Mister Car Wash Opens New National HQ in Tucson

By Balazs Szekely, Associate Editor

Mister Car Wash, the largest car wash company in the United States opened its national headquarters recently.

As previously reported, the company took over the former First Baptist Church education building at 222 E. Fifth St. near downtown to redevelop it as the new headquarters. This step became necessary because the company had outgrown its previous Catalina Foothills office space at the La Paloma Corporate Center and had already transferred some of its operations to satellite offices.

The Tucson-based firm operates 134 car washes and 32 Express Lube quick service maintenance stations in 14 states. With nearly 5,000 employees, the company provides services to over 15 million vehicles every year. As of August 2014, Mister Car Wash has been an operating company of Los Angeles-based Leonard Green & Partners L.P., a private equity firm with over $15 billion of private equity capital raised since its 1989 inception. The firm has interest in 66 other companies, with aggregate value of over $60 billion.

The new 28,000-sq.-ft. facility features ample office space, a fitness center and loaner bikes, which are also available to associates for short rides to downtown Tucson. Training space is included that will serve the company’s recruitment, training and career advancement ambitions. The company will launch its first session of Mister Car Wash University, a managers-in-training program later this month. “We may be the largest car wash company in the United States but our goal is to be the largest and best car wash company in the world, and we couldn’t do it without our people. It’s been 18 years, and we’re really just getting started,” CEO John Lai said at the unveiling ceremony.

Photo credits: Illustration courtesy of Mister Car Wash via Facebook