Thomson report

At the corner of Underhill Street and Highway 97 N things are happening and it's all good. After many changes over the past thirty-nine years Skogie’s corner is being rebuilt to a new car wash experience for his customers. I have been washing my cars there for thirty-two years and they are good at what they do.

Dave Skoglund, president of Skoglund Enterprises and his son Jason have been planning this move for a number of years and decided it was time to move ahead last fall with plans for the redevelopment of the corner.

Dave came to Kelowna in 1970 after many years in the logging and construction business in Terrace. He started building the car wash in 1970 and opened the following year in May.

Contractors are currently working on cleaning away the ruble from the dismantled coin car wash and then construction on the new green site will begin. Dave Skoglund is the owner of a number of other car wash locations in town and has been working with the general contractor Worman Construction and has developed a plan that allows the present car wash to operate until the new operations are completed.

These new facilities will have all the all the bells and whistles of the newest car washes in North America. Two special tunnels will be created to handle cars in a different manner than we have been used to in the past. The first tunnel, The Express car wash will be for cars just getting a complete exterior wash. It will be 140 ft. long up from 90 ft. for the current car wash. This gives them enough room to install the newest most technologically advanced equipment and improves their ability to handle cars in peak periods. Currently the capacity is about 45 to 50 cars per hour. The new facility will be able to process upwards of 120 cars/hr, which will result in little to no wait time for the customer.

The new service for interior cleaning will come into play in the second tunnel which will be 70 ft. long employing a conveyor belt. The operator can service up to 20 cars per hour. Two additional bays will be at the new facility for their detailing operations.

In another building the coin-operated bays will be located and Skogie’s is increasing that service to eight bays from the current four.

A new 2400 sq ft convenience store will be added to the site and as an added feature customers can sit and have a coffee or sandwich as they watch their cars go through the new process.

I spoke to Jason about the new system and the technical changes that will be taking place.

“The new site will use solar to heat the wash water, bio-degradable soaps, containing neither solvents nor surfactants. Our wash equipment comes with technologies that will help reduce the power requirements. And we are investing in new equipment to reduce our water consumption.”

This is really going to make everything more efficient is it not?

“There are great efficiencies in terms of what is delivered to the customer. By separating the interior and exterior services, we will create a much faster exterior wash line. When cleaning the inside of the vehicle, using a conveyor to deliver the vehicle along a staffed production line, you can produce a clean vehicle, quicker. There will be a lot of staff training involved. There are many in the U.S. and very few in Canada of this model.”

Of course the corner will still carry the banner of Petro Canada with their new gas bar and all the Petro Canada products will be available to drivers.

This redevelopment is very impressive and a positive addition to the business community.

I asked Dave when he expected to be open.

“The plans call for October so we are ready for the winter customers. There is a great deal of technical equipment to be installed in the new buildings but our contractors seem to think everything will work well for our opening in October.” We are doing our best to be shut down for the minimum time required and currently still have the gasoline and tunnel car wash running."

It certainly looks interesting. Remember when they used to use a chamois and a water hose?