SBA 504 Feasibility Study Case Study: A Parking-Led Expansion of an Independent Truck Stop at the I-81 and I-77 Overlap in Wytheville, Virginia, Feasible with Conditions

An existing independent truck stop on the I-81 and I-77 overlap in Wytheville, Virginia, on the interstate segment that carries the highest truck share of any in the state, proposes to add 60 reserved truck parking stalls, a two-bay truck service shop, four showers and diesel exhaust fluid on 3.2 acres it already owns, financed under SBA 504 as a business expansion. At a $3,908,800 total project cost, structured as a $1,954,400 bank first lien, a $1,368,080 CDC debenture and $586,320 of equity at the 15 percent the program requires of special purpose property, the expansion earns $405,747 of incremental EBITDA in Year 3 at 48 percent paid stall occupancy, covers its own new debt at 1.36x and the business's combined debt at 1.63x. Determination: feasible with conditions, conditioned on a current VDOT classified count at the overlap, the county's special use approval under its pending ordinance, the CDC's classification of the property and its acceptance of a public policy goal, and a 12-month paid parking occupancy test before the shop's second bay is equipped.

Model study prepared by MMCG Invest | Michal Mohelsky, J.D., FMVA | October 2, 2026

MMCG concludes that the proposed expansion of the subject truck stop on the I-81 and I-77 overlap in Wytheville, Virginia is feasible with conditions. The expansion adds 60 reserved paid truck parking stalls, a two-bay truck service shop, four showers and diesel exhaust fluid to an operating stop that earned $531,625 of EBITDA in its trailing year and carries $275,051 of existing debt service. At a $3,908,800 total project cost under a 504 structure of a $1,954,400 bank first lien, a $1,368,080 CDC debenture and $586,320 of equity, the expansion earns incremental EBITDA of $125,178 in Year 1, $318,177 in Year 2 and $405,747 in Year 3 at paid stall occupancy of 32, 42 and 48 percent, covering its own new debt service of $279,343 at 1.36x in Year 3 and 1.55x in Year 5 after a $25,000 reserve, and covering the business's combined debt service of $554,394 at 1.63x in Year 3 against the 1.15x floor the program applies to a business expansion. The economics rest on three things the overlap gives the subject: a corridor where I-81 carries 11.7 million trucks a year and 42 percent truck vehicle miles, roughly 560 branded truck spaces within 12 miles that fill by early evening, and a private paid lot at the interchange already selling secured parking at $15 a night. The stalls alone are a thin investment, about $3,717 of parking revenue per stall a year at stabilization against an all-in lot cost of about $27,700 a stall, and the study says so; it is the fuel, store and shower lift from the parked trucks, and the shop, that carry the expansion, and the determination is conditioned on a current VDOT classified count at the overlap, the county's special use approval if its pending land use ordinance is adopted before construction, the CDC's classification of the property and its acceptance of a public policy goal in place of the job ratio, and a 12-month paid occupancy test at or above 38 percent before the shop's second bay is equipped.

This is an MMCG model study: a complete expansion feasibility analysis prepared to show 504 lenders, certified development companies and operators how MMCG underwrites a parking-led expansion of an existing truck stop. The subject is a composite. Its interchange, corridor, competitive set, traffic, tax rates and ordinance environment come from the public record for the I-81 and I-77 overlap in Wythe County, Virginia; its physical program, operating history and expansion plan are modeled on the independent truck stops operating on the Virginia I-81 corridor, because attaching modeled financials to a named business would misrepresent it. MMCG has no relationship with any operator, owner or lender at the overlap. Figures drawn from the Virginia Department of Transportation, the Virginia Department of Taxation, Wythe County, the operators' own location pages, the American Transportation Research Institute, the Tennessee and Illinois departments of transportation and TravelCenters of America's last public filings are identified as such; figures labeled modeled or MMCG assumption are underwriting inputs; and items that could not be verified at the study date are disclosed in the Conditions and Limitations section. In particular, the current VDOT count at the overlap, paid truck parking occupancy from any operator, the construction cost of a truck service bay from a bid or permit, and the final text of Wythe County's land use ordinance were not confirmed and are carried as stated assumptions.

