This is a real estate asset with a fuel and convenience business attached, priced at $1.1M with the dirt included. The store has declined about 42% in two years, and we show that openly. The reason it matters: the same asset rang $1.71M in 2023, the decline is operational rather than structural, and the highest margin equipment in the building is installed and switched off.
Panther Quick Stop is an opportunity to acquire a strategically located convenience and fuel real estate asset within the growing Columbus, Phenix City, and Smiths Station corridor. Its value is supported by recurring commuter traffic, expanding residential density, an established operating history, and the option to structure long term operator tenancy, creating durable cash flow backed by a necessity based retail use.
This brief is written for a real estate investor, not an owner operator. That changes the whole frame. You own the land and the improvements, you collect a return on a necessity based retail use, and you keep the option to install a long term operator or a sale leaseback later.
The $1.1M includes land and structure. No rent, no landlord, no lease renewal risk. The property appreciates on its own track while the business produces cash. Two return lines from one transaction.
Fuel, tobacco, beverages, and prepared food are daily necessity spend in a working family corridor. This is recurring traffic, not tourism or seasonal demand. See the location read.
You can install a capable operator, structure a triple net style operator tenancy, or run a managed model. The asset does not require you behind the counter to perform.
The price basis is what the asset does today. The restoration toward 2023 levels, the pizza line, and the car wash are upside you build. We never charge you for the second.
The seller's headline is a 10.1% cap. Our underwrite of the trailing actuals lands at 7.8%, and we show exactly why on the next tab. Both are honest reads of what the asset does today. Neither is the ceiling. With the underutilized income already mapped, the installed pizza line, the car wash bay, and cigarette repricing, activated by a capable owner, the forward range moves to roughly 10.9% to 16.4%. You buy at the trailing number. You operate into the range.
Every one of these is an RE inclusive cap in a growing corridor, which makes even the floor a reasonable entry. The case does not rest on the seller's headline. It rests on buying near the trailing number and executing the operational upside that is already mapped. See the upside stack or walk the full financial read.
Sources: 2023 owner P&L and daily sales reports, 2024 partial sales and Sept to Dec income statement, 2025 monthly and full year XtraExport POS, plus interim income statements. We lead with the downside because hiding it would cost you trust and us credibility.
| Verified trajectory | 2023 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total sales (all departments) | $1,714,493 | ~$997,365 | -42% |
| Fuel sales | ~$744,057 | $492,824 | -34% |
| Fuel volume (gallons) | ~219,000 | 170,526 | -22% |
| Inside sales (non fuel) | ~$913,619 | $504,541 | -45% |
| Prepared food (breakfast + burgers / deli + pizza) | $212,334 | $74,251 | -65% |
The 2023 figures tie exactly to the owner P&L "Daily" total of $1,714,492.81. The 2023 register used "Breakfast" and "Burgers" keys for hot food; 2024 and 2025 use "Deli" and "Noble Roman's." Confirm the category mapping in diligence, but the direction is unambiguous: prepared food has contracted by roughly two thirds, consistent with the seller's own description of a mismanaged store. That is the downside. It is also exactly where the largest upside sits.
The 2025 POS reports cigarettes at a loss of $6,838 on $105,317 of sales. The seller summary restates the category to a 15% margin, a positive $15,797, a swing of $22,635. In the prior brief this was an open question. The full income statements now close it.
The statements carry an explicit "Buy Down Income" line, the tobacco manufacturer rebate that never shows at the register. Across the periods provided it runs about $8,000 to $11,000 per year (for example $2,764.72 across four months in late 2024, and $1,766.24 across two months in early 2025). That is real money, and it is verified. It is also far smaller than the seller's $22,635 restatement implies.
| Cigarette contribution, reconciled | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| POS gross profit on cigarettes, 2025 | ($6,838) | verified POS |
| Plus documented buy down income (annualized) | ~$9,500 | verified stmts |
| Defensible trailing cigarette contribution | ~$2,662 | reconciled |
| Seller's restated cigarette contribution | $15,797 | seller |
| Overstatement embedded in the headline NOI | ~$13,135 | adjust |
The path from breakeven cigarettes to a true 15% margin is real, but it is a buyer value add through retail repricing and full rebate capture, not a trailing fact. The monthly POS confirms the volatility: cigarette margin ran from positive 8.1% in October 2024 to negative 10.9% in February 2025. Retail pricing discipline is clearly part of the opportunity.
