Puttin’ On the Glitz
Suburban Chicago carwash outshines them all

What do you do when the planning and zoning boards of several affluent Chicago suburbs won’t listen to your carwash development plan, believing that a carwash isn’t what their town needs? If you’re Nick and Anthony Spallone, you develop a carwash plan that’s so luxurious and out of the ordinary, city officials just can’t say no.

“When we would arrange preliminary sit-downs with some of these cities and we would tell them we were planning a carwash, they would immediately throw up the wall. They didn’t want it or they said they didn’t have the zoning for it,” Nick says. “We finally got wise and told them we couldn’t reveal the plan over the phone. Once we showed them our presentation in person, they would literally work with us to get the project done.”

The Spallone brothers have been in the carwash business since 1989, but they didn’t start building what they describe as the “Taj Mahal” of carwashes until 2002. With the help of a private investor, Chuck Molnar, the Spallones have created one of the most luxurious and impressive carwashes in the world in Des Plaines, Ill.

The latest Boardwalk location is a 9,800-square-foot conveyorized hand wash. The “California-style” hand wash is located on nearly two acres, and by spring 2005 will include a three-hole executive golf course, complete with a pond and sandbar.

When designing the carwash, the Spallones wanted customers to feel like they were walking into the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. Inlaid Italian tile downstairs and hardwood floors on the second level certainly add to this illusion. Customers can visit the upscale deli and sit-down cafe while waiting for their cars or play a short game of golf outside.

The cost of all this luxury was upward of $7 million. The golf course alone will cost $1.5 million, Nick says.

“We felt that someone needed to take the Motel 6 out of the carwash industry and give people the Taj Mahal,” Nick says. “By building this extravagant hand carwash and being competitive with other auto washes, I feel that soon this will be the only way people will want to wash their cars.”

The cost of the basic Boardwalk carwash is $10. This price includes the wheels, tires, door and trunk jambs, outside windows and drying. If customers say that Boardwalk’s prices are higher than a competitor’s prices, employees point out that other carwashes don’t clean tires and wheels.

“We have copies of our competitors’ brochures and show customers that at Boardwalk, you get the complete wash,” Nick says. “We don’t think a car is completely clean unless you clean all of it, including wheels and tires.”

For $15, customers can get the services of the $10 wash plus inside windows and a vacuum. Depending on the day, four to five employees are in the tunnel hand-washing cars that travel along the 100-foot conveyor. All the carwash equipment is by Sonny’s, and the tunnel was designed by Car Wash Services.

One arch applies triple foam, while three arches do the rinsing. The undercarriage wash, wheel and tire cleaning and drying are also automated, but the rest of the work is done by employees with elbow grease and wash mitts.

The carwash tunnel is equipped to wash up to 800 cars in a 12-hour day, but recent Chicago-area weather hasn’t brought quite that many vehicles to the carwash. Nick says Boardwalk has washed as many as 400 cars in a 12-hour day due to the uncooperative weather.

If they had to give up one part of the business, Nick says it would have to be carwashing. That’s because most of the location’s income comes from detailing cars. The price of the average detail is $235, and Boardwalk does a lot of detailing in its four detail bays. There are currently two detailing shifts, but plans are in the works for 24-hour detailing service to keep up with the demand.

“Detailing is a consistent business,” Nick says. “You’re constantly getting cars rain, sleet, shine or snow. In the carwash, it’s all weather-permitting.”

The detail shop, which is located underground, can do dent removal for $150 per panel (up to five dents) and paint touchup for $150 for the entire vehicle or $150 for a bumper.

While waiting for a detail, customers can surf the Internet, have a snack and a cup of coffee or, by next spring, play a short game of golf.

At one point, the Spallones had 12 carwashes under the Boardwalk name. These locations are owned and operated by other people, who only had three-year rights to the name Boardwalk. Those rights have expired on 11 of the washes, and soon the name Boardwalk will belong only to the luxurious Des Plaines location and five more sites which will be fully operational by 2006. The Spallones will own one of the locations, which is planned for Wheeling, Ill.

When business people contract with Boardwalk for a location, they own the property, building and equipment and the Spallones own the name. They basically franchise the rights to use the name Boardwalk.

The buildings of the new locations will be slightly larger than the Des Plaines site and will even include an elevator. Operators can choose to use the upstairs to house luxury offices or for more retail space.

When the Spallones first started building and selling carwashes, their average client was a person who could write a check for $200,000. This person borrowed money from banks or friends, took out second mortgages on their homes or had a partner or two. Now the Spallones are dealing with people who are coming from different industries—people who can write checks for $1 million.

“I’m dealing with a different caliber of people,” Nick says. “It’s more or less a status thing. These people are thinking, ‘I’m going to own a carwash, and it’s going to be the most luxurious one in the world.’”

Currently, the average land, building and equipment costs for a Boardwalk location are approximately $4.5 million, Nick says. That cost will go up to $6.5 million by next year. The Des Plaines location, which is the Boardwalk prototype, has all the bells and whistles and therefore cost more to build.

“Our building was considerably more due to our underground working area and golf grounds, ponds and fountains,” Nick says.

The Spallones don’t have to do any advertising to get people interested in buying a Boardwalk carwash. Word-of-mouth has brought carwash operators and investors from all over to Des Plaines to see their gorgeous creation.

“We’ve had visits from owners from all over the world and more than a half dozen states expressing their interest and complimenting us on the building and the business,” Nick says. “The best moment was when the owner of Fuller’s Car Wash, one of the biggest carwash owners in the state, visited with his son and management team and said that he was impressed. When we heard that, we knew we were headed in the right direction.”

With all they have accomplished so far, it’s hard to imagine that the Spallones could take Boardwalk to an even higher level. But the brothers have big plans for the Boardwalk name and hope that one day it will become a household word.

“Our objective is to build two locations a year, and by 2010 we want to go public and be the next Walgreens of carwashes—on every corner,” Nick says.

Next time you’re planning a trip, instead of staying at the Bellagio or Venetian hotels in Las Vegas, stop by the Des Plaines Boardwalk Car Wash. You may just think you’re in Vegas.

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