The Project will operate as the expanded program of a 24-hour independent truck stop on 11.5 acres on the I-81 and I-77 overlap near Exit 77 in Wytheville, Wythe County, Virginia, where the two interstates share 8 miles of roadway between the Fort Chiswell and Wytheville interchanges and the Appalachian freight lane between the Northeast and the Southeast crosses the Carolinas-to-Ohio lane. The existing physical program comprises a 2004 masonry building of 5,200 SF with a convenience store, a 40-seat diner, four showers and a driver lounge, six dual-sided diesel lanes under a canopy, 10 auto fueling positions, 45 free truck parking spaces, a CAT scale and a five-tank underground storage system of 110,000 gallons. The expansion develops the 3.2 undeveloped acres at the rear of the site into 60 reserved paid truck parking stalls with heavy-duty paving, LED lighting, fencing, a gated entry and cameras, sold through a reservation platform and the fuel desk at $20 a night; builds a two-bay, 4,000 SF truck service shop for tires, brakes, lights, preventive maintenance and roadside call-outs with two technicians and a service writer; adds a 1,200 SF shower and lounge addition with four showers to the existing building; and adds diesel exhaust fluid dispensing at two diesel lanes. The stop continues to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with its existing general manager and 22 FTE, adding two technicians, a service writer and two parking and lounge attendants for 27 FTE. The operating company owns the land, the improvements and the business and borrows the bank first lien and the 504 debenture, with the principals providing the personal guarantees the program requires. The expansion positions the subject as the stop on the overlap where a driver can reserve a space at 4:00 p.m. for an 8:00 p.m. arrival, get a tire or a brake job while parked, and shower without queuing, which the five branded stops within 12 miles do not combine.

Marketing and Sales Strategy

The reservation program launches on the national parking apps and the fuel desk at $20 a night, with a 30-day opening offer of a free night with a 75-gallon fill, and the stop's existing loyalty program credits reserved nights against fuel. The shop launches with roadside call-out agreements with the regional carriers domiciled in Wytheville, Bland and Pulaski counties and with the fleet maintenance networks that dispatch tire and brake work along I-81, and it markets to the drivers already parking at the subject and at the branded stops within 12 miles through the parking apps and the diner. The showers and the DEF are marketed to the fleet card networks as added amenities at an existing fleet-accepted location. Retention runs on the reservation program's guarantee of a space and on the shop's turnaround time.

Amenities (after the expansion)

The subject sits on the 8-mile overlap of I-81 and I-77 through Wythe County between the I-77 junction at Fort Chiswell and the I-81 and I-77 split at Wytheville, the only place in Virginia where the two interstates share a roadway. Interstate 81 in Virginia carries 11.7 million trucks a year with 42 percent truck vehicle miles traveled, the highest share of any Virginia interstate, and VDOT's corridor planning puts I-81 near the overlap at about 34,000 vehicles a day and I-77 at about 30,000; the overlap itself carried 46,000 to 47,000 vehicles a day with 26 to 27 percent large trucks on VDOT's 1997 count, and I-81 averaged 9,284 trucks a day with 62 percent through trucks on the 2008 corridor survey. No current VDOT count at the overlap was retrieved, and MMCG's underwriting basis of 55,000 vehicles per day with 28 percent trucks, 15,400 trucks a day, is anchored to the two VDOT corridor figures and stated as an estimate below their arithmetic sum, because some I-81 westbound to I-77 southbound movements never enter the overlap.

The overlap is under reconstruction. VDOT's Improve 81 program has the Wythe County bundles under construction since late 2023, with the I-81 and I-77 interchange and Exits 72 and 73 inside a contract scheduled to complete in summer 2027, and the subject's expansion in 2027 overlaps that work. The study carries the first year's paid occupancy at 32 percent, below the 40 percent a lot on an undisturbed interchange would reach, and the construction schedule is coordinated with VDOT's access phasing.

The county is writing a land use ordinance for the first time. Wythe County's draft ordinance, in its third draft in October 2025 and in public outreach in March 2026, lists truck stops as a special use in the Commercial district; it had not been adopted at the study date. If adopted before the expansion's building permit, the shop and the lot would require a special use review, which the study carries as a condition and as 90 days in the schedule, and once adopted the ordinance raises the barrier to a new truck stop entering the market, which supports the durability of the subject's parking position.

The subject's parking demand is a corridor shortage made local. The national inventory counted 308,920 truck parking spaces, 88 percent of them at private truck stops, roughly one space for every 11 drivers; 98 percent of drivers report difficulty finding parking, and the average driver spends 56 minutes a day searching for it. Public lots measured by state departments of transportation run at 90 percent utilization or above on the Tennessee survey and above 100 percent at most Illinois rest areas. Within 12 miles of the subject, the branded stops hold roughly 560 truck spaces: 177 at the Flying J at Exit 77, about 270 at the Flying J at Max Meadows, 114 at the TA at Exit 72, and the Pilot at Exit 77 and the Love's at Exit 84 unverified, and the corridor's utilization pattern fills them on weekday evenings. A private secured lot near the overlap already sells 45 spaces at $15 a day or $125 a month, which is the local price evidence the study rests on.

