New car wash planned for Crozet

A new car wash will soon be under construction across from Starr Hill Brewery in Crozet.

The lot on Three Notch’d Road is slated for redevelopment with a car wash and two new mixed-use buildings.

According to Jeff Sprouse, who owns the property, construction on the car wash will start this month.

“We’re going to build a car wash on the back side of that property,” Sprouse said. “The car wash is 2,900 square feet with four bays. There’s two touchless drive-thrus, and then there’s two self-service [stations].”

A two-story building home to the Crozet Laundromat, the Green Olive Tree and office users is currently on the site. The property also had a second building on its western side up until the structure’s demolition in May. That building was formerly occupied by Southern Way Cafe, which ultimately moved to a space closer to downtown Crozet and opened up SWAY Taphouse and Grill last year.

Plans for redevelopment of the site were first authorized in 2007, when the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning of the property from light industrial zoning to a planned development shopping center designation. In 2012, supervisors approved an amendment to the application plan associated with the first rezoning in order to incorporate a car wash use.

A project narrative that was submitted to the county in 2012 cited economic conditions at the time as the reason that mixed-use office and retail space had not been constructed. The car wash was proposed as a more feasible first step in the redevelopment of the property.

The amount of mixed-use space was reduced to ensure that there would be adequate parking on the site, which will provide 109 spaces.

Sprouse said the mixed-use spaces will be constructed after the car wash is completed.

“There’s two buildings that will ultimately be in front of the car wash,” he said. “The first building is a mixed-use with retail and office space on the ground level, and that building’s 13,500 square feet. The second building is the same thing — retail and office space on the ground level with 8,400 square feet. Both of them have office space on the second levels.”

“The car wash will go first and then the buildings will come after they’re leased,” he added.

He anticipates these buildings will not be constructed for another two or three years.

No residential units have been approved for the property.

Sprouse also owns Re-Store’N Station off of U.S. 250, which has faced restrictions on its water usage.

“We had a ton of requests to build a car wash, but we couldn’t do it there, so this was another piece of property that we owned, and this was an opportunity to build it,” Sprouse said.

This will be the second car wash in the Crozet area, with the first being a self-serve car wash adjacent to the Crozet Shopping Center.