Upgrade existing site or build new express?

One of my locations is a busy 6 bay SS. It does well but I want to expand on it. I also own a commercial building next door that I currently lease out. Each parcel is roughly 1/2 acre and square so in total 1 acre that is twice as long as it is wide. Good traffic count on corner lot. I am contemplating tearing down the building next door and building a freestanding double iba setup and updating the SS, or tearing it all down and building an exterior express, or ending lease and converting building into hand wash/detail business. Resort town, 50k population, competition is one gas station iba 2 blocks away, 8 bay SS with detail shop about a mile away, tunnel (poorly run) about a mile away, 5 bay SS on other side of town, and 5+2 SS/IBA on other side of town. None of the SS are as busy as mine but the 2 IBA's at the SS across town seem to be fairly busy even though I hear they do not clean well and the operator over there is a known a-hole to customers. What would you do?

Your commercial property lease is 'mailbox $$'. NEVER give that up. Especially to create a PITA biz like detail / hand wash. Too much hassle with employees and customers vs. a regular lease payment automatically showing up each month.

I'm in detailing; I know. Love the biz, but recognize the hard parts.

I would rehab your car wash. Add a Washworld Razor machine in place of 1 SS bay. Redo your wall interior bay paneling, Have Credit cards accepted everywhere. Add an APP like Touch4Wash or Coinless. Redo your landscaping and / or parking lot and Signs. Add some LED lot lights, solar lights in places like over vacs.

I already have throughput issues with just the SS bays. Converting one would exacerbate the problem and keep me pissed off all the time. I would convert a bay or 2 if I could figure out a way to keep stacking room open.

And the mailbox money isn't that great compared to what a freestanding double iba would bring in even after debt service.

I’d go IBA and go big on the rehab.
While I could be wrong it doesn’t sound like the area had huge demand for an express.

Main Street Carwash said:

One of my locations is a busy 6 bay SS. It does well but I want to expand on it. I also own a commercial building next door that I currently lease out. Each parcel is roughly 1/2 acre and square so in total 1 acre that is twice as long as it is wide. Good traffic count on corner lot. I am contemplating tearing down the building next door and building a freestanding double iba setup and updating the SS, or tearing it all down and building an exterior express, or ending lease and converting building into hand wash/detail business. Resort town, 50k population, competition is one gas station iba 2 blocks away, 8 bay SS with detail shop about a mile away, tunnel (poorly run) about a mile away, 5 bay SS on other side of town, and 5+2 SS/IBA on other side of town. None of the SS are as busy as mine but the 2 IBA's at the SS across town seem to be fairly busy even though I hear they do not clean well and the operator over there is a known a-hole to customers. What would you do?

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Hi Main Street Carwash!

Sounds like exciting options. As Waxman mentioned, Coinless is an option you might consider to create an even better customer experience, creating more loyal customers. One of the differentiators found in the Coinless solution, is the way we handle customer wash credits. Whether they earn credits through our loyalty or Wash Club programs, or just pre-pay to have loaded credits, those credits are treated like dollars. This means the solution works for all services at your wash, not just a single service. A customer can spend her credits on SS bays on day, and IBA the next, and vacuums every time. We also offer "conditional-free pricing". Which means you can offer something like "Free washes with every Automatic Wash Purchase".

Our monthly subscription program is abuse-proof and our focus on customer experience as we designed the app interface has earned us a 4.6 rating on the iOS store--better than any other app in the car wash industry (that we've found).

I'd love a chance to chat if you think this would be a good fit for you business.

Best luck and keep us posted on what you decide to do. (We own SS/IBA washes too.)