Car wash planned at old Teddy’s restaurant location in North Huntingdon
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The site of the former Teddy’s restaurant along Route 30 in North Huntingdon is to be razed for an automated car wash, making it the fourth place to clean a vehicle in a two-mile stretch of the highway east and west of Irwin.
Express Wash Concepts of Etna, Ohio, plans to build a 120-foot-by-20-foot car wash with 20 parking spots for use of vacuum cleaners along the westbound lanes of Route 30, according to plans presented to the North Huntingdon commissioners. The company expects to open the car wash either in late winter or early spring of 2024, said Jeff German, an Express Wash spokesman.
The site plan was given the green light, contingent upon the developer obtaining approval of a stormwater management plan, utility connections, an underground stormwater system and highway occupancy permits.
Joseph Bertucci, director of development for Express Wash Concepts, told commissioners the company will have two to three employees working at a time during its seven-days-a-week operation, with a total of about 15 employees. Workers will be available for customer service, Bertucci said.
The company has about five locations in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and 85 sites total, Bertucci said.
Express Wash anticipates demolition and construction will begin in late summer or early fall, German said.
North Huntingdon has not received an application for a permit to demolish the former restaurant, a township spokesperson said Wednesday.
Express Wash Concepts is leasing the property from NH Building LLC of Pittsburgh’s South Side, which purchased the land for $1.5 million in 2015 from a corporation formed from the estate of the late Theodore Karcher, who died in 2007.
A Double Wide Grill operated at the site until it closed in 2021. Steve Zumoff, a member of NH Building, remodeled the restaurant and reopened it as Peppermill Restaurant, but that closed last year.
At the time of the closing, Zumoff said the restaurant closing was temporary.
Other sites
Giant Eagle Supermarket is planning to build one of its WetGo car washes in Irwin, at the site of the former Penn-Irwin Motel that was demolished about three years ago. The car wash will be adjacent to a plaza containing a GetGo service station and convenience store.
Irwin officials approved the site plan in December, and Giant Eagle representatives said they expected construction to begin this spring and take five months to complete.
That schedule has been delayed because site preparation continues as the developer, Colony Holding of North Huntingdon, stabilizes the hillside in the rear of the property. An auto parts store also is to be built on the site, adjacent to the McDonald’s restaurant.
The third automated car wash business, Steel City Car Wash at 10560 Route 30, has been operated by Ron Palarino for 35 years. Wash World at 535 Route 30 is just across the North Huntingdon border in Hempfield.