Looking Back at 23 Years in the Industry and Where It’s Headed
We are all privileged to be living in the “Golden Age” of the car wash industry. This era began back in 2001, the year that the highly innovative Benny’s Car Wash first opened its doors for business in Baton Rouge, Louisianna. Touted as the first real “Express” wash, this exceptional facility combined for the first time all of the elements that we are familiar with today: modern fully-automatic equipment, functional POS stations and entry gates, a ride-through wash tunnel, and plenty of free-vacuums for customers to use. Delivering speed, quality and convenience, Benny’s brought car washing up to a whole new level. Customers loved it, and wash operators took notice. But its incredible success did not happen overnight. In fact it was some 87 years in the making, and the result of decades of hard work and much trial and error by many of our industry pioneers. But once the concept proved successful, it provided an excellent road map of where the car wash industry was headed, and the catalyst for the spectacular growth we have all witnessed over the last 23 years of this new millennium.
By pure coincidence, 2001 is exactly when I designed my first car wash. Clients have asked me many times over the years how I got into the business, and while all of us in the industry have our “origin story” of how exactly it happened, mine was more of a case of good timing than anything else. It started right after New Year’s in 2001 when an old client of mine, David Daszkal, contacted me and asked me if I knew anything about car washes. Replying that I did not, he said he was thinking about opening one and would like to talk more about it when I got back home. At that time I was still in the US Naval Reserve on active-duty over in Stuttgart, Germany. I was there to work on serious post-war issues in the last major European conflict before Ukraine, the civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. I had already been directly involved in this terrible conflict before, stationed over in Brindisi, Italy in 1995 and in Vicenza, Italy in 1996-97. On this last tour I had to spend extended periods down in war-torn Sarajevo, Bosnia’s capital, a dangerous place to live and work in even in the post-war period. When this very difficult tour ended in late February 2001, I decided to finally retire from the Navy for good. That ended my six year-long sabbatical from my architectural career.
When I returned to my old architecture office in Boca Raton, Florida, the first project on my desk was designing this car wash. Of course I knew nothing about it, and the internet was still at its infancy with little information that could help me, so the owner and I went to look at other recently built car washes in the South Florida area to get ideas. Although new, these were all old school full-service type washes with the same basic layout established back in the 50’s. I recognized the layout since I had used these types of washes many times before in my life, all of them rectangular-shaped buildings lacking any style or customer appeal, and typically dirty in appearance. Not knowing any better, I thought this was the only way to design a car wash. Then David introduced me to a few senior guys at Sonny’s Car Wash Factory, which by dumb luck just happened to be only 40 minutes away from my office. There I met Herschel Kilgore, Wade Young, and of course Anthony Analetto. These three became my mentors. With their guidance I was able to quickly design a very attractive car wash for the owner with a highly functional layout and lots of curb-appeal to get customers in the door. This first wash, named Motor City Car Wash and located in Boynton Beach, Florida, was a full-service type but with all of the interior cleaning, vacuuming and wiping down combined after the wash tunnel. This new layout sped-up the wash process, but customers still exited their vehicles, walked through a lobby crammed full of items to buy, paid at a cashier, and then waited outside at picnic tables and benches to pick up their cars. While this was an improvement from the old traditional 50’s style wash and easier to manage, there was still too many employees and the processing time still way too slow. There had to be a better way.
Our company designed another 4 washes for this owner, making numerous improvements at every new location, along with another dozen or so full-service washes with similar layouts for other owners. In all of these we experimented with different architectural styles and building materials trying to find the perfect combination to both attract customers and reduce building and maintenance costs. Early in 2006 we designed our first “Flex” wash, Wadawash Car Wash located in Port Pierce, Florida. Placed on a very difficult star-shaped site, this design featured 125 foot long conveyor, Sonny’s equipment, 24 free vacuums, pay terminals and a ride-thru wash tunnel, along with a separate large full-service/detailing building and covered finish lanes. Possessing great stacking and excellent traffic flow, the layout was a vast improvement over the traditional full-service model. It also gave customers an exterior-only option allowing them to quickly get in-and-out in less than 5 minutes, a very popular feature. We followed up on this excellent design concept with a much larger and far more elaborate “super flex” facility in Boise, Idaho in 2010 called Fast Eddy’s Car Wash. Possessing an innovative highly functional site layout and eye-catching architectural design, this huge flex wash included 134 foot long conveyor, outstanding equipment (MacNeil), 4-bay interior full-service and detailing center (16 vehicle capacity), an attached 3-bay oil change (including one for RV’s), 22 free-vacuums, and a separate very large C-store/gas station (16 pumps) with drive-thru restaurant. We also designed a huge 3-lane POS pay structure out front near the main roadway that acted as a very distinctive architectural icon that could be seen more than a 1/4 mile down the street in either direction. The owner topped it off with 2 huge full-color digital signs like those in Vegas, along with a very bright multi-colored paint scheme. Overall a very elegant and highly attractive car-care facility that proved to be a real winner with customers and other wash operators that would fly-in to see it. Featured in Auto Laundry News on the November cover in 2012, this huge facility took car washing up to another level.
