A LaPorte-based car wash company with plans to expand into Portage, Chesterton and Michigan City also has plans for a Gary facility.
Douglas Babcock, of Manteno, Ill.-based Bailiwyck Properties Inc., appeared before the Gary Common Council’s planning committee Monday, seeking a use variance to allow him to build an automated car wash at 33rd Avenue and Grant Street.
That site is located between a Speedway gas station and an Aldi grocery store and Babcock said the location is an ideal one for the 150-foot by 38-foot structure he wants to build for the car wash facility.
“We looked all over Gary and there just isn’t a better site for what we want to do,” Babcock said.
Council President Ronald Brewer agreed about the location, saying the car wash, “will be a great addition to our community.”
The Gary Board of Zoning Appeals gave its recommendation for the project earlier this month. Planning committee chairman Herb Smith said final approval by the full Common Council could come when they meet again Feb. 6.
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Construction, however, is not imminent. Babcock said officials don’t expect construction to begin until June, and that it could take about five months.
He said officials expect to complete their deal to purchase the land from a tax sale during February and that they also have to check the site to determine if any of it qualifies as wetlands. Babcock said officials do not expect complications on either point.
The car wash would operate in Gary under the name Tsunami Car Wash and would be identical to the one already operating in LaPorte and one that is expected to open this spring in Portage.
A Gary facility likely would employ seven or eight people in both full- and part-time jobs, staffing the facility from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, he said. “We’re trying to keep Sunday for Sunday,” Babcock said of the decision to close that day.
The company would charge anywhere from $5 to $18 for a car wash, he said.
Gregory Tejeda is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.