Paid conversion is the question, not demand. The owner-operator association's survey found that 58 percent of drivers do not use paid parking and that nearly half often or always see empty paid spots, and the national rate band runs $15 to $25 a night with Plains states at $12 to $15; no private operator publishes paid occupancy, and the one network that reports 85 percent and higher does so for urban freight hubs, not rural interstates. The study carries the subject at 32 percent paid occupancy in Year 1, 42 in Year 2, 48 in Year 3 and 52 by Year 5, which is 29 paid trucks a night at stabilization out of the 15,400 trucks passing the overlap, and tests 38 and 30 percent. Of the parked trucks, 40 percent are modeled to fuel at an average of 100 gallons and 50 percent to spend $16 in the store, which is the lift that the lot earns beyond its own rent.

MMCG identified five branded travel centers within 12 miles of the subject and three within 50 miles. Truck parking counts are taken from the operators' pages where published and from directories where not, and the directory counts are flagged.

Competitor Number 1 Flying J Travel Center, Wytheville This travel center is located at I-81 and I-77 Exit 77, Wytheville, VA 24382. Directories list 177 truck parking spaces, 20 of them reserved. It is the branded stop nearest the subject and its price and parking reference.

Competitor Number 2 Pilot Travel Center, Wytheville This travel center is located at Exit 77, Wytheville, VA 24382, at the same interchange as Competitor Number 1. Its truck parking count was not retrieved from the operator's page.

Competitor Number 3 Flying J Travel Center, Max Meadows This travel center is located at I-81 and I-77 Exit 80, Max Meadows, VA 24360, about three miles east of the subject. Directories list 270 truck parking spaces and 12 diesel lanes. It is the largest lot on the overlap.

Competitor Number 4 TA Wytheville This travel center is located at I-81 Exit 72 and I-77 Exit 41, Wytheville, VA 24382, about five miles west of the subject. Directories list 114 truck parking spaces, 10 diesel lanes and six service bays. It is the subject's reference for truck service on the overlap.

Competitor Number 5 Love's Travel Stop, Max Meadows This travel stop is located at I-81 Exit 84, Max Meadows, VA 24360, about seven miles east of the subject. Its truck parking count was not retrieved from the operator's page.

Competitor Number 6 Wytheville secured truck parking lot This private paid parking lot is located near the overlap in Wytheville, VA, and is listed with 45 secured spaces at $15 a day or $125 a month. It is the local paid parking price evidence.

Competitor Number 7 Love's Travel Stops, Bastian, Lambsburg and Meadowview These travel stops are located at I-77 Exit 58, I-77 Exit 1 and I-81 Exit 24, 22 to 50 miles from the subject, and bound the corridor on the north, south and west.

No travel center announced, permitted or under construction within 30 miles of the subject was identified in chain newsrooms, local news or planning agendas between 2024 and 2026; the chain's 2025 opening at Elliston, about 60 miles northeast, lies outside the subject's market, and the county's purchase of about 55 acres of the former Fort Chiswell outlet mall in 2026 carries no announced use. The overlap is a parking-scarcity market, not a fuel-gap market: five branded stops sell the diesel, and the subject's expansion sells the space.

The subject's trailing fiscal year, as modeled, is the base the expansion is underwritten on.

The stop sells 7,123 gallons of diesel a day to about 75 fueling trucks, a fraction of the branded stops' volume at the same interchange, and earns its margin on the diner, the store and the showers. Its 45 free spaces fill by early evening, which is the demand the expansion monetizes. The existing business is carried at 2 percent EBITDA growth a year, and the 15 percent downside case tests a weaker base.

Location: I-81 and I-77 overlap near Exit 77, Wytheville, VA 24382 Stalls: 60 reserved paid truck parking stalls (expansion area 3.2 acres)

Source: Marshall & Swift CoreLogic, MMCG

The paving is carried at $18,000 a stall and the whole lot, with grading, drainage, lighting, fencing, gates and cameras, at about $27,700 a stall, inside the $24,000 to $39,000 per space that the Nevada rest area expansions cost and a fraction of the $113,395 average per public space that state departments of transportation reported in 2025, because a private operator paves stalls on a graded commercial site it already owns. The shop is carried at $215 per SF for a heavy-truck building with 18-foot clear height, trench drains and heavier slabs, about $430,000 a bay before equipment, which is MMCG's estimate escalated from the published repair shop cost model; no bid or permit value for a truck service bay was located and the figure is a disclosed assumption. The land is contributed at no cost because the operator owns it, and the 504 project's eligible fixed assets are the paving, the lighting, the shop, the addition, the DEF dispensing and the equipment.

