SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio — The Al Paul Auto Wash had been located on Warrensville Center Road in South Euclid, under various ownerships, since the 1950s before closing in May, 2019. The shell of that building has remained and is being converted into the home of another car wash business, Waterway Express.
Load Error
Waterway Vice President and General Counsel Michael Goldman said he expects the rebuild to be completed and the business opened in December at 2128 Warrensville Center Road. It will be Waterway’s fifth Ohio location, including those in Pepper Pike (a full service car wash opened in 2008 at Lander Circle), Hudson, Bainbridge and Brookpark Road in Cleveland.
“We’re making a major investment of several million dollars,” Goldman said of the South Euclid location. “We liked South Euclid as a location because we’ve seen that several of our customers use our other locations and we wanted it to be more convenient for them.”
Waterway celebrated its 50th anniversary in August. In addition to Ohio, it operates car washes in Missouri, Illinois, Kansas and Colorado. The South Euclid location, as an express car wash, will clean only cars’ exteriors. It will remain, as was Al Paul’s, a single-tunnel, stay-in-the-car, drive-thru wash.
“Our goal is, from on-site to completely done, your entire experience will be around five minutes,” Goldman said. “We’ll have very affordable prices.”
As for the environment, Goldman said, “We’ve got a whole program of capturing the waste water, which is super important. We capture the waste water and process it so that it doesn’t go into the sewer system.
“We’ve also got a whole slew of green initiatives, but I would say that’s the biggest thing,” he said. “When you’re washing your car in the driveway and you’re using the soaps and detergents you get from your auto parts store or wherever, all that goes straight into the storm sewer. That’s hard for the storm sewers to handle. They’re not set up for that. So, capturing that water is the most impactful thing we do.”
Goldman said he expects the South Euclid business to employ about 15 people. More information about Waterway can be found at waterway.com.
“We take great pride in our level of customer service,” he said. “A lot of people talk about how their employees differentiate them, but we really believe our employees do. You’ll be met on site by somebody with a great smile and we’ll do a great job cleaning the outside of your car, and we’ll be fast and efficient and friendly.”
Waterway’s opening will come about three months the recent opening of CLEan Express Auto Wash, which held its grand opening Sept. 10 at 4365 Mayfield Road in South Euclid. CLEan Express converted a former Walgreen’ store into its new home.
South Euclid Economic Development Director Michael Love said that Waterway showed interest in the building it will occupy shortly after Al Paul closed.
Other South Euclid retail news
— Love said that Walgreens, after having left its former site, is in the process of renovating the former Loan Max and, prior to that, former Dairy Queen building, at 4546 Mayfield Road, and should be done with that work and ready for walk-in customers in December.
The store, smaller than its former location, will be known as a Walgreen’s Community Pharmacy and will sell pharmaceuticals via its drive-thru lane. It will also welcome customers inside where staple drug store items will be stocked.
— The opening of The Grove Kosher Market, originally thought to be taking place in January, Love said, may now take place in February at Oakwood Commons, off Warrensville Center Road. Based in south Florida, the South Euclid store will be its first outside of the Sunshine State. It will occupy a 40,000-square-foot building, space equally divided between a main floor and a basement.
— Love said that the public is invited to take part at 6 p.m. Oct. 7 in a Zoom virtual town hall meeting scheduled for a discussion on changes being planned for the Mayfield-Green roads shopping area. The city is holding the meeting in conjunction with its community development corporation, One South Euclid, and Heritage Ohio.
For more information on the meeting, visit the city’s website as Oct. 7 nears.
See more Sun Messenger news here.
———
©2020 The Plain Dealer, Cleveland
Visit The Plain Dealer, Cleveland at www.cleveland.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.