In 2012 we finally got the chance to design our first “Express” wash. Located near Dallas, Texas in the city of Rowlett, it was called Appleseed Car Wash (later Rev), the facility featured Belanger equipment, a 128 foot long conveyor, and 18 free vacuum spaces. It featured an attractive modern design with great traffic flow. At the same time we designed another location in the nearby city of Garland, this time on a larger site with a 150 foot long conveyor and some 30 free vacuum spaces. Both washes ended up being constructed at nearly the same time and came out great with a lot of positive feedback from customers. After these two washes were completed, the majority of our car wash design projects shifted from “Flex” type models to “Express” ones, a trend that has continued up until today.
Further developing the super flex wash concept that we had started with Fast Eddy’s, we then designed Canton Car Wash in White Marsh, Maryland in 2013. Located north of Baltimore just off of I-95, this incredible wash was a real machine with a 151 foot long conveyor, great equipment (Belanger), 3-bay interior full-service center (12 vehicle capacity), 22 free-vacuums, and a unique 12 vehicle detail area with a unique very large cantilevered steel shelter. This wash also featured the most elaborate and up-scale customer lobby we ever designed with a complete Starbucks-like coffee shop in it. Overall a very beautiful and classy wash that blew away the competition. This was followed by Soaring Car Wash in Elmwood Park, New Jersey in 2016, another huge flex wash with lots of curb appeal. It featured a 123 foot long conveyor, great MacNeil and AutoVac equipment, 3-bays full-service and detail lanes with 10 vehicle capacity, 16 free vacuum spaces, and an adjacent Wendy’s restaurant. The final design resulted in a stunning modern triangular-shaped building design that crushed the competition. This wash was also featured on the cover of Auto Landry News in November 2018.
After designing hundreds of Flex and Express washes of varies sizes and styles in more than 25 states and several countries overseas, we were finally contracted to design a true monster-sized express wash project in Boise, Idaho called Fast Eddy’s Car Wash 2. We had already designed a huge flex wash facility for the owner before, but this time he wanted an enormous “super express” wash and quick lube. Featuring a highly functional site layout and eye-catching architectural design, this massive express wash included side-by-side twin 160 foot long conveyors, two sets of outstand equipment (MacNeil), a 3-bay double-stacked oil change (6 vehicle capacity at a time), 40 free-vacuums (Vacutech), and a separate 12,000 s.f. 2-story C-store/gas station/offices (24 pumps) with drive-thru restaurant. Similar to the first Fast Eddy’s, it again featured a huge 3-lane POS pay structure out front near the highway and a very bright multi-colored paint scheme throughout that really brought the whole 5.5 acre complex all together. Featured in Auto Laundry News on the November cover in 2019, this massive express wash is by far one of the biggest and very best wash facilities ever created.
At present we have over a dozen car washes under construction in 5 different States, all Express washes. The best of these and my personal favorite, US Patriots Car Wash in Killeen, Texas, was featured on the cover of Auto Laundry News last year. A patriotic military-themed car wash with a modern very dynamic angular design and a bright red, white and blue paint job, will be very appealing to the tens of thousands of soldiers and civilian employees at the enormous US Army base located in town. The wash features a 136 foot long conveyor, great Belanger wash equipment, a roomy customer lobby to stash the kids, and a massive 36 free vacuum spaces to eliminate waiting even on the busiest days. Located at one of the very best corner properties left in the city, this incredible new facility will be a real shock to the competition once it opens.
So that brings us back to 2023, the difficult post-Covid era plagued with massive inflation, excessively high building costs, and soaring interest rates. Overall a challenging time for developing car wash projects, but also one with lots of opportunity to get ahead of the competition. And remember, things will certainly get better in the future… and with that in mind, where exactly is the car wash industry headed over the next 10 years? What will the future trends be? While not easy to predict exactly, there are already plenty of indicators showing us the way forward. Other recent articles covering this exact subject all spoke about exciting advances in equipment, chemicals, artificial intelligence, e-commerce, payment systems, and the overall quality/efficiency of the product… but they fell short in discussing the future of car wash design and development. Let’s cover these topics now.