Loan Assumptions

The existing lender's first lien on the original 8.3 acres and building remains in place, and the 504 bank first lien and the debenture attach to the expansion improvements and the 3.2-acre expansion parcel, subordinate on the original parcel; the collateral structure is a closing condition with the existing lender's consent.

The subject is an existing business in operation for more than two years, so the 504 borrower contribution is 10 percent on general purpose property and 15 percent where the CDC classifies the property as limited or special purpose; gas stations appear on SBA's examples of special purpose property, most CDCs apply the classification to a truck stop, and the study carries 15 percent and a 35 percent debenture. The debenture of $1,368,080 is within the $5,000,000 maximum. The job opportunity standard of one job per $95,000 of debenture for loans approved on or after October 1, 2025 would require about 14 jobs against the expansion's five, so the project qualifies through a public policy goal under 13 CFR 120.862; the study carries the rural development goal, because Wythe County is outside any metropolitan statistical area, and the CDC's acceptance of it is a condition. Under SOP 50 10 8.1, a business expansion is underwritten to 1.15x debt service coverage, and the study presents both the incremental coverage on the new debt and the global coverage on the business's combined debt. The 504 project finances fixed assets the operating company will occupy and use, and the expansion is an eligible project.

The environmental review follows SBA's gas station appendix because the subject sells fuel: a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment is required regardless of loan amount, with tank and line tightness documentation, and the study carries a Phase I update on the expansion parcel and the existing site in the land line. The expansion disturbs 3.2 acres and requires construction stormwater permit coverage under Virginia's general permit, and the shop's floor drains and the lot's runoff pass through oil-water separation before detention.

The shop is the largest incremental line and the one the lender should weigh most: $1,050,000 of revenue at stabilization at a 52 percent margin on parts, tires and billed labor, with the technicians' and service writer's payroll of $244,007 carried separately, against the six-bay shop at the TA five miles away. The reserved stalls earn $223,044 at stabilization, $3,717 a stall, and pull $70,430 of fuel margin and $30,334 of store margin behind them, which together is the lot's return; without the lift the lot earns about 13 percent on its all-in cost before lighting, security and attendants, which is why the study carries the attendants and the monitoring as costs of the lot rather than of the business. Property tax on the improvements is carried at Wythe County's $0.51 per $100 plus the Town of Wytheville's $0.20, 0.71 percent of an assessed value near $3,900,000, on the Department of Taxation's published 2024 rates. Year 1 global coverage of 1.09x is below the 1.15x business expansion floor, and the lender should expect it; the expansion opens into VDOT's construction period and its first year's incremental EBITDA of $125,178 does not cover the new debt on its own, which the existing business carries. Year 2 global coverage of 1.45x and Year 3 of 1.63x are the credit.

At Year 3 rates and shop revenue, the incremental program's coverage of the new debt service turns on paid stall occupancy.

The 1.15x threshold at 39 percent paid occupancy is 9 points under the forecast, and it is the condition the study writes into the determination: a 12-month paid occupancy test at or above 38 percent before the shop's second bay is equipped. The global coverage holds 1.42x at 30 percent paid occupancy and 1.51x at 38 percent, because the existing business carries the combined debt even when the lot underperforms.

The expansion holds global coverage above 1.15x in every single-factor case and in the first combined case. The second combined case, in which the lot runs at 30 percent, the shop misses by a quarter and the existing business weakens by 15 percent, takes global coverage to 1.03x, which is the downside a lender accepts on an expansion whose incremental return is thin and whose existing business is the margin. The shop is the single factor that moves incremental coverage most, which is why its second bay is conditioned on the lot's first year.

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 current VDOT count and truck share on the overlap, in place of which the study carries an estimate anchored to VDOT's corridor planning figures; paid truck parking occupancy from any private operator or reservation network for a rural interstate, in place of which the study carries the Tennessee and Illinois public utilization surveys, the owner-operator survey on paid parking and a 48 percent forecast; the truck parking counts of the Pilot at Exit 77 and the Love's at Exit 84 from the operators' pages; the construction cost of a truck service bay from a bid or permit, in place of which the study carries $430,000 a bay escalated from the published repair shop cost model; the final text and adoption date of Wythe County's land use ordinance; the Town of Wytheville's 2025 rate and the assessor's valuation practice for truck stop improvements; the May 2025 Virginia nonmetropolitan wages for diesel technicians and attendants; and the primary SBA text of SOP 50 10 8.1 and the fiscal 2027 504 fee notice.

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