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Curb Appeal in Today’s Laundromats (Conclusion)

Exterior’s appearance can reinforce mission of business inside

SALT LAKE CITY — Before a laundromat is ready to open to the public, a great deal of time and resources is commonly spent on getting the store’s interior and laundry equipment just right.

But store owners shouldn’t sleep on the importance of what real estate agents commonly call “curb appeal,” the attractiveness of the building and its surroundings when viewed from the street.

American Coin-Op interviewed a trio of laundromat owners with varied levels of experience about how they have approached curb appeal in outfitting their stores and why they think that aspect of their operation can contribute greatly to its success. Let’s conclude with O-Town Laundry.

MAKING A STATEMENT

Joe Jepsen and his Diamond J Management company are best known for acquiring, renovating and then managing apartment buildings. But Jepsen discovered that he enjoyed setting up and managing those buildings’ in-house laundries, so he decided to try his hand at retail laundromats.

Jepsen now owns six O-Town Laundry stores in Ogden, Salt Lake City and other Utah locations. The flagship O-Town Laundry in Salt Lake City opened in early 2020 at the site of the former Village Coin Laundry. It covers roughly 5,000 square feet and features 135 Maytag Commercial Laundry washers and dryers. The coronavirus pandemic prompted the store’s closure for a time, and it reopened in March of this year.

“We always buy the real estate when we do it,” he says of opening new laundromats. “We don’t typically rent. That’s how we like to do it, at least. That way, we can do more to the building, get a return on the investment.”

With assistance from distributor Mendenhall Equipment, Jepsen’s firm opened its first laundromat in Ogden on the ground floor of Park Avenue Apartments, a building that houses 160 studios.

“This thing was an old hotel converted into apartments. We kept it very nice, we kept the landscaping nice, but by all means, it wasn’t the Taj Mahal. But I remember when we were building it out, once we got the plumbing and electrical in, we started looking at aesthetics.”

The group “took a lot of cues” from their experience renovating residential and commercial buildings.

“We’ve been perfecting them here and there but the overall look is similar in all of our laundromats,” Jepsen says. “We also try to have them look the same on the outside, or pretty darn similar, if the city will let us.”

In the case of the flagship store, Jepsen’s crew completely altered the former strip center look of the property: “We changed out some old windows, put in nice, new windows that let in tons of sunlight. We redid the siding.”

Plus, the signature red O-Town branding was incorporated in the signage, both on the building and on the sign above the front entrance.

He believes it to be much easier to impact curb appeal when one owns the property rather than leasing.

“If you own the property, you can do what you want with it, with city permission. If you’re leasing, you obviously have to get permission to do anything to the outside of the property. Then, if you spend all that money on the outside of the building, you don’t own the building and your lease expires, you won’t be able to take it with you.”

Curb appeal is enormously important, especially if a laundromat is brand-new