After years of vacancy, the Geer Road location that formerly housed Reflections Car Wash will soon see new — yet familiar — life.
L Street Architects has applied for City permits to construct a new Prime Shine Car Wash at 1400 Geer Rd., contingent upon the approval and rezoning of the property. The location is adjacent to Balswick’s 10 Minute Lube’N Oil and L Street Architects is requesting to rezone the two properties from Planned Development to Community Commercial.
The site’s current zoning was approved in 1987, when Reflections Car Wash opened, and restricts the use of the properties for a car wash and auto lube and oil business. Rezoning the two properties from PD137 to Community Commercial will allow a wider range of commercial uses and development standards, allowing for the new 7,400 square foot Prime Shine to be built.
According to Bob DeGrasse of L Street Architects, if the rezoning is approved by both the City Planning Commission and City Council, construction on the car wash could begin in February. Turlock’s third and newest Prime Shine will likely stand out compared to the organization’s other 19 locations throughout the Central Valley, he added.
“We’ve built several Prime Shines, but this will be a very unique one,” he said. “Every time we get to do a Prime Shine, we find out a dozen things we can make better from the last one and we improve them.”
L Street Architects also constructed the Prime Shine on Monte Vista Avenue, but it was noted by the company that once the car wash was up and running, the line of cars waiting to be cleaned often impacted the vacuuming area, leaving drivers unable to pull out of their respective stalls.
Taking this into consideration, the blueprints for Geer Road’s potential Prime Shine account for the area’s heavy traffic flow and include an “extra-long” waiting queue for vehicles, DeGrasse said, which can hold about 30 vehicles in line for a wash.
“At this location, we’ve separated the queue from the vacuuming area so that people can vacuum easily before or after they wash,” DeGrasse said. “The line will be separate from that area, so there will be less traffic congestion.”
The former Reflections Car Wash building was demolished from the site in early 2016, about two and a half years after the business closed its doors in September 2013. Established in the late 1980s by Doug Gregory, the business was sold to Pram Saini and Ram Asra in 2006 before closing.
The public is invited to express any opinions on the proposed car wash at a Planning Commission meeting tentatively scheduled for 6 p.m. on Nov. 1.
“Prime Shine as a business has always tried to be the industry leader in creating an experience for clients that’s better than anything else,” DeGrasse said.
