This Former Michigan Rite Aid Building is Being Converted Into A Car Wash
It isn't the first drugstore-to-car wash conversion and likely won't be the last
The City Council of St. Clair Shores, Michigan has voted down special use approvals and zoning variances for several past car wash projects.
But one recent proposal for a car wash development met with resounding enthusiasm and approval from council members:
A proposed adaptive reuse of a shuttered Rite Aid.
“In the past, this Council has voted against car washes that appeared to be invasive to the surrounding neighborhood,” said Councilman Chris Vitale. “I don’t see that happening here so I am giving this an enthusiastic yes.”
Ohio-based Express Wash Concepts operates nearly 100 car wash sites throughout Ohio, Pennsyvlania, Virginia and Michigan.
And the fast growing company has nearly 50 more sites either under construction or in the development stage.
Express Wash’s plans for the former St. Clair Shores Rite Aid involve renovating the building into a single tunnel auto laundry facility with interior and exterior vacuum stations.
The car wash is to be completely contained within the building as vehicles will enter in its northeast corner and exit at the southeast corner.
The existing building walls and most of the windows will be retained and two overhead doors will be added to accommodate the passage of vehicles into and through the building.
Both interior and exterior vacuum stations will be available in the building and on the site.
The car wash chain is confident that the adaptive reuse will turn out well.
Express Wash should know - as the former St. Clair Shores Rite Aid will be the Company’s 4th conversion of a former drugstore building into a car wash.
Two of its most recent drugstore-to-car wash conversions were of a pair of former Rite Aids in the Greater Pittsburgh area.
And three years ago Express Wash completed its first drugstore-to-car wash adaptive reuse when it spent approximately $3 million to renovate, redevelop and fixture a former Walgreens building in South Euclid, Ohio as a car wash.
Like with the council members in St. Clair Shores, the Members of the Zoning Board of Appeals in South Euclid were initially reluctant to grant a special use variance to Express Wash as the site immediately abuts a residential area and community members were concerned about noise, traffic and odors that could emanate from a car wash at the site.
But the South Euclid ZBA ultimately elected to issue the conditional use variance on one condition:
That Express Wash repurpose the existing Walgreens building rather than demolish it.
The ZBA apparently wanted to emphasize and encourage the adaptive reuse of vacant area properties as well as the preservation of existing buildings (even former drugstores that obviously don’t have architectural or historic relevance).
Plus the fully enclosed car wash within the existing building was likely to minimize or eliminate noise and odor concerns.
In any event, the successful conversion of these former Walgreens and Rite Aid buildings into car wash units is encouraging.
Hundreds of drugstores are expected to close in the coming years at the same time car wash unit growth accelerates throughout the country.
And with growing car wash chains like Express Wash demonstrating that they can efficiently and effectively reuse this former drugstore real estate, many more former drugstores may be successfully repurposed into car wash units.