Risking it on an automated Car Wash?

Hey everyone,

First time poster in this subreddit. Need some advice on a property.

We acquired a property in a commercial area, a car park. I spent the last year getting all the spots rented monthly, around 50 spots (old owner never knocked on doors). We are now generating enough monthly income where the property is paying the mortgage and a little more, but not a lot.

The area it’s in has alot of value cause it’s in the financial hub of the city, so the actual land value is worth far more than the ROI we are generating from the property.

We approached a few developers and companies during the last few months to see if we can get a better return.

We had plans to do a building, but after looking at construction costs and the state of commercial rentals right now, the demand wasn’t there.

Then we thought a smaller scale development, like a plaza strip, we would make a little more money. After planning construction costs and how many shop spots we could rent, we realised that we’d make money, but again not much, not until we’d pay the mortgage in 15 years.

We even approached a company that franchises fast food chains with drive thrus. They came back and said the street doesn’t have enough traffic to justify a franchise drive thru for a popular coffee chain.

I was looking into automated car washes. At videos online from upflip and other car wash success stories and it looks like a great business. Am I naive in thinking this might be a better investment than the car park? The street is not on a Main Street, so we don’t get alot of traffic, does this make the car wash not viable?