Vroom Car Wash has opened its first location in Fort Myers, marking the start of a planned multilocation expansion across Lee County and LaBelle despite a slowdown in the national car wash industry.
Vroom Car Wash “coming soon” signs have been posted at seven sites across Lee County and LaBelle over the past two years. Over the next two years, those car washes are expected to be built and open.
Until then, the first Vroom Car Wash has opened. The first location opened July 4 at 2500 Winkler Ave. in Fort Myers, the brainchild of entrepreneur Nady Maouad of Naples.
Maouad, pronounced “Mowad,” sold his stake in a trucking and logistics company called Logistic Dynamics Inc. several years ago and began planning a new business venture.
Vroom Car Wash was born.
“I built it from the ground up,” said Maouad, the son of a Lebanese immigrant. His late father was an eye, ear, nose and throat doctor who met his wife in Buffalo, New York.
Nady Maouad grew up in Buffalo, graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School and the University at Buffalo.
Two years ago, Maouad moved to Naples and began developing Vroom. He started by paying $1.5 million for the 0.87-acre lot at the southeast corner of Fowler Street and Winkler Avenue, where Vroom opened 18 months after breaking ground. There were construction delays and a previous car wash developer attached to the site, which once housed a Grandy’s restaurant.
The family business will use the lessons learned from the inaugural location in planning future Vroom locations, all of which will have larger footprints.
“I prefer 1.5 acres or bigger,” Maouad said.
Founder Nady Maouad, left, poses with his son, Matthew Maouad, inside the new Vroom Car Wash in Fort Myers. Matthew recently graduated from the University of Tampa and manages the company’s first location.
David Dorsey
With vacant lots of that size in premium locations scarce, Maouad began buying them. So far, he has spent about $15.2 million on real estate alone.
Most of the land is scattered across the northern half of Lee County and outside Cape Coral, which placed a moratorium on new car washes from April 2024 through January 2025.
Vroom Car Wash should break ground within the next couple of months at 12300 Cleveland Ave., the site of a former Perkins Restaurant & Bakery, two doors north of Eager Beaver Car Wash in south Fort Myers.
Another site in LaBelle, fronting the Walmart on State Road 80, should break ground about the same time, he said.
Vroom also has locations planned near Colonial Boulevard and State Road 82, Pine Island Road and U.S. 41, Palm Beach Boulevard and Babcock Ranch Road, and Bayshore Road.
The company also is considering sites at State Road 82 and the Forum — near the new Amazon facility under construction — and at State Road 82 and Daniels Parkway.
“I’m building this new car wash business on internal culture,” Maouad said. He cited Disney, Ritz-Carlton and Chick-fil-A as inspirations.
“Every location has to be operationally clean,” he said. “We’re in the cleaning business. So, my lot is clean. The towels are clean. The equipment is clean. Everything that you can think about —is super clean.”
Maouad’s background in internet technology means the equipment is state-of-the-art. He said Vroom uses eco-friendly water practices, recycling water on-site to clean vehicle undercarriages. Even the recycled water is clean, he said.
“I want to make sure when you drive out of the place, you’re leaving with the best car wash and the best customer service,” said Maouad, whose son, Matthew Maouad, will manage the first location. He recently graduated from the University of Tampa with a business degree.
Vroom is a membership-driven business, and Maouad is targeting about 1,500 monthly subscriptions to optimize each location financially.
A large touchscreen tablet at Vroom helps customers visualize how much money they will save by purchasing monthly memberships instead of individual washes, which cost $12, $17, $22 or $27.
Customers who wash their car four times per month using the top-tier $27 Vroom X wash will save $68.01 per month with a $39.99 Vroom X membership.
Prices and savings drop to $34.99 per month ($53.01 savings) for Velocity, $29.99 ($38.01 savings) for Rev+ and $23.99 ($24.01 savings) for Ignite Clean.
To launch the first location, Vroom is selling 150 lifetime Founder’s Club memberships for $29.99 per month, which include Vroom X washes.
The Fort Myers location has been averaging about seven subscription sales per day, Maouad said, and employs nine people.
“You want a great product and great service, the people will come,” he said. “You do the right thing operationally. I have great employees. If you need help, we’ll give you help. I want to make sure everybody’s happy with a nice clean car.”
Maouad is launching Vroom just as the car wash industry has slowed across the country, said Eric Wulf, CEO of the International Carwash Association, a trade organization established in 1954.
“The industry in terms of stores being added is down from the peak of the 2020 to 2022 boom,” Wulf said. “Back then, there were about 800 stores per year opening. We might be closer to half that now.
A “Coming Soon” sign marks the future site of a Vroom Car Wash at 12300 Cleveland Ave. in south Fort Myers. Construction is expected to begin within the next few months, according to founder Nady Maouad.
David Dorsey
“But we’re still at a healthy construction pace.”
About two-thirds of the new car washes are being built by private equity companies, Wulf said, putting Vroom in the minority as a family-owned business.
“What’s attracting people to the business is stores have produced very strong results,” Wulf said. “The subscription revenue is a reliable revenue stream when it’s managed properly. What you’re seeing in Florida is no different from what you’re seeing everywhere else.”
Over the past three decades, the startup capital available to family-owned car wash companies has grown, Wulf said.
“Thirty years ago might have been a husband and wife opening one car wash,” Wulf said. “Now, they have the capital to open several or buy several at a time. The profile of folks entering the industry has changed substantially.
“The idea of having multiple locations quickly or right away, that predominantly relates to that subscription model. They want to make sure they can retain their customers with a subscription.”
A car wash now costs about $7 million to build, Wulf said. Maouad said the south Fort Myers location will cost about $8.1 million: $2.7 million for the land, $3.4 million for construction and $2 million for car wash equipment made by Tamarac-based Sonny’s Enterprises.
“In life, you have to take risks,” Maouad said of buying the sites before establishing a Vroom clientele. “If I hadn’t bought them, somebody else would have.”