Your car needs a bath—and so does the dog. Now you can load the dog in the car and drive down to the Autowash @ Stapleton at 2033 Central Park Blvd. Autowash is expected to open in late February and will have a grand opening on Saturday, March 16, offering free car and dog washes from 9am until 5pm.

Not only does Autowash have “green” car wash bays, but there are two dog wash bays that will accommodate dogs from the size of Newfoundlands down to the size of Shih Tzus.

“You can fit a full-sized dog in the washes,” said Erin Dreeszen who, with her husband, Dennis, owns Autowash @ Stapleton. “It’s fully operational with shampoo and blow dry. Everything for the animal is there and it’s self-serve. It’s open 24/7. It’s outside, but there are temporary window walls in the winter.”

“My wife and I started looking at building a car wash six years ago,” Dennis explained. “Instead of a honeymoon, we went to a financial seminar. That set the stage for a family business that we could run and teach our children entrepreneurship. A car wash was something we both were interested in. We interviewed owners of car washes. We fell in love with this system and would drive all the way to Golden because we loved that car wash. We found a mentor.”

The Dreeszens live in Stapleton with their three children, 9-year-old Dyllan, 5-year-old Donathan, and 3-year-old Daivien. Dennis does pension consulting for a local bank. Erin is an assistant principal. They wanted their car wash to reflect Stapleton’s “green” philosophy.

“We made it as ‘green’ as we could,” Dennis said. “When the government yanked the environmental credits, it made it impossible to put solar panels on the roof. We were really disappointed in that. But we’ve done other things. There is all LED lighting. That would be the biggest cost factor.

“We chose to use PVC building materials. It took less in shipping costs because it comes on flats in one truck rather than using dozens of trucks. The material itself is more sustainable. You don’t have to keep coating the walls with toxic materials. It has a longer life span. All of our walls are PVC filled with concrete for a little bit softer footprint with the building materials.”

The Dreeszens are donating the scrap wood left over from the car wash’s construction to The Urban Farm.

“The average home car wash takes between 80 and 140 gallons of water,” Dennis said. “Our average car wash is 45 to 50 gallons. All of our water is treated before it enters the sewer. The self-serve bays use high-quality, low-flow nozzles. It’s not wasting as much water, but is getting the same effect as if we used high-pressure nozzles.”

The car wash and dog wash bays are self-service. However, someone from the Dreeszen family will be there during peak times, Dennis said.

“Early mornings Erin or I will be there, and weekdays it will be the grandpas,” he said. “Our plan is to have someone there between 30 and 40 hours a week. The car wash can very much stand on its own, but we plan to have a presence there quite often. We wanted to be sure this was the highest-quality car wash that we could implement. That would be our trademark—that it would be a quality service.”

For information about Autowash @ Stapleton, go to 2033 Central Park Blvd. or online at www.autowashstapleton.com. Email info@autowashstapleton.com or call 303.927.9061.