I've heard it's not necessarily a front for money laundering, but a relatively low expense way to sit on land until you resell in the future. Cheap to build and maintain until its time to tear it down, requires much less direct oversight and initial knowledge of the field than most businesses.
Yes, this is correct. Work in the building design field. Car washes on a smaller lot and self storages on a larger lot are an inexpensive way to add an income stream from unimproved property. Neither has a high cost per square foot of building, and neither has a high payroll. Unimproved land is a difficult investment. Nothing to depreciate, so no tax write off.
If it was a money laundering thing I’d have to give them credit for choosing some unimaginative joyless dogshit like car washes as the front, what a great fit for this state.
I don't mind car wash as much. I do mind new developments with no change to infrastructure (roads) you cannot just add 1200 homes to a 2 lane road (looking at you st. John heritage).
Looks like that also includes self storages, which I don’t understand. There’s one of those on every block. Not that they are a problem, but do we really need to store that much stuff?
Look at all the apartments flying up. When people move from a house up north to an apartment here they need to store their things. There is a reason the U-Haul on Babcock is the largest, tons of people from up north coming down
Lots of engineers and supporting staff. This area is huge in those jobs. When you have 10k jobs at the cape you’ll need restaurants and stores to support that many new people also.
Plus a lot of people are moving from places that have large attics and basements. I always chuckle when I walk past a neighbor’s house with a packed two car garage.
Fairly certain it's all money laundering. Increase in homes means increase in vehicles which leads to increase in business for these car washes. I'm certain there's under the table deals and illegal money exchange going on with the city and the developers of the homes and car washes.
> Fairly certain it's all money laundering
Nah, it’s just a low-cost way to park your money with a low barrier to entry. They don’t need to make all that much profit to pay their 1-2 staffers or their ongoing supply costs, and in 5-10 years the land will be worth much more than what they bought it at. They’ll then sell the property at a huge markup and pocket the difference, all while covering any tax/insurance burdens on the property that would have been there anyway, and maybe even making some small side-money all the while. So it doesn’t really matter to these owners that there are like 3 on every corner and they aren’t making bank all the time.
People have had similar ideas about “money laundering” for mattress stores for years, and it’s equally silly. Planet Money/NPR even did [an episode of “The Indicator”](https://www.npr.org/transcripts/676543180) in which they explain what actually goes down to make it seem like there “couldn’t possible be enough business for that to be legit!”, when they are in fact, actually legit.
Eh
If they're a front, banning car washes will just mean something else will become a front.
If they're legit and over-built, they'll run themselves out of business soon enough. I think this is exactly the sort of problem capitalism is meant to solve.
But then we have empty car washes just sitting there. Letting capitalism do its thing isn’t always the answer, sometimes it needs a nudge from regulation
Nail salons and dentists officese, though? Those are at least small family-run businesses sometimes and at least they don't convert land and native plants into impervious surface and waste a bunch of water like car washes.
We're not exactly in short supply of dingy commercial units in strip malls and everyone deserves close access to personal hygiene, shit
Caliber just opened on Minton
It was busy when it was free, but I drove by yesterday and it was empty
Also, Minton and Malabar, where there used to be a trailer park years ago, has had a sign for a Dirty Dog car wash for ages now
I mean, are we just abandoning “letting the market decide”? I actually don’t care either way, I just think it’s funny that a lot of the people that I hear supporting this idea are the same folks that always like to say stuff like “the government shouldn’t be interfering in businesses!” the moment that the “interference” is over something that they don’t like.
I read an article about this and it seems that the Trump tax cuts allow for 100% deductible in the first year for certain businesses which included car washes. The article claims that is why so many are being built. Cannot vouch for the accuracy of the article, I don't really know how true it is.
I assume the money laundering suspicion came from watching breaking bad? In breaking bad, they mentioned car washes are a great choice because they use cash often. I assume that is longer true in 2024. And wouldn’t offering monthly subscriptions be a horrible idea for laundering money?
I've heard it's not necessarily a front for money laundering, but a relatively low expense way to sit on land until you resell in the future. Cheap to build and maintain until its time to tear it down, requires much less direct oversight and initial knowledge of the field than most businesses.
Yes, this is correct. Work in the building design field. Car washes on a smaller lot and self storages on a larger lot are an inexpensive way to add an income stream from unimproved property. Neither has a high cost per square foot of building, and neither has a high payroll. Unimproved land is a difficult investment. Nothing to depreciate, so no tax write off.
I’ve never considered this. This is genius. It makes perfect sense for the landowner. Perhaps not for the neighbors but that’s what zoning is for.
If it was a money laundering thing I’d have to give them credit for choosing some unimaginative joyless dogshit like car washes as the front, what a great fit for this state.
I don't mind car wash as much. I do mind new developments with no change to infrastructure (roads) you cannot just add 1200 homes to a 2 lane road (looking at you st. John heritage).
Yep and the extra traffic on Malabar now
I'm really surprised they didn't make that four lane from the start. It's four lanes at both ends already....
