Plans call for pair of buildings to be demolished near Ninth and Iowa to make way for high-tech car wash; Zarco owner launches tech product for convenience store industry

They say the best way to make it rain is to wash your car. Given that we already have had a lot of rain, I’m a bit worried about what will happen when a Lawrence businessman starts construction on what he’s calling one of the more advanced car washes in the country.

Look for the project near Ninth and Iowa streets. Plans have been filed at City Hall to demolish the Sandbar sub shop and the gas station/convenience store that is immediately north of the sandwich shop. The two lots will be combined to make way for a large tunnel car wash.

Scott Zaremba, an owner of the Sandbar restaurants and the Zarco convenience store chain, is the man behind the car wash idea. He said the car wash will include new technology unlike any other in the region.

“It will be the next generation of car wash,” Zaremba said. “It will have the coolest stuff, that is for sure.”

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But Zaremba wouldn’t provide details. Until further notice I’m going to assume it will have a special thingamajig to get the Crispy Creme frosting off my steering wheel, an advanced whatchamacallit to find the taquito that rolled under the seat last month, and a proprietary doohickey that will allow the F150 to double as a hovercraft.

The project, which is being designed by Lawrence-based Paul Werner Architects, also will include about 25 vacuum stations, and will include a place for a food truck to regularly park. (A man who would sell me a juicy, dripping sandwich right after I’ve cleaned my vehicle is a man who understands the business cycle. If he offered a necktie cleaning service, Bill Gates would be jealous of his genius.)

If you are confused about the location of the proposed project, it is near the southeast corner of Ninth and Iowa. Zaremba owns an American Fuels station that is right at the southeast corner of the intersection. That is the one that includes the Scooters drive-thru coffee location. No changes are planned for that fueling site or the Scooters. Just to the south of that location, Zaremba owns another convenience store/fueling station. It will be torn down as part of the project. Just to the south of that location, Zaremba owns a building that previously was a gas station but since has been converted into a brightly colored Sandbar Sub Shop. It also will be torn down as part of the project.

Zaremba has filed for site plan approval at Lawrence City Hall, but he said it was too early to predict when construction work may begin on the project.


• A car wash isn’t the only project Zaremba has going on. Bill Gates indeed may end up interested in Zaremba at some point because Zaremba has launched a new technology company. Zaremba’s American Fuels stations at Ninth and Iowa and East 23rd Street have new technology at the fueling pumps that Zaremba says is the first of its kind in the country.

The pumps have been retrofitted to include a special touchscreen tablet that allows you to place an order for a sub sandwich that will be made inside the store while you are busy putting gas in your car. The sandwiches, though, are just the beginning, Zaremba said. The touchscreen can be used to sell basically any item in the store. The tablet allows you to pay for the items at the same time you are paying for your fuel, so it adds an extra element of convenience. It also helps the convenience store industry with a problem they have created: Pay-at-the-pump technology has cut down on the number of customers who enter the store.

“There is a huge percentage of customers who don’t come inside the store,” Zaremba said. “This lets us sell almost anything at the pump.”

The bigger potential, though, is that the tablets aren’t items that Zaremba has purchased and added to his pumps. Instead, it is technology that his company has developed. He’s now working to sell the technology to other convenience store chains across the country. He said he has two tests going on in other states.

“They are large chains that potentially could use more than 5,000 screens,” Zaremba said.

Zaremba said he used local programmers and technology developers to create the new tablet application. He said he and partners have been working on the project for about eight years.


In other news and notes from around town:

• We might as well stay in the gasoline world for a moment. Lawrence has a new convenience store brand. The station at 19th and Haskell has become a Valero station, which I think is the first one in Lawrence. The location has added new pumps, and the convenience store portion of the business has been advertising that it is under new management.

I’ll beat someone to the question that frequently comes up when I talk about gas station brands: I don’t have any news on whether Casey’s General Store plans to open a location in Lawrence. More than a year ago, I had reliable sources tell me that Casey’s was close to signing a deal for a location in northwest Lawrence along Sixth Street. But then that deal never materialized. No word on whether the company still has an interest in Lawrence or whether the market is a bit big for the company, which operates in a host of small towns.