If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. That’s what Graham Love had to say about his Luv-A-Wash car wash business. He entered that realm in 2007, about 10 years after he moved to Florida from his native Scotland.  

Construction on a Luv-A-Wash car wash recently broke ground at 6860 Daniels Parkway, in front of a Publix-anchored shopping center and just across from Whole Foods Market.  

Daniels 1031 Investment LLC bought the land for $875,000 in May 2020. The car wash will be just less than 4,000 square feet and should open by the fall. The site had been a Chevron gas station that was razed.  

This will be Love’s third Luv-A-Wash location in Southwest Florida, and the first in Lee County. He already has two in Naples, one at 1635 Pine Ridge Road and the other at 4704 Golden Gate Parkway.  

At first, Love operated do-it-yourself car washes. Those were the ones in which you park your car, get out, pay and then use the soapy foam brush followed by the high-pressure soap and rinse. 

“We were getting killed by the express car washes,” Love said. That’s why he switched to the modern technology. But Love decided on a hybrid model. “We prep the vehicles prior to having them washed,” Love said. “Ninety-five percent of the car washes around here, you just put it in neutral and send you through the brushes. What we do is we hand-spray the cars and scrub them with clean, soft brushes and quality, lubricated soap.  

“If you go to Fort Lauderdale or Tampa and you come back, you’re going to have bugs all over your car. We have citrus-safe chemicals that will break down organic material such as bugs.”  

Luv-A-Wash car washes start at $10 and go up to $20 per wash, depending on the type ordered.  

“We wanted to expand into Lee County,” Love said. “We thought it was the next step. We thought we could get a really good piece of property.”