A Miami-based car wash chain just bought its way into the Chicago market, scooping up four Sparkle Express Car Wash locations as the opening move in a plan to blanket Chicagoland with as many as 50 sites. El Car Wash announced the acquisition on Thursday, confirming it closed for an undisclosed sum and marks the company's first foothold in Illinois.
The four acquired tunnels sit at 10100 S. Western Ave. in Chicago, 2912 S. Cicero Ave. in Cicero, 1180 S. Randall Rd. in Elgin, and 4002 211th St. in Matteson, according to PR Newswire. As reported by Dealroom, the company has already secured entitlements for additional ground-up builds in Lyons, Lake in the Hills, and Downers Grove as it works toward its 50-location target across the region.
El Car Wash co-founder and chief executive Geoff Karas said Sparkle Express was an ideal launching pad for the brand's Illinois debut, noting the company had been building toward a Chicago strategy for years, per the same Dealroom report. The company plans to invest in and rebrand the four sites, adding its signature premium wash tiers, unlimited membership plans, and complimentary amenities while aiming to retain the loyal customer base Sparkle Express built locally.
A Private Equity-Backed Growth Machine
El Car Wash's Chicago push didn't happen in a vacuum. The company has grown from just 17 South Florida locations when global private equity firm Warburg Pincus acquired the company in 2022, according to PR Newswire, to 110 locations today spanning the Southeast, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic with nearly 600,000 members, per Dealroom. Former private equity executives Justin Landau and Geoff Karas bought into the Miami brand back in 2019 after spending two years studying the express car wash sector, Auto Laundry News reported, scaling it from just four locations that year to the sprawling platform it is today.
Chicago is not El Car Wash's first Midwest test. The company entered the region in 2024 through Metro Detroit, branding itself as the Official Car Wash of the Detroit Lions, and now operates eight locations there with 10 more planned over the next year, according to Dealroom. PR Newswire reported the Michigan footprint had grown to seven sites by this fall.
Why Subscriptions Drive the Expansion
The aggressive buildout tracks a broader shift in how car washes make money. Recurring monthly subscriber plans now generate nearly 80 percent of overall revenue for modern express car wash operators, according to Thrive's NextGen, a model that rewards chains for building dense networks of locations close to where members live and drive.
That subscription math helps explain why El Car Wash is moving aggressively even as the broader industry cools. New express car wash construction nationwide slowed from 943 openings in 2022 to roughly 550 in 2025, with a further drop to 450 or fewer projected for this year, according to industry analyst MMCG Invest, as higher capital costs and site saturation squeeze the sector. Total build costs for new express sites now range from $4 million to $8 million, per the same analysis, making acquisitions like the Sparkle Express deal an efficient way to buy density without starting from scratch.
Suburban Boards Weigh Traffic and Land Use
El Car Wash's ground-up ambitions are already running into the realities of suburban zoning review. In Mount Prospect, El Car Wash Mid-West, LLC requested a conditional use permit this September to redevelop a 2.04-acre commercial property at 1 E. Rand Road into an automated express car wash, with the proposal under village review. That kind of ground-up build requires significant commercial real estate footprint, a dynamic playing out across several of the suburbs in El Car Wash's entitlement pipeline.
In Lake in the Hills, the Village Board approved a car wash proposal in April for a site at 240 N. Randall Road, a former Bank of America branch near Costco and Lowe's, only after developers adjusted the entrance location to address local traffic concerns, the Daily Herald reported. The approval came after what the paper described as local skepticism and delay.
Whether Chicagoland's 50-location target arrives through more acquisitions, new builds, or a mix of both, the company's Illinois debut puts it squarely in the middle of the same zoning fights already shaping car wash growth in suburbs nationwide.