We start at the seller's stated net income and apply two adjustments the actual records support. Both are shown openly. Neither is a deal killer. Together they set an honest entry basis.
The fuel margin is the one seller figure that holds up well. The income statements show actual gas purchase costs producing roughly 8% to 11.5% blended margin, which supports the stated $47,560. The card fee adjustment is an estimate flagged for diligence; the 2023 P&L booked $43,158 of card fees on $1.71M of sales, so the rate is real and the 2025 capture looks light. The negotiation insight: the roughly $25,000 of NOI between our underwrite and the seller's headline is worth close to $295,000 of value at an 8.5% cap. That gap is the conversation.
| Operating expenses (2025 seller basis) | Amount | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Payroll plus taxes | $71,124 | single coverage |
| Electricity, water, phone, trash, security | $27,540 | verified range |
| Office, store, supplies, bank fees | $13,872 | light on cards |
| Property taxes | $5,835 | confirm |
| Insurance and workers comp | $5,000 | confirm |
| Maintenance | $1,200 | low |
| Total operating expenses (stated) | $124,571 | adjust up |
Payroll of $71,124 covers roughly single person coverage across the 5am to 8pm window, which implies the owner fills gaps. A fully passive structure should budget added management labor. The 2023 P&L also shows a $55,906 mortgage payment, so the seller carries debt on the property; that is financing, separate from the operating return shown here. Rental income from the tenant was $10,800 in 2023 and is carried at $11,400 in the seller summary.
This is the lever that costs almost nothing to pull and carries the highest margin in the building. The equipment is installed, the brand is on the wall, the margins are documented by Noble Roman's, and this exact store has already proven the volume. It produced $27.93 in all of 2025.
Noble Roman's publishes product cost, royalty, and suggested retail by item. The grab and go individual 7 inch pizzas, the core c store seller, run 71% to 74% margin. Breakfast sandwiches run 57% to 67%. Breadsticks run 75%. The blended program lands around 65% to 70%, well above the store's current 48% deli.
| Noble Roman's item | Total cost | Retail | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual 7" Pepperoni | $1.54 | $5.99 | 74.3% |
| Individual 7" Cheese | $1.29 | $4.99 | 74.1% |
| Medium 12" Cheese | $3.03 | $10.99 | 72.4% |
| Breadsticks with dip (3) | $1.01 | $3.99 | 74.6% |
| Stromboli | $2.11 | $7.49 | 71.8% |
| Breakfast pizza | $1.96 | $5.99 | 67.3% |
| Large 14" Cheese | $4.59 | $13.99 | 67.2% |
| Biscuits and gravy | $1.73 | $4.99 | 65.2% |
Noble Roman's markets the program as low labor by design: quality locked crusts, color coded build charts, and a ten minute custom bake. Breakfast items also pull coffee sales, where this store already runs a 94% margin.
Noble Roman's quotes a non traditional store start up at $32,190, of which $21,290 is equipment and $3,400 is signage. At Panther, the photos and listing show that equipment and signage already installed. The buyer inherits the expensive part for free.
| Pizza activation scenario (incremental over today) | Added sales | Margin | Added GP | Less labor | Net add |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative · light grab and go program | $50,000 | 65% | $32,500 | ($12,000) | ~$20,500 |
| Base · recover toward 2024 run rate | $90,000 | 67% | $60,300 | ($18,000) | ~$42,300 |
| Restoration · back toward 2023 hot food level | $138,000 | 65% | $89,700 | ($28,000) | ~$61,700 |
Incremental over the current $74,251 of prepared food, so there is no double counting with the baseline NOI. The restoration row is anchored to the verified 2023 hot food sales of $212,334, which proves the ceiling is real at this exact location. Even the conservative case nearly doubles the trailing pizza and deli contribution within twelve months for roughly $12,500 of activation cost.
Diligence: confirm Noble Roman's franchise status and the reactivation pathway, equipment condition, and the hot food health permit.
Pizza, covered on the prior tab, is lever one. The car wash is lever two and the only one needing capital, with the costly part already built. The rest are operational and layered on a verified baseline, never priced into the ask.