General Direction – Future car wash development is projected to go in two different directions: First, very big sites (2 acres of more) with larger and more sophisticated building designs featuring longer wash tunnels (130 foot and up), more self-vacuums, and the return of more on-site ‘profit centers’. These will include quick lubes, window tinting, dent removal, stand-alone ice machines, tire sales, and perhaps even a coffee shop, C-store or laundromat; Second, much smaller sites with more cost-effective building designs featuring short wash tunnels (80 foot and smaller) and fewer self-vacuums. The popular ‘mini-tunnels’ will be a big part of this group. Building high quality small washes on petite sites (3/4 acre or less) will dramatically expand the number of available sites, especially in more developed urban areas.
Finding Sites – Even with the rapid proliferation of so many new car washes over the last decade, there will still be many good ‘A’ and ‘B’ sites available throughout the country. However you will have to do your homework to find them, and be willing to pay more. especially for really good sites. Vacant lots are going to be the most difficult to find, but there are plenty of existing empty restaurants, drug stores, and other small retail buildings that have gone out-of-business, many perfect for developing new wash facilities. The number of these types of available commercial properties is forecast to steadily increase in the future.
Building Design – In the future, competition will be even more intense than it is today. In order to compete and be successful, owners will have to develop cutting-edge modern wash facilities with exciting eye-catching architectural designs featuring buildings with lots of color and ambiance. These buildings will require highly functional floor plans to optimize wash efficiently and ease of operations. Room locations and their size are critical, with every room located exactly where it needs to be and of the correct dimensions… nothing too big or too small. Remember, every square foot counts, especially with the ever-increasing building costs. Another major requirement is an easy-to-navigate site layout that streamlines traffic flow and increases overall efficiency. This will get more customers on the site at the same time without disrupting wash operations or causing any accidents, while lowering labor costs by allowing a smaller staff to process a lot more vehicles with ease.
Return of the Flex – With greater market competition and the need to increase profits, the “Flex” model will be making a big comeback over the next ten years. There is already a strong customer demand for full-service and detailing services, especially since the vast majority of all new washes built over the last 10 years were “Express” models, leaving customers with few options. And while this requires a larger number of employees (along with the addition of a customer lobby and towel washing room), it also provides a much-appreciated big boost to overall net profits for owners. This could make all the difference in making-it or breaking-it in the future.
Consolidation – We have all witnessed the wild scramble of rapid consolidation in the wash industry over the last 10 years. These were primarily led by well-funded investment groups with little-or-no car wash experience and willing to buy existing washes at outrageous prices, and/or built new facilities at a breakneck pace simply to increase their market share and overall value. Once the wash chain was big enough and looked good on paper, they sold it off to another investment group, and the process started all over. This practice resulted in a lot of disruption in the industry with companies coming and going, but lately the rapid pace of consolidation has slowed down considerably, especially as cheap investment money has dried up and many banks have soured on car wash projects. However consolidation is projected to continue over the next ten years, creating ever larger wash chains, although at a much slower rate.
Finance – Leaving the most difficult part for last, so exactly where does the money come from? Not wanting to sugar-coat it, here’s what to expect in the future… First, money is going to be more difficult to get, and contrary to what most people think, interest rates will not be coming down anytime soon. Next, bank loans will be even harder to get and there will be a lot less investment groups looking to get into the market and partner-up. So in order to develop a new site, owners will have to be a lot more resourceful. The easiest and most viable options available is to either find an investment partner with the cash, or to do a “sale-leaseback” where the owner sells his new wash to an investment firm, removing his debt, and then leases it back from the same firm for a set period of time. This method has great tax benefits, a lower bar to qualify, and more favorable terms than traditional bank loans. We expect this method of project development to be very common in the car wash industry in the future.
In summary, the last 23 years have been a blast. Being there to both participate and witness car washing finally “coming into its own” has been really exciting… and this “Golden Age” is just getting started. The future of the car washing industry over the next 10 years looks extremely positive with lots of opportunity for operators big and small. However challenges will be great, and owners will have to adapt and innovate with the changing times in order to remain competitive… and investment in new cutting-edge facilities, equipment and technology will be key. Those who do not, will not make it.
Christopher Crawford is with Car-Wash-Architect.com. He has written numerous feature articles for this magazine over the last 14 years concerning the design and construction of new car washes projects. You can visit his company’s website for more information about the services they offer, or call them at (561) 212-3364.