, and the terminal sits between them and the interstates.

The site's liabilities are its age and its history. A 1958 cross-dock with 45 doors was built for a less-than-truckload carrier that no longer needs it, which is why a 35-tractor truckload carrier can buy 4.82 fenced acres for the price of the land; the building is a staging dock and an office for this borrower, not the asset. The maintenance bay, and whatever fueling and washing a terminal of this vintage once did, are the Phase I's subject.

The Comprehensive Land Development Resolution for Macon-Bibb County, as amended December 9, 2024, governs. The listing states the district as M-3, Heavy Industrial, in one field and M-1 in another; the county's industrial districts are M-1, Wholesale and Light Industrial, M-2, Heavy Industrial, and M-3, Heavy Industrial, and the parcels' district on the county map was not retrieved. Chapter 4B's use table, as mirrored from the resolution, lists "Transportation terminal" under Section 23.07.01 as a conditional use in M-1, M-2 and M-3; "Wholesaling, warehousing, storage, and distribution" under Section 23.23.01 as conditional in M-1 and permitted in M-2 and M-3; "Building supply and lumber sales/contractors' yard" as conditional in M-1 and limited in M-2 and M-3; "Automobile service and maintenance" as a limited use in all three; "Heavy machinery and equipment sales and repair" as conditional in M-1 and M-2 and permitted in M-3; and "Fueling Center" as conditional in M-1 and limited in M-2 and M-3. The text of the use standards in Sections 23.07.01 and 23.09.02, which would set the screening, paving and staging rules for a terminal and for outdoor storage, was not retrievable.

The study reads the carrier's operation as a transportation terminal, which is a conditional use in every industrial district, and carries as its first condition either a conditional use permit from the Macon-Bibb County Planning and Zoning Commission or the commission's written confirmation that the existing terminal use is approved or legally nonconforming and may continue under new ownership with the planned improvements. The trailer parking and staging fit the warehousing and storage row, permitted in M-3, and the light maintenance in the shop fits the automobile service and maintenance row as a limited use; a fueling center, if the carrier wants on-site fuel, is a limited use with its own standards and its own environmental consequences, and the study assumes none. The dimensional rules read for M-2, which may differ in M-3, set 50 foot setbacks on arterial and collector streets and 30 feet on minor streets, with no interior setback unless abutting residential property, a 45 foot height limit and a 10,000 square foot minimum tract.

The SBA occupancy test is met in full: the carrier occupies 100 percent of the site, and the real estate is owned by an eligible passive company leased to the operating company, which guarantees the loan. A yard held to lease to other carriers would be an investment property and not an eligible project, and the study's trailer pool for a shipper customer is carried as an accessory service of the carrier, not as a lease of the land.

The listing shows lighting, gas, water and sewer at the site; the electric provider was not confirmed, and Georgia Power's Power and Light Medium schedule, PLM-18, effective January 1, 2025, for demand of 30 to 500 kilowatts, is carried for reference, with a basic service charge, a demand charge of $7.81 per kilowatt above 30 kilowatts with a 95 percent summer ratchet, and tiered energy charges before fuel, environmental and franchise riders. The yard's load, lighting and the shop, is small and is carried inside the carrier's operating cost. No Macon-Bibb stormwater utility fee or paved-yard permit schedule was found; the land disturbance permit for the resurfacing is carried in the contingency and is a condition.

Property tax is computed on Georgia's 40 percent assessment ratio. Macon-Bibb County's consolidated government set its fiscal 2026 millage at 9.575 mills in August 2025, a cut of 0.325 mills and the fifth consecutive reduction; the Bibb County School District's levy is shown by an aggregator at 16.41 mills, and the same aggregator shows the county at 17.84 mills, which conflicts with the government's own release and is not reconciled. The study carries 25.985 mills, the government's county figure plus the aggregator's school figure, on a fair market value at the $995,000 price, before the improvements are assessed, for about $10,300 a year, and discloses that at the aggregator's combined 34.25 mills the tax would be about $13,600; the parcels' assessed value and current bill were not retrieved. Insurance is carried at $14,000 a year for a 1958 terminal, a shop and a lit yard (MMCG assumption).

