| Metric | Details |
|---|---|
| Entity / Legal Name | Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores, Inc. |
| Ownership | Love family (privately held since 1964) |
| S&P / Moody’s Rating | Not Rated (private company) |
| Investment Grade Status | Private / Not Rated |
| Sector | Truck Stop / Highway Convenience & Fuel |
| US Location Count | ~620 |
| Cap Rate Range | 5.5–6.75% |
| Typical Lease Term | 15–25 years (Absolute NNN) |
| Guarantee Type | Corporate (Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores, Inc.) |
| Typical Building Size | 8,000–15,000 SF (travel stop); larger campus formats |
| Annual Revenue | ~$26B+ (FY2024 est.) |
| Typical Price Range | $3,000,000–$8,000,000 |
Love’s Travel Stops Business Overview & NNN Investment Profile
Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores is one of the largest privately held companies in the United States, operating approximately 620 travel stop locations across 42 states. Founded in 1964 by Tom Love and his wife Judy in Watonga, Oklahoma, the company has remained family-owned and privately operated for over 60 years. Love’s is the third-largest US travel stop network behind Pilot Flying J and TravelCenters of America, with a business model that integrates fuel, convenience retail, restaurant brands (Hardee’s, Subway, Chester’s Chicken), truck repair (Speedco and Love’s Truck Care), and overnight parking for commercial truckers.
Love’s Travel Stops Credit Profile: Qualitative Strengths
Love’s represents one of the most compelling unrated NNN opportunities in the convenience and fuel sector. The company’s private family ownership has enabled a long-term strategic orientation that avoids the leverage typically associated with PE-backed competitors. Love’s has expanded consistently and profitably through multiple economic cycles including the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic — periods when trucking demand proved remarkably resilient as supply chains required continuous movement.
The commercial trucking customer base is a meaningful credit differentiator. Unlike consumer-facing convenience stores that are sensitive to gasoline price volatility and consumer discretionary spending, Love’s generates substantial revenue from professional truckers who have non-discretionary fuel and rest stop needs. Truck repair through Speedco and Love’s Truck Care adds high-margin, recurring service revenue that online competitors cannot replicate. The company’s highway interchange locations — typically on Interstate exits with limited nearby competition — create location-specific moats that support long-term occupancy viability.
Love’s NNN Lease Structure
Love’s Travel Stop NNN leases carry 15 to 25 year absolute NNN terms with annual escalations. The larger-format travel stop campus — including fuel canopy, main building, truck lanes, and often attached restaurant spaces — creates significant tenant improvement investment that supports long-term lease commitment. Standard highway interchange locations are purpose-built for the travel stop format, limiting practical alternative uses and reinforcing the tenant’s long-term commitment to the site.
Love’s NNN Cap Rate & Pricing Trends
Love’s Travel Stop NNN properties trade at cap rates between 5.5% and 6.75% as of Q1 2026. The unrated private company credit commands a modest premium over rated investment-grade fuel operators, but the institutional scale, 60-year track record, and essential highway infrastructure positioning support tighter pricing than smaller unrated regional operators. Campus-format travel stops with long remaining lease terms in high-traffic Interstate corridors price at the tighter end.
Comparable NNN Tenants
| Comparable Tenant | Rating | Cap Rate Range |
|---|---|---|
| 7-Eleven | A / Baa2 | 5.0–6.0% |
| Murphy USA | BBB+ / Baa2 | 5.5–6.5% |
| Wawa | Private / NR | 5.5–6.5% |
Is Love’s Travel Stops investment grade?
Love’s does not carry a published investment grade credit rating due to its private ownership. The company’s approximately $26 billion in annual revenue, 620 locations, 60-year family ownership track record, and essential highway infrastructure positioning provide strong qualitative credit indicators, but published ratings from S&P or Moody’s are not available.
Who owns Love’s Travel Stops?
Love’s Travel Stops has been privately owned by the Love family since Tom and Judy Love founded the company in 1964 in Watonga, Oklahoma. The company remains 100% family-owned with no outside investors or PE ownership, which enables the long-term operational orientation that underpins its credit quality.
What cap rates are Love’s Travel Stop NNN properties trading at?
Love’s NNN properties trade at 5.5% to 6.75% as of Q1 2026. The institutional scale and 60-year track record support tighter pricing than smaller unrated convenience operators. Highway interchange campus formats with long remaining lease terms command the tightest spreads.
Convenience store and fuel station properties carry significant accelerated depreciation potential. Under IRS rules, qualifying gas station and c-store buildings can be classified as 15-year property rather than 39-year, making the entire structure eligible for 100% bonus depreciation in Year 1. Underground storage tanks, fuel dispensing systems, canopy structures, and refrigeration equipment add further reclassification value. See our full analysis: Gas Station and C-Store NNN Bonus Depreciation Guide.
The Only Love’s Travel Stops NNN Advisor Whose Fee Comes From the Deal, Not From You
In NNN buyer representation, the listing broker typically pays a cooperating commission to the buyer’s broker. On the majority of transactions, this means there is no separate fee to you as the buyer. Where a cooperating commission is not available, our compensation is agreed upon with you in advance so there are never surprises.
Find It — Love’s NNN properties sourced with Interstate corridor analysis, traffic count review, and lease term confirmation before you commit.
Fund It — Unrated institutional-scale private operator. We match lenders who understand this specific credit profile and highway convenience format.
Exit It — Selling a Love’s Travel Stop asset? We know the institutional and individual buyer pools for highway convenience NNN.
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Own a Love's Travel Stops Property? Capital Markets Strategies Beyond Selling
Maturing debt and considering refinancing? Our capital markets team maintains 150+ lender relationships underwriting NNN properties across investment-grade and non-investment-grade credit tiers. We structure rate-and-term refinancing, cash-out refis, and bridge-to-perm takeouts.
Evaluating a 1031 exchange or disposition? We represent both sides of Love's Travel Stops NNN transactions — whether you are looking to exit at peak value, exchange into a higher-quality credit tenant, or reposition within the same sector.
Need a current valuation? We maintain live comps on Love's Travel Stops NNN transactions and can produce a Broker Opinion of Value within 48 hours reflecting today’s cap rate market.
Own multiple Love's Travel Stops properties? Considering an off-market sale?
Investment Grade represents owners on confidential disposition of Love's Travel Stops portfolios and individual properties through off-market direct-to-principal distribution to specialty REITs, private equity funds, and family offices. Love's Travel Stops buyer demand runs deep, and portfolio sales consistently produce stronger pricing than sequential individual sales because the institutional buyer pool is structured around portfolio acquisition.
For multi-property owners considering a portfolio disposition, see Selling Investment Grade NNN Off-Market: Tenant-by-Tenant Buyer Demand. For the full off-market framework covering individual property dispositions, sale-leasebacks, and 1031 coordination, see Off-Market CRE Sales: The Complete 2026 Guide.
The pre-listing conversation is at no cost and fully confidential. Email team@investmentgrade.com or see contact Investment Grade.