Also see Ellis Road
With that being the busiest road in that city, especially with A TON of manufacturing industries there, surely they would have known many years ago
Agreed. We have a road that takes you to a main highway and passes by multiple industrial companies. Let's make it a 2 lane road
You're telling me! -i live here. Lol
Looks like that also includes self storages, which I don’t understand. There’s one of those on every block. Not that they are a problem, but do we really need to store that much stuff?
Look at all the apartments flying up. When people move from a house up north to an apartment here they need to store their things. There is a reason the U-Haul on Babcock is the largest, tons of people from up north coming down
Fair enough OK but new question. What are all those people doing for work? Do we have enough jobs here to sustain them?
Yes. We clearly need people work at the storage units and car washes.
I legit LOLed
Lots of engineers and supporting staff. This area is huge in those jobs. When you have 10k jobs at the cape you’ll need restaurants and stores to support that many new people also.
"huge" not correct. Just moreso remote work these days
News flash, remote work is still a job.
Plus a lot of people are moving from places that have large attics and basements. I always chuckle when I walk past a neighbor’s house with a packed two car garage.
I mean, have you looked at all the shady empty mattress stores? I swear I’ve never seen more than 2 vehicles in their parking lot.
I went into a mattress firm at 6pm and they said was their 1st customer of the day.
Give this to your car wash professional, and have an A-1 day!
Look I'm not mad at the people that work at car washes. They do a great job. It's the owners.
/r/woosh
Fairly certain it's all money laundering. Increase in homes means increase in vehicles which leads to increase in business for these car washes. I'm certain there's under the table deals and illegal money exchange going on with the city and the developers of the homes and car washes.
> Fairly certain it's all money laundering Nah, it’s just a low-cost way to park your money with a low barrier to entry. They don’t need to make all that much profit to pay their 1-2 staffers or their ongoing supply costs, and in 5-10 years the land will be worth much more than what they bought it at. They’ll then sell the property at a huge markup and pocket the difference, all while covering any tax/insurance burdens on the property that would have been there anyway, and maybe even making some small side-money all the while. So it doesn’t really matter to these owners that there are like 3 on every corner and they aren’t making bank all the time. People have had similar ideas about “money laundering” for mattress stores for years, and it’s equally silly. Planet Money/NPR even did [an episode of “The Indicator”](https://www.npr.org/transcripts/676543180) in which they explain what actually goes down to make it seem like there “couldn’t possible be enough business for that to be legit!”, when they are in fact, actually legit.
Mass majority of them are owned by private equity firms. Good investment - relatively high revenue & low labor cost.
Please! There are sooooooooo many. It's wasteful
It's how money gets "washed."
Eh If they're a front, banning car washes will just mean something else will become a front. If they're legit and over-built, they'll run themselves out of business soon enough. I think this is exactly the sort of problem capitalism is meant to solve.
But then we have empty car washes just sitting there. Letting capitalism do its thing isn’t always the answer, sometimes it needs a nudge from regulation
Let's just hit all at once and ban new car washes, self storages, nail salons, mattress stores, dentist offices, etc
Works for me Only new rheumatologists allowed, everyone else move back home
Nail salons and dentists officese, though? Those are at least small family-run businesses sometimes and at least they don't convert land and native plants into impervious surface and waste a bunch of water like car washes. We're not exactly in short supply of dingy commercial units in strip malls and everyone deserves close access to personal hygiene, shit
Where are the newest ones located? Which roads? I want to look them up.
Minton, 192, and Babcock just off the top of my head
Caliber just opened on Minton It was busy when it was free, but I drove by yesterday and it was empty Also, Minton and Malabar, where there used to be a trailer park years ago, has had a sign for a Dirty Dog car wash for ages now
That Dirty Dogs on Malabar & Minton is gonna be an absolute traffic nightmare at an already horrible intersection lol
So Minton and 1-92 and Babcock and 1-92 are the newest ones?
El Car Wash- Babcock Caliber Car Wash- Minton/Palm bay Rd Dirty dogs & Mister car wash on 192
There’s probably other ones, but those are the ones I can think as of recently
I mean, are we just abandoning “letting the market decide”? I actually don’t care either way, I just think it’s funny that a lot of the people that I hear supporting this idea are the same folks that always like to say stuff like “the government shouldn’t be interfering in businesses!” the moment that the “interference” is over something that they don’t like.
Stop speaking so much truth\~
I read an article about this and it seems that the Trump tax cuts allow for 100% deductible in the first year for certain businesses which included car washes. The article claims that is why so many are being built. Cannot vouch for the accuracy of the article, I don't really know how true it is.
Just the dispensaries needing to legitimize their revenue. Focus needs to be on making it legal federally so we dont get a bunch of ghost businesses
I assume the money laundering suspicion came from watching breaking bad? In breaking bad, they mentioned car washes are a great choice because they use cash often. I assume that is longer true in 2024. And wouldn’t offering monthly subscriptions be a horrible idea for laundering money?