Food Chain

Site Selection Slice of Life A Car Wash and Detail Center DownTown
By: Lance Winslow

There is a continual trend we are seeing which I can remember participating in over a decade ago when cities were trying to figure out how to increase sales tax revenues when the large box stores outside of town came into nearby or surrounding areas. For instance a big and easy example would be WalMart. Sam was smart and built his stores just outside of town near towns which drew from neighboring towns of 5000 or more from three to five directions. If you look at an over lay of WalMart stores to an atlas of that state you will see the rural America can get anything they need at the best price without driving all that far.

Unfortunately that awesome distribution system that Sam designed which accounts for nearly 12% of all retail sales in America today also made it tough for less efficient small town business owners on Main Street USA to compete. Since then many small towns have found a way to bring back and revitalize there towns. It is estimated that with 510 million most towns can totally revitalize their down town sectors and that maybe about the same amount of fees and permits to build the WalMart in the first place. Since 1980 an estimated 19 billion dollars has been spent on such revitalization of down towns and made them a place to meet shop hang out and go.

Just like the song Down Town everythings great when youre downtown great song and that is the goal. It is a feeling a place to be a destination location. And it has just about everything you could want that is everything you cannot find at the mall or at WalMart. Sure many of the typical stores have gone out. Such as the stationary stores photo developing pharmacy video rentals sports equipment auto parts grocery pet stores etc. But you can shop for antiques something to eat a movie used books lots of items that work well in that setting and many types of businesses which cater towards those types of atmospheres. Such as Starbucks certain food places and small mom and pop shops florists gifts specialty entertainment/liquor establishments restaurants. If you look at cities like Pittsburgh for example you will see a wellserved and thriving downtown area. In other cities you see a combo mix and made up facade downtown of tiltups prefab buildings I can think of many like the Limited Groups Downtown area in North Columbus OH and it is hopping with people and spending. A place to go and it works.

But many so many smaller towns have done well to rebuild the downtown areas where for lease and out of business signs abound. Why Well all money made in town leaves town it does not stay to re circulate. Just like those who get a paycheck in the big city have moved to the suburbs and therefore the subs get the first use of that flow of money. Why Well city planners in the subs attract through incentives car dealerships and other such businesses and put them on the main roads surrounding the residential areas of single family dwellings and then allow multifamily town homes apartments etc on the same main thoroughfares one city I recently reviewed in CA had done exactly that. These areas of businesses surrounding the residential areas serve as a net to trap the money from leaving their area. Well the downtown revitalization tries to do the same thing attract people into the area to hang out and enjoy themselves and thus have time to spend their money.

If you look at this city Windsor CA you can see some of our observations: Now then some might think people in CA are all a bunch of Hippie Dippies. Such as the Cheech and Chong Comedy team but as a whole People in CA are generally smarter than most due to oxygen level as most live near or around sea level. Better weather makes year round activities and human interaction easier and therefore more is learned both academically physically observationally and literally. So it is not much different than a city in Mass NJ VA but with more ideal weather. The town of Windsor is an okay town. We have no problem with it. Some of everything there. Protectionism and good ole boy networking alive and well this can be to your advantage by working the system a little and being in the right nonprofit groups. It is doable. But it is not worth the headaches for our company to participate in anyway due to the CA mentality on business. These good ole boy networks want to make money in their downtown businesses but do not often allow the progress to revitalization until which time they get off their butts and visit a town which has revitalized their down town then they immediately go and join the Main Street Program which currently has nearly 1800 communities which participate in it and they are really learning a lot from each other as to what works and what does not.

I recently visited Franklin TN where the downtown was cooking along as a matter of fact you could smell the aroma from nearby restaurants see a movie get a beer or your favorite rendition of a Latte. If this is your dream to put in a car wash near downtown go for it. But watch out for the traps. Environmentalists who do not understand the cleanliness of the industry or water usage. Underground tank rules with regards to fuel or reclaim tanks. Labor issues if you do more than coinop automatic. Full serves are loved by customers if excellent quality prevails there but a crew that has part time drug users can ruin your business quickly. Labor will be an issue. Regarding a location in the town of Windsor as this study samples example:

http://www.ci.windsor.ca.us/LandUseMap.pdf

Notice the orange areas which would mean that it is zoned service area least amount of issues with planning commission and easiest to get passed easily. Also near the mid center off ramp. Near the Retail Center looks like a regional mall near there is best on main road but have to find an open location with no center medians. Looks like traffic issues there notice the FWY interchange signaled intersections. It is not near downtown at all but would serve a small business owner better than a downtown revitalized area. A detail shop would be a better use of a closed down town area gas station fixed up real nice. I have seen plenty in FL GA SC AL TN but also in Gold Rush Towns of CA in the rural towns of north Washington state. Also your volume will come from a 10mile radius and you would be better served in the Suburban area near box stores QSRs and strip malls. The demographics are good where in Windsor lots of Bay Area rich refugees who bought right and modified their town. Took an existing town and developed the hell out of it driving up property values and still a revitalized down town would draw them in and with their money they would spend.

In Windsor CA if you end up North West side where all the orange is there could be issues with visibility and you could be cut off by CStores with rollovers car wash for $3.99 with