Andrew Jaffa and his father, James, sold their four CarbuX express car washes at year-end 2016.
It didn’t take long to cycle back into the business.
Andrew Jaffa spent the interim developing CarwashU, a possible multisite project.
“I took a breather and I’ve been traveling around the country researching the latest and greatest in car washing,” Jaffa said.
The first CarwashU is designed on property the family owns at 6929 103rd St. in West Jacksonville.
A pending building permit shows a construction cost of $1 million on the almost 1.3-acre site.
Jaffa said Tuesday site work would start this week. “We are going to move quickly after that,” he said. He hopes to open by April.
It will be a 3-minute tunnel car wash, like some of the other new ventures in town.
It will be 106 feet long and can handle more than 1,000 cars a day “if we can ever get to those volumes.”
It also will offer free vacuum use and prices will be competitive with other car washes in town, he said.
Jaffa intends to offer monthly club memberships at $20-$35 for three levels of washes.
It also will be different.
“It will be a completely unique car-wash experience in Jacksonville,” he said.
“I am doing something very few people in the country are doing and no one in Jacksonville is doing,” he said.
Jaffa is keeping those differences quiet so he doesn’t tip off the competition.
He’s also building on what his family has learned over three decades in the industry.
“Basically, we are using our experience from washing over 3 million vehicles at CarbuX to create a unique washing experience that emphasizes speed, technology, and of course, fun,” he said.
Jaffa said he plans to introduce several new car-washing technologies to the Jacksonville market in addition to new service options.
The Jaffas sold their four CarbuX car washes in December to the Zips Express Car Wash chain.
The deal with Zips was that if it didn’t buy the 103rd Street property, the Jaffas could develop it.
The company decided not to, so the Jaffas did.
That led to the research.
“The car-wash landscape is different from when we sold,” Jaffa said.
He said CarbuX had been the only multisite express car wash in Jacksonville but no longer. For example, Zips expanded to seven sites, Gate Petroleum Co. is launching Gate Express Carwashes, Goo-Goo Car Wash will open at The Crossing at Town Center and plans more, and other companies are entering the area.
Jaffa said there still are “a lot of holes in this market.”
“We are going to try to find some of these areas of town that need a car wash,” he said.
Jaffa said what happened with coffee is happening with car washes.
“People weren’t going out and buying coffee 20 years ago,” he said. Now look at Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, convenience stores and other retailers selling java.
Jaffa said the car-wash market now is bigger; customer habits are changing and people are washing their cars more often; and the industry is making car washes more convenient.
“The more car washes there are, the more freely people will wash their cars,” he said.
The key is to be in their paths.
Jaffa said his family has a lot of experience washing cars, and he doesn’t want to compete head-to-head with another company.
“Car washes don’t do well next to each other,” he said, if they are the same.
However, there is a difference between a full-service and an exterior-only express car wash.
While Jaffa didn’t provide details about the equipment at CarwashU, he did hint at the culture.
At CarbuX, he allowed employees to wear caps from their favorite college sports teams. “It always created a lot of good will and conversations,” he said.
The “CarwashU” theme is efficient and allows flexibility in marketing, color section and other elements, he said.
“I think it’s fun,” he said.
He also wants to build more than one. “I don’t have a limit,” he said, but it will depend on locations.
“It needs to be where people live, work and shop,” Jaffa said.
He doesn’t look for bedroom communities or new development because there isn’t enough daytime traffic.
He doesn’t want to be the initial car wash in an area, either. “You don’t want to be the first business on the block,” he said.
Jaffa declined to estimate his investment in the first CarwashU. “We are using our knowledge of car washing to bring these in at a very favorable rate,” he said, calling the investment a trade secret.
Building plans show a 3,162-square-foot car wash and vacuums along 103rd Street east of Interstate 295.
Able Construction Inc. is the contractor. Fleet & Associates Architects, Planners Inc. is the architect and Lucas & Associates Inc. is the civil engineer.
James Jaffa, who goes by Jimmy, entered the self-serve car-wash industry in the late 1980s, Andrew Jaffa said, creating Century 21 Car Wash Inc. in 1987. He sold the three locations in the mid-1990s.
The Jaffas opened the full-service Baywash Car Wash in 1999 in Baymeadows. It was sold in 2003 but through several transactions it has become a Zips.
In addition to buying that and the Jaffas’ four locations, Zips also bought car washes on Blanding Boulevard and Atlantic Boulevard.
The Jaffas started the CarbuX express wash concept in 2005, opening first along San Jose Boulevard and then adding sites on Dunn Avenue, Beach Boulevard and Southside Boulevard.
Andrew Jaffa, 48, will be the primary developer for the CarwashU concept and his father will serve as a consultant.
“It’s a very entrepreneurial business, but it’s changing,” Andrew Jaffa said.
Nationwide, the car-wash industry has “been gobbled up with private equity.”
“It’s like a land grab between these companies to see who can buy these car washes,” he said.
Jaffa expects it could become tougher for all car washes to exist, but the large operators might face difficulty managing “these empires that stretch coast to coast.”
“It’s getting to be less mom and pop and more Wall Street,” Jaffa said.
“We’re still mom and pop.”