EVERETT — Car wash franchise Tommy’s Express Car Wash has opened in Everett on Evergreen Way, its first Washington state location.<\/p>\n
Local franchise owner Clayton Wall said the grand opening on Friday followed two months of soft-opening operations.<\/p>\n
Tommy’s Express Car Wash has 270 locations nationwide, its website shows.<\/p>\n
Wall made the transformation from a software salesperson to a car wash owner after moving to Washington state from New York City at the end of 2019.<\/p>\n
His first visit to a car wash was in Bothell. He said he wasn’t impressed by its 1950s-style car wash, its bland, windowless car wash building, or the sticker he had to put on his front window to show he was a member of the car wash club.<\/p>\n
Wall said the whole process from choosing to buy a franchise from Tommy’s Express Car Wash, based in Holland, Michigan, to acquiring the land for a location, construction and obtaining city permits took five years.<\/p>\n
His business partner is Phuong Troung, a former colleague in software sales.<\/p>\n
Wall won’t say how much he and Troung invested in the franchise, but he said it’s an expensive proposition.<\/p>\n
“When I realized how much it cost to build a modern car wash, I wasn’t anywhere close to be able to afford it,” he said.<\/p>\n
Wall said he raised additional capital from a group of investors.<\/p>\n
The car wash, with its red-and-white building and matching red car brushes, stands out amid a crowded sea of fast-food franchises, gas stations and shopping centers on Evergreen Way.<\/p>\n
Wall said he hopes customers are attracted by the upbeat facade but, more importantly, by features like license plate recognition — so no sticker is required for the wash club — high-powered vacuums and floor mat washers.<\/p>\n
Wall said it was a long process to open the car wash, but he’s happy it’s open. He said he hopes to open more Tommy’s locations in the local area.<\/p>\n
But, for now, he’s hoping for a lot more sunny days in Everett.<\/p>\n
Randy Diamond: 425-339-3097; randy.diamond@heraldnet.com.<\/em><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Everett location is the first in Washington state for the Michigan-based car wash franchise. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":871,"featured_media":861479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1024],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-861478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/heraldnet.com\/2026\/01\/19\/clayton-wall-brings-a-tommys-express-car-wash-to-everett\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Clayton Wall brings a Tommy’s Express Car Wash to Everett","url":"http:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/2026\/01\/19\/clayton-wall-brings-a-tommys-express-car-wash-to-everett\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/2026\/01\/19\/clayton-wall-brings-a-tommys-express-car-wash-to-everett\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/01\/41341737_web1_TSR-EDH-CarWash-260116-fs.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/01\/41341737_web1_TSR-EDH-CarWash-260116-fs.jpg"},"articleSection":"Business","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Randy Diamond"}],"creator":["Randy Diamond"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"HeraldNet.com","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-01-19T09:30:00Z","datePublished":"2026-01-19T09:30:00Z","dateModified":"2026-02-26T01:46:51Z"},"rendered":"