Car washes are proliferating across Toledo, led by well-financed national operators willing to spend $5 million-plus per location to provide consumers with a clean, snazzy experience.
But some residents and municipalities are sounding the alarm that car washes are multiplying too quickly.
This month the Perrysburg City Council voted 4-2 to impose a two-year moratorium on new car washes after the planning and zoning department recommended the pause.
And regular and occasional customers of the iconic Uncle John’s Pancake House, a fixture in Toledo’s Westgate shopping district for 60 years, are up in arms over the possibility the restaurant could be sold and razed to make way for car wash vacuums planned by a national operator next door.
Perrysburg approved the moratorium because of the belief that the city has enough car washes to conveniently serve residents, said Brody Walters, Perrysburg planning and zoning administrator.
Moreover, if new locations cause older car washes to go out of business, the city will be left with a building “not easily repurposed” for another use, he said.
And they might need some light environmental clean-up for redevelopment due to chemicals used for car washing and oil deposited by cars going through over the years.
Mr. Walters said Perrysburg has seven car washes inside Perrysburg and another five within a mile of the city limits. Those include the grand opening late last year of a Clean Express Auto Wash in Perrysburg Township, the fourth location around Toledo by the regional operator.
Given that number, he said council “was not convinced” additional car washes are needed in Perrysburg at the moment. The moratorium runs until Dec. 31, 2024, when the situation can be revisited.
Houston-based WhiteWater Express Car Wash entered the Toledo market a year ago through the acquisition of two-location Russ’ Car Wash in Toledo.
WhiteWater, which is financially backed by two private equity firms, is building its third Toledo location in Oregon and preparing to start construction of its fourth location not far from one of the former Russ’ car washes in the Westgate shopping district, said Chief Financial Officer Henry Shine.
It’s at that location at 3125 Secor Road that WhiteWater wants to buy the popular Uncle John’s Pancake House and tear it down so more than a dozen outdoor vacuums can be installed for customer convenience. The restaurant's owner, Sal Tubeileh, is pondering WhiteWater’s buyout offer. He has owned Uncle John’s for 11 years.
WhiteWater operates 88 locations nationally and has 16 more car washes currently under construction, he said.
Toledo is right in the middle of a region targeted by WhiteWater between Cincinnati, where the company entered Ohio through an acquisition, and East Lansing, home of Michigan State University.
Mr. Shine, who lived in Fort Wayne, Ind., said northwest Ohio is fertile ground for additional stores based on a formula that says a new store can be successful if planted in an area with a population of about 20,000 per car wash.
WhiteWater is far from the only national operator attracted to the area. Car Wash USA Express, a national leader in the industry, is competing for locations with WhiteWater and Clean Express Auto Wash, among others.
Etna, Ohio-based Clean Express has four Toledo area locations and a fifth under construction.
Mr. Shine said car washes can be profitable for operators offering consistent washes, an attractive appearance and lighting, free vacuuming, handy interior cleaning products, and monthly subscriptions.
Those subscriptions provide a consistent stream of revenue to the operator that is not weather dependent, while offering customers unlimited monthly washes for the cost typically of less than two independent washes, he said.
Good car wash operators can earn a double-digit return on capital invested, Mr. Shine said. That equates to a profit of $500,000 or more annually on a store that costs $5 million to build and equip.
WhiteWater will have 15 vacuums for customer convenience at its upcoming location at 5762 Central in Sylvania Township and 18 vacuums at its Oregon location when it opens, Mr. Shine said.
WhiteWater owns car washes in Bowling Green, Lima, and through Toledo from Cincinnati along the way north through Adrian and Coldwater to East Lansing.
Chris and Katie Nagle of Perrysburg teamed with some friends and family to buy Ultra Car Wash in Perrysburg about 10 months ago from long-time owner Mike and Kristen Mori, also of Perrysburg.
Mr. Nagle, who once was an executive for car wash equipment supplier, said he lost out to national operators on five lots he tried to buy to build a car wash locally before negotiating the deal for Ultra.
“That turned out to be a blessing,” he said of losing the other sites because of how much the Nagles are enjoying running Ultra.
He said one of the reasons car washes are springing up is that they use a simple template to build and equip. All the operator needs to get going is the money, he said.
Mr. Nagle, 55, said his group paid the full list price of $1.7 million to buy Ultra.
And it has spent another $500,000 in upgrades that include a new conveyor, multi-color lighting in the wash tunnel, plastic panels on the walls to facilitate maintenance, and equipment to apply ceramic and graphene coatings on cars to protect them.
The next big investment is $200,000 to install nine outdoor vacuums, he said.
Mr. Nagle said Ultra’s address at 12795 Eckel Junction Road is a good, not great, location just a quarter mile away from an optimal intersection at Eckel Junction and Dixie Highway where nearly 30,000 vehicles pass every day.
But what makes Ultra a good investment are the employees that stayed on after the acquisition, including long-time general manager Shawn Koenig, as well as ties to Perrysburg schools and the community that are invaluable.
He said school sports teams and local clubs hold fundraisers at Ultra frequently and collect anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $2,000 in tips for toweling off customers’ cars and helping serve.
Ultra has rebranded its signs and marketing materials to reflect the colors and image of a yellow jacket, which is the logo of Perrysburg High School.
Mr. Nagle last week had to excuse himself from an interview so he could get to a luncheon meeting to possibly sponsor a summer basketball camp at the high school.
To promote the monthly membership trend, Ultra has slightly raised prices for individual washes while lowering them on memberships, he said.
Mr. Nagle said he had nothing to do with the city’s decision to place a two-year moratorium on new car washes. But he said he is appreciative of the opportunity to re-establish the business over the next two years without additional national players breathing down his neck.
At the end of the day, Ultra may not make quite the margins of the national operators, he said.
But the business is doing fine financially, Mr. Nagle said. And his wife is working and he plans to go out in the near future and find another management job because the current team at Ultra is running the shop so smoothly.
“Not all our goals are financial,” he said.
First Published January 28, 2023, 7:00 p.m.
