Show Boat Car Wash - St. Augustine, Florida
Posted by: 
macleod1
N 29° 52.981 W 081° 19.488
17R E 468637 N 3305867
This unique building is located on Route 1 in St. Augustine, Florida.
Waymark Code: WM48C1
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 07/21/2008
Views: 157
We have passed this site for years and each time is like seeing it for the first time.
Web info:http://www.moderncarcare.com/articles/operator_profiles/689_661cover.html
Driving along Route 1 in St. Augustine, Fla., many travelers are pleasantly surprised to see an old-fashioned steamboat off the side of the busy highway. But this isn’t any ordinary riverboat. It’s Showboat Car Wash.
Built to look like it’s floating on water, Showboat lets customers feel like they’re stepping back in time to the days of Mark Twain and bustling river commerce. Only this river boat can give you a clean car. Showboat’s offerings include exterior-only carwashes with free vacuums and full-service washes.
The men behind Showboat are veteran operators Tom Duhon and Dave Danzeisen. The two teamed up a few years ago to build Showboat and opened the wash’s doors in 2005.
“There was a lot of curiosity about this place when we were building it. People thought it was going to be a restaurant,” said Danzeisen, who owns two other carwashes in Florida. He and Duhon had planned to build a Showboat location in Jacksonville—known as the River City. But when Duhon stumbled upon a nice piece of land in St. Augustine, their plans changed.
Duhon, a 23-year carwash industry veteran, also owns the popular Bubbles Car Wash, a full-service location in Jacksonville, Fla. that washes more than 90,000 cars a year.
“Showboat is built on a retention pond,” Duhon says. “You drive over a bridge to go into the carwash and to exit the wash. People just love it.”
The “boat” has all the details you would find on a real steamboat, including smoke stacks and tall staircases. Children and their parents love the experience of getting their car washed at Showboat.
While the carwash looks like it’s floating on water, it is actually surrounded by a 6-foot-deep, 8-foot-wide “moat.” The water, which is actually runoff from the location, never touches the building.
Showboat was modeled after Classic Car Wash in Campbell, Calif. But since Classic was built more than 40 years ago, the blueprints of the carwash were not available. So Duhon flew to California several times to photograph the building. He then took his more than 300 photos to an architect in St. Augustine who drew a set of plans for Showboat. The 8,000-square-foot wood structure sets on a one-acre lot. It has two entrances, so getting to the carwash is a breeze for customers.
Showboat has a 150-foot-long conveyor loaded with washing equipment from Sonny’s Enterprises and a touch-free dryer from Proto-Vest that dries the tops of large SUVs. Showboat was originally going to be an exterior-only carwash, but when a full-serve wash opened a few miles away just after Showboat opened, the partners decided to add full service to the offering. Ironically, the full-serve competitor closed his doors after only eight months of operation. Despite the failure of that wash, full service is still a popular choice for Showboat’s customers.
Prices at Showboat are $5, $8 and $10 for the three exterior wash packages. Customers can choose the full-service wash for an additional $15. Full service includes vacuuming, window cleaning and a hand dry.
Showboat is washing approximately 13,000 cars a month, an impressive number by any standards.
Duhon spends most of his time at Bubbles Car Wash in Jacksonville, which is 26 miles from St. Augustine. But Duhon was there almost every day when Showboat was being built. Danzeisen spends about 20 hours a week at Showboat, spending the rest of the time at his two other washes. Showboat manager Bradley McQueen runs the operation full-time.
People can’t help but stare at Showboat Car Wash. That’s part of the wash’s success, Danzeisen says.
“It’s really self-drawing,” he says. “The theme itself does work. There’s a lot of curiosity about the location. If you’ve got the right equipment and you do a good job, once you get them in the door they seem to come back.”
While the car wash looks like it’s floating on water near a dock, it was actually built on pilings. A retention wall keeps the water in place around the building. No part of the structure actually touches the water, but you can’t tell by looking at it.
The property, which encompasses an entire city block, is covered with trees. It is located about one mile from a Target store and near a major cross street. Its excellent location is a major part of the wash’s success, Duhon says.
It seems that everybody, including St. Augustine’s city officials, loves the carwash. The city of St. Augustine was a great help in getting the carwash built, Danzeisen said. City officials were willing to do what they could to help the carwash open.
“That’s really unusual,” Danzeisen says. “We were very lucky.”
Duhon and Danzeisen plan to build other Showboat locations. In fact, they are close to purchasing two properties and are also working with The Simon Group, a major mall developer, to build a Showboat location on a retention pond at one of the company’s Town Center projects.
The partners have several other theme concepts in the planning stages but plan to build more Showboat locations as soon as they can. However, they won’t build a Showboat car wash on just any site.
“Our philosophy is simple: pay the price for the right site or don’t build at all,” Duhon says. Danzeisen agrees.
“I once foolishly said I wouldn’t pay more then $750,000 for a piece of property,” he says. “The two pieces of property we’re looking at now cost $1 million and $1.5 million.”
The partners paid just over $800,000 for the St. Augustine property. Building the wash cost just over $1 million. The projected cost for the next Showboat location is $2.9 million. That’s money well spent, if you ask Showboat’s happy patrons.
“We feel that coming to this wash should be an enjoyable experience, so we tie in the nautical theme. That theme is even carried to our employees’ uniforms, which cost 400 percent more than the average car wash uniform. We also spend quite a bit of money on advertising,” Duhon says.
While exterior car washing is enjoying tremendous success these days, Duhon says full service is still in demand in his region of the country.
“The trend toward the express car wash has not diminished the desire and need for full service, at least not in our area. Every tunnel wash in our area up until now has been full service,” he says.
But Duhon says they are seeing a resurgence of the rollover car wash at convenience stores.
“The two major convenience store groups are building extremely attractive stores using high-end architectural firms that spare no cost,” he says. “They try to recoup some of these costs by installing rollovers. Although this is nothing new, the rebirth of the overall c-store image makes this combination very attractive to the public and a formidable competition for our exterior wash.”
Duhon says people who want to get into car washing today need to do their homework, including actually working at a car wash to gain some experience. Duhon worked at a car wash before he got into the business 23 years ago. Prior to moving to Florida from Pittsburgh in the early 1980s, Duhon had been in the restaurant business most of his life.
Duhon says new operators should also be prepared to work 12 to 14 hours a day for at least the first eight months after their car wash opens. He also suggests they seek advice on location and running a car wash from operators, not suppliers. While suppliers can be helpful with equipment, he says people who are actually running successful car washes are who newcomers need to talk to.
When it comes to building a new car wash, Duhon says new operators need to plan on spending about 25 percent in overrides above the original budget. They should also plan on being overcapitalized—$2 million to $3 million for land and the building is the norm today, he says.
Newcomers would be wise to listen to these two car washing veterans who are taking themed car washing to new heights. If you live in Florida, don’t be surprised if a Showboat Car Wash comes rolling into your town soon.
Building Address:
520 S Ponce De Leon Blvd
St. Augustine, Fl USA
32084
Is it open to the general public?: yes
When was it built? (Approximate if you must.): 01/01/2005
What is the name of this building?: Showboat Car Wash
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