This lube and car wash business has been closed for months. The owners have filed plans for changes.
For months, commuters on North Albany Road have driven past the closed Express Lube and car wash business at the corner of the Albany-Corvallis Highway. Now there’s a sign the corner may not remain dormant too much longer.
The Albany Planning Division on Wednesday gave public notice of a filing concerning the property, at 527 North Albany Road.
A design and development company from Irvine, Calif., filed a site plan calling for changes in the circulation pattern on the nearly one-acre property, and for the addition of vacuum stalls at the car wash.
Drawings show the business as a branch of the “Oil Stop Drive-Thru” chain. The car wash is to be called a “Happy Car Wash.”
The property is owned by The Carrington Company, a commercial property management firm based in Eureka, Calif.
Benton County tax records list the property as having a real market value of about $1.8 million, but its assessed value is only about $300,000.
After a former gas station shut down there, the property was vacant for many years. In 2005 it had a market value of $164,000 and an assessed value of $86,000. After the existing buildings were added, the county in 2006 valued the property at $401,000, and $86,000 for tax purposes.
Since then, the real market value has gone up like a rocket while its taxable value, limited by the state constitution, rose by a steady 3 percent a year. (hh)
I wonder if they will honor prepaid services purchased from the prior operator.
Maybe it will be MORE APARTMENTS??? Seems like all that Albany builds anymore…
No, as I hope the story makes clear, the plans are to change the vehicle circulation pattern on the lot and make other improvements for an oil-change business there.