Trying to keep track of the local car wash scene is like the proverbial herding cats — not easy. We’ve just learned that the start-up Station Auto Wash Express brand is apparently planning not one, but two locations in Sterling.
Here’s what we know — see if you can follow this convoluted tale:
- in 2022, the former Sterling Embassy Autowash on Pidgeon Hill Drive was taken over by the Flagship Carwash brand when they were buying up car washes around the region.
- now we have learned that that same location — located in the Countryside Marketplace shopping center — is apparently going to become a Station Auto Wash Express — a whole different brand.
- the Station Auto Wash Express brand is coming from the Magazzine family of Leesburg who used to own the much-loved Leesburg Station car wash on Catoctin Circle — until they sold it to Flagship.
- the Magazzines are already working on another Station Auto Wash Express location in Sterling.
- that one will be at the Guilford Station development at the corner of Atlantic Boulevard and West Church Road — where the new Goodwill store just opened. Construction crews recently broke ground on the project.
- meanwhile, the Magazzines previously built their first Station Auto Wash Express location in Manassas, but sold it before it even opened. We bet you can guess to whom they sold it. Yep, Flagship.
Bottom line, the car wash scene in Northern Virginia — and Loudoun specifically — is as volatile as ever. Two new Station Auto Wash Expresses are in the works for Sterling, plus — as we’ve reported — a new Flagship Carwash coming to Leesburg.
That’s probably more car wash information than anyone wants, but we are trying to cover our bases.
(Image at top: Station Auto Wash Express)