The bay is built, with plumbing and electrical in place per the listing. The car wash produced exactly $0 in 2023, which the owner P&L confirms, so this is pure untapped upside rather than a number to defend. The only missing piece is wash equipment or a tenant.
| Modeled path | Capex | Revenue | Op cost | Net add |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Equip the bay · self serve or in bay automatic | $45K-$80K | $44K-$66K | ~35% | $28K-$43K |
| Lease the bay · operator or storage use | $0 | $9K-$18K | minimal | $9K-$18K |
Equip path builds permanent value into the real estate and earns recurring high margin revenue with low labor. Lease path turns an idle bay into income today with no capital out. The listing already names additional rental use as an option, so both doors are open.
Separate from the rebate. The raw register loss signals retail prices set too low. Pricing discipline recovers margin directly, with no new product.
Seller is obtaining it. Beer already does $28,561 at 21% margin. Spirits expand the category and lift margin per ticket.
Open 5am to 8pm today on a commuter corridor. The 8pm to 11pm fuel, coffee, and food window is left on the table.
None in place. A fresh branded or unbranded contract on 136,887 regular gallons has immediate margin impact and may carry image funding.
Every figure here is Modeled and depends on operator execution. Ranges are anchored to this store's verified economics and verified 2023 history, and never added to the price. See how it reads at the close.
The location is the reason the decline reads as operational rather than structural. The fundamentals under this address are intact and growing. Figures below are U.S. Census ACS and public corporate and municipal sources, dated where relevant.
We are not hiding the competition. We are showing it, because once you see who they serve, it stops being a threat. The nearest large player is a truck stop on the highway. Panther is a neighborhood store on the parkway. Those customer bases coexist.
A 24/7 travel center with truck parking, six diesel bays, showers, and Chester's Chicken and Godfather's Pizza. It serves interstate and trucker traffic. Its arrival was framed locally as a growth anchor for the area, not a neighborhood competitor.
Big box grocery and branded fuel along the corridor. They pull planned shopping trips and pull through fuel. They do not own the daily, in and out, neighborhood convenience trip that defines Panther's base.
The local stop for residents, school traffic, trades, and commuters. Morning coffee, breakfast, tobacco, cold drinks, and prepared food on a repeat basis. This is the customer the pizza line is built to serve.
The honest read for Eric: competition here is real but not the constraint on this asset. The constraint was operation. A travel center and a neighborhood store fish in different ponds, and the demographic and traffic base supports both. Close it out.
Buy near the trailing number, not the headline. Our honest underwrite is about $85,551 of NOI, a 7.8% RE inclusive cap, on a store that has slipped 42% in two years. That is the risk, stated plainly. The reward is the range above it: with the installed pizza line, the ready car wash bay, and cigarette repricing activated, the forward picture moves toward $120K to $180K of NOI, a 10.9% to 16.4% cap. This exact asset rang $1.71M in 2023 with $212K of hot food, the corridor has a 35,000 person payroll behind it, and the decline is operational. The fix is operational. The price should reflect today, and the upside belongs to whoever turns it back on.
Sequenced and led by the items that actually move value. We would rather hand you the questions than let you find them late.
Tobacco buy down statements, two to three years. Confirm the annual rebate and reconcile the cigarette line. This sets the trailing NOI.
Full card processing statements. Confirm true card fees against the light office and bank bucket. This is the second NOI adjustment.
Prepared food category mapping, 2023 to 2025. Confirm how breakfast and burgers map to deli and Noble Roman's, to validate the restoration ceiling.
Federal tax returns, two to three years. Tie net income to filings and confirm the decline trajectory has stabilized.
Fuel invoices and supply status. Validate gallons, grades, the blended margin, and confirm no supply agreement is in place.
Noble Roman's reactivation and Phase I. Franchise status and equipment condition, plus standard AL ADEM underground storage tank compliance.
Panther Quick Stop represents an opportunity to acquire a strategically located convenience and fuel real estate asset within the growing Columbus, Phenix City, and Smiths Station corridor. The property's value is supported by recurring commuter traffic, expanding residential density, established operating history, and the potential to structure long term operator tenancy, creating durable cash flow backed by a necessity based retail use.