Hoffman Estates car wash transformation approved

A previously rejected proposal for the upgrade of a car wash in Hoffman Estates won unanimous approval from the village board Monday.

Palatine resident David Lieberman received a failing 3-3 vote from the board barely a month ago for his plan to transform the 61-year-old facility of the Golf Rose Car Wash near the southeast corner of Golf and Roselle roads into the state-of-the-art Route 58 Auto Wash by the end of the year.

But a slightly revised proposal and the presence of previously absent village Trustee Michael Gaeta paved the way for a 7-0 vote in favor of his project.

Trustees Gary Pilafas and Anna Newell said part of the reason for their earlier no votes was disappointment that the replacement of one car wash with another fell short of the goals of the area's tax-increment financing district to bring more retail with its redevelopment.

But they were ultimately persuaded that Lieberman's new car wash would be better — and better looking — as well as there being no guarantee the current owners wouldn't carry on indefinitely without the sale to Lieberman.

Lieberman told officials their hopes for more retail there were doomed by the current owners' asking price of $1.3 million to make up for the $1.1 million they paid just a few years ago.

Though the new car wash will retain the basic structure of the old, its interior equipment will be gutted and replaced while the exterior will be rebricked and repainted.

The revised proposal also dispenses with one of several vacuum stalls on the site.

“I like your design,” Pilafas conceded. “All the reasons you're doing this are good.”

Route 58 Auto Wash, unlike its predecessor, will be fully computer-controlled and the machines themselves will do the drying rather than having a team of workers with towels, Lieberman said.

He expects the renovation to take three months once the sale goes through, and to be open for business by mid-December.