The demand case for an owner-user terminal is the carrier's freight, and the market analysis serves to test the rent the carrier pays against what the yard would earn from anyone else, which is the lender's collateral question in a sector where the land is the value.

The sector's figures are the tightest in industrial real estate. CBRE's fourth-quarter 2025 count puts industrial outdoor storage vacancy at 2.5 percent against 6.7 percent for traditional industrial space, with a rent premium of 17.9 percent that widened over the year; CompStak's first-quarter 2026 data put market rents for yards 29.8 percent above in-place rents, the widest spread in its industrial dataset; and Matthews' March 2026 sector update reports secondary-market rents of $3,000 to $6,000 per acre per month, vacancy of 6 to 8 percent, cap rates of 6.75 to 7.75 percent and rent growth of 7 to 9 percent in 2025 with 6 to 8 percent expected in 2026, against $5,000 to $15,000 per acre in primary markets. Capright's September 2026 lending update puts yard leverage at 55 to 65 percent of value with debt yields of 9 to 11 percent. No Macon yard with a published lease rate per acre was found; the Macon Georgia Industrial Park at 2525 Pio Nono Avenue offers 1 to 15 acres a quarter mile from Interstate 75 for lease at a rate on request, and a 3.78-acre paved and graveled assemblage at 225 Allied Industrial Boulevard was marked off market at the study date.

Against those figures the carrier's rent of $160,000 a year, $2,770 per acre per month on the whole site including the buildings, is below the bottom of the secondary-market range for a yard alone, and the real estate entity's indicative income value at a 7.25 percent cap rate (MMCG assumption inside Matthews' secondary range) on the net income from even the floor rent of $173,500, about $161,000 after the entity's reserve and costs, is about $2,200,000, well above the $1,535,300 project cost and the $1,381,800 of combined debt. That is the credit's shape: the carrier is paying less than market for a site whose market is tight, and the lender's collateral is the land.

MMCG identified the following yards and terminals for sale or lease in Georgia and the surrounding region at the study date; Macon-area comparables with published prices were limited to the subject.

Comparable Number 1 2525 Pio Nono Avenue, Macon Georgia Industrial Park, Macon Parcels of 1 to 15 acres offered for lease for industrial outdoor storage, a quarter mile from Interstate 75 and three miles from Interstate 16, with fencing available and LED lighting in the park; rate on request; Fickling and Company.

Comparable Number 2 225 Allied Industrial Boulevard, Macon A 3.78-acre assemblage with about 5,000 square feet of building on a paved and graveled lot in the M-2 district, parcels Q103-0072, 0073 and 0076, marked off market and available from October 1, 2026; no price.

Comparable Number 3 152 Tyler Drive, Calhoun, Georgia An 11.54-acre stabilized-gravel, fenced, gated and lit trailer yard with 313 trailer spaces a mile from Interstate 75 exit 312, with three acres leased to a national credit tenant through June 2028, listed March 17, 2026 at $3,650,000, or $316,300 per acre.

Comparable Number 4 130 Pine Meadow Drive, Pooler, Georgia A fully paved truck terminal with a perimeter fence and electric gate, a 3,264 square foot office, a 4,300 square foot 16-door cross-dock and a 780 square foot shop on 3.25 acres, half a mile from Interstate 16 and six miles from the Garden City Terminal, offered for lease by Colliers at a rate on request, updated October 3, 2026.

Comparable Number 5 3200 Williams Road, Columbus, Georgia A 10.25-acre asphalt-paved, fenced and lighted terminal with 11,400 square feet of terminal and office, a 1,750 square foot shop and 32 loading positions, six miles from Interstate 185, listed by Burr and Temkin with pricing on request.

