New themed car wash opening in Idaho Falls this summer
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IDAHO FALLS – A themed car wash called Firehose will open in front of IF Signs on 17th Street in Idaho Falls this summer.
“It’s going to be themed like a firehouse, so it will have big red doors,” says Sondra Ward, who is opening the car wash with her husband, Kevin E. Ward. She says it will include a 105-foot wash bay.
The area around the car wash is also seeing some construction.
“The piece we’re building on has no access to 17th Street. We own the land (occupied by LendNation next door). We’re going to enlarge the lane that goes back to IF Signs and make it an entrance with curves and gutters like it is across the street at Natural Grocers,” she says.
Sondra and Kevin own a 1981 Seagrave fire engine, which will be the mascot for the business.
R. Jay Taylor Construction in Ammon is in the preliminary stages of the building process. A grand opening is in the works once it is complete.
“We’re going to have a ‘name-the-fire-truck’ competition before we open,” Sondra says.
Getting to this point has been about three years in the making, Sondra says. As longtime residents of Idaho Falls, she and her husband have wanted to see some development at this location.
“The last use of that property was a dairy, from what we have been told. The city had placed transitional zoning over the commercial zoning, and I don’t think people wanted to take the time to have it removed,” Sondra says.
Once the proper zoning was in place, Sondra says it took another year and a half to buy the land.
Sondra is a real estate agent with Keller Williams Realty and Kevin is an insurance agent with Alpine Castle Lake Insurance. Together, they own some apartment housing.
After being landlords for the last 27 years, Sondra says they were looking for something else to do.
“We went and looked at more apartments. We went and looked at storage units. We wanted something bigger, and this is definitely bigger for us,” she says.
With several car washes on each end of town, the Wards say there was a need for one in the middle. This particular spot on 17th Street was ideally suited because of the amount of traffic in the area, Sondra says.
“It’s one of the most traveled streets in the city, some of the highest car counts,” she says.
The decision to make it a themed car wash was inspired by Dino Dash, a themed car wash in St. George, Utah with an animatronic dinosaur. Having a themed car wash in the middle of town will make it different from similar businesses, Sondra says.
“Since we don’t have a Dino Dash in town, I want every 4-year-old to say ‘I want to go to the firehouse car wash,'” says Sondra.
Once the fire engine is repaired and marked, Sondra says you’ll see it out and about at various community events.
The Wards are excited to begin this venture and look forward to serving customers and getting involved in the community.
“We are excited to finally be under construction and have people calling and wanting to know more,” she says. “My husband was born and raised here, and (giving back and getting involved) is just something you do when you’re part of the community.”
Firehose car wash prices will start at $7. There will also be monthly memberships starting at $20. It will operate Monday through Saturday. The hours of operation have not been finalized, but Sondra anticipates 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. during the summer and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the winter.
