Mister Car Wash construction begins

The Rochon Construction crew broke ground between the Speedway and Huntington Bank on Broadway Avenue on Tuesday, March 19, to make way for the new Mister Car Wash location.

“We had some additional parking lot and some trees and shrubs that needed to be removed for the arrival and the installation of the new car wash,” said Garry Habisch, Rochon construction superintendent of the job site.

Crews started their work with demolishing the remaining structures on the properties at 1148 Broadway Ave. and 1108 Broadway Ave. In the next few weeks, the construction crew will rearrange some city utilities to ensure the new building is functional.

“That’s going to be about a two-week time frame in regards to when we will get through that stage, and then of course we’ll start on the building footing [after],” Habisch said.

It’s been almost a year since the planning commission approved Mister Car Wash to move forward on this site.

At the Forest Lake location, cars will enter through the eastern driveway and form three lanes, which will funnel into one lane to enter through the car washing tunnel. Once drivers are out of the tunnel, they’ll be ushered toward the western driveway in which they must turn right on Broadway Avenue.

There will be another exit to the property off of 12th Street Southwest, which will connect to the existing parking lot by Northern Tool. Accessing the car wash from this entrance will not be possible based on the flow of traffic, allowing drivers to enter from the eastern driveway only.

Construction is projected to finish sometime this year.

Mister Car Wash is a franchise car wash company that started in 1969 in Houston, Texas, that expanded throughout the years. In 2020, the car wash chain recorded more than 342 location across the county.

Prior to this construction, the closest Mister Car Wash locations to Forest Lake were in Blaine and Shoreview.