Comparable Number 6 431 Grider Field Road, Pine Bluff, Arkansas A 3.0-acre fully fenced gravel yard with a 4,500 square foot terminal of 16 dock positions built in 1985, under two miles from Interstate 530, listed by Burr and Temkin at $450,000, or $150,000 per acre.

Comparable Number 7 15714 East Admiral Place, Tulsa, Oklahoma A 5.63-acre terminal with about 14,250 square feet of building, 32 docks and a drive-in, built in 1985, city water and sewer and halogen lighting, listed at $3,500,000, or $621,700 per acre; the listing party is a carrier and brokerage representation was not confirmed.

Comparable Number 8 0 Edgewood Drive, Jacksonville, Florida An 8.05-acre unimproved tract in the IL district with industrial outdoor storage permitted and no jurisdictional wetlands, which the broker estimates at 80 to 100 trailer positions on about 245,000 usable square feet, listed May 12, 2026 by Matthews.

The subject's $206,400 per acre, with the buildings, sits between the gravel yard at Pine Bluff and the credit-leased yard at Calhoun, and well under the Tulsa ask; for a buyer that needs the buildings, the price is a land price.

The real estate entity's rent is set at $160,000 a year, which covers the debt service of $118,000 at 1.25 times after the entity's reserve and costs, and which is below the yard's market rent on every published measure. The carrier can pay it: on the model operator's $900,000 of cash flow before occupancy cost, after $430,000 of tractor and trailer debt service and $175,200 of income taxes and distributions, $294,800 remains against a total occupancy cost of $184,300 in Year 1, comprising $160,000 of rent, $10,300 of property tax and $14,000 of insurance, a cover of 1.6 times; the carrier's occupancy cost rises from the $96,000 it pays for a leased gravel yard today, and the difference buys a paved, lit and fenced terminal with a shop that brings maintenance in house.

The lender's checks are two. The appraisal: at the floor market rent of $173,500, net of the entity's costs, and a 7.25 percent cap rate inside Matthews' secondary range (MMCG assumption), the income approach indicates about $2,200,000, and the bank's first lien of $767,700 is 35 percent of that figure, with the bank and the debenture together at 63 percent; the cost approach, at $995,000 plus $540,300 of improvements, diligence and financing costs, supports the project cost. And the carrier's statements: a truckload carrier's cash flow moves with freight rates and fuel, and the study runs a 20 percent revenue decline at a global coverage of 1.06 times.

Location: 475 Guy Paine Rd, Macon, GA 31206 Site: 4.82 acres Buildings: 11,500 square foot terminal and 1,000 square foot shop

Source: listing; MMCG

The improvement scope is the item that moves. The listing describes concrete dolly pads and a fenced and lit yard but not the condition or extent of the remaining asphalt; the study carries a mill and overlay of about two acres at $2.50 per square foot and runs a full heavy-duty rebuild at $4.75 per square foot as a sensitivity, which raises total project cost to $1,750,400. The pavement survey is a condition. The debenture fees are carried at about 2.65 percent of the debenture, including the fiscal 2027 upfront guaranty fee of 0.50 percent, which is not waived for a carrier in a metropolitan county.

Loan Assumptions (SBA 504)

Alternative structures (for comparison)

The 504 structure is the right one for this borrower: it finances 90 percent of cost at a blended rate near 7.1 percent on a 25-year amortization, where a 7(a) loan on the same leverage costs $21,200 more a year and falls to 1.06 times, and a conventional loan at 70 percent of appraised value requires $835,300 of equity, more than five times the 504 contribution, for a carrier whose capital is in its tractors.

The project is an eligible SBA 504 project: an eligible passive company will own the site and lease it to an operating company that occupies 100 percent of it, guarantees the loan and uses it in its own business, and the 504 project finances the land, the buildings, the yard improvements and the soft costs of an owner-occupied business. The borrower contribution is 10 percent under 13 CFR 120.910, because the carrier has operated for more than two years and a truck terminal and yard, which can be used by any carrier, contractor or equipment operator, is a general-purpose property; the CDC's classification is a condition in any file where the improvements are specific to the use, and the study notes the yard's alternative uses. The job opportunity standard is one job per $95,000 of debenture for loans approved on or after October 1, 2025, which is seven jobs at the $614,100 debenture against the carrier's 48 employees, met on retention. The debenture is fixed-rate over 25 years; fiscal 2027 fees are 0.50 percent upfront and 0.203 percent annually, neither waived. SOP 50 10 8.1, effective October 1, 2026, governs the file; the acquisition is of real estate only, so Appendix 15 does not apply. The combined SBA exposure is inside the $10 million limit, and the carrier's tractor financing through 7(a), if it chooses it, can sit alongside the 504 loan under the July 4, 2026 coordination notice.

The environmental screen is the file's principal condition after zoning. Trucking is among SBA's environmentally sensitive industries where the site has service bays, truck washing or fuel tanks, and the shop's maintenance bay puts the site on the list, which requires the environmental investigation to begin with a Phase I regardless of loan size; a 1958 terminal may also have had underground fuel storage and a wash rack that the listing does not mention, and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division's underground storage tank records and a Phase II allowance are carried in the budget.

The real estate entity's expenses under a net lease to a single occupant are a reserve for the buildings and the yard surface and the entity's own costs; property tax, insurance, utilities and maintenance are the carrier's.

The carrier's occupancy cost in Year 1 is $184,300: rent of $160,000, property tax of $10,300 and insurance of $14,000, with yard lighting, water, sewer and maintenance inside its operating budget.

Global cash flow, carrier and real estate entity together

The real estate entity covers at the lender's floor from the first year and builds to 1.35 times by Year 5 on 2 percent escalations, and the carrier and the entity together cover all debt service at 1.28 times in Year 1 and 1.46 times in Year 5; the carrier's equipment debt, not the real estate, is the larger obligation, which is the usual position of a trucking company and the reason the global test, not the entity's test, decides the file.

For a single-occupant yard the break-even is the carrier's revenue. At the study's 12.5 percent cash flow margin and the Year 1 structure, the carrier and the entity together cover total debt service at 1.0 times on revenue of about $5,300,000, 74 percent of plan, and at 1.25 times on about $7,000,000, 97 percent of plan; the carrier's cash flow after equipment debt and distributions covers its occupancy cost at 1.0 times on revenue of about $5,800,000, 81 percent of plan. The real estate entity's own test is fixed by the lease.

The 1.25 times global threshold sits at 97 percent of plan, which is the honest statement of a trucking credit: the carrier carries $430,000 of equipment debt against $118,000 of real estate debt, and the lender's cushion is in the real estate's low leverage against market value, not in the carrier's margin.

The yard holds above 1.0 times in every single-factor case, and the controlling sensitivity is the paving scope, which the pavement survey settles before closing; a full rebuild takes the entity to 1.10 times and would call for either a higher rent, which the market supports, or an equity increase. The carrier's revenue is the second sensitivity, and the lender's underwriting of the carrier's statements is the mitigant.

The determination of feasible with conditions is subject to the following conditions precedent:

The following items could not be verified from a primary source at the study date and are disclosed: the listing date; the parcels' assessed value, current tax bill and exemptions; the parcels' district on the county map, the text of Sections 23.07.01 and 23.09.02, and the M-3 dimensional chapter; the FEMA panel; the Georgia Department of Transportation count on Guy Paine Road, for which the National Bridge Inventory figure is carried; the electric provider; the extent and condition of the yard's asphalt; the site's fuel storage, washing and environmental history; the certified development company serving Bibb County; Macon-area yard lease rates and sale prices per acre, for which regional comparables and the Matthews national ranges are carried; and the reconciliation of the county millage between the government's release and the aggregator.

This model study applies the methodology described on MMCG's industrial outdoor storage feasibility study and SBA warehouse feasibility study pages. MMCG prepares industrial feasibility studies for SBA 7(a) and 504, USDA Business and Industry and conventional lenders nationwide, with engagements from $4,900 and delivery in 9 to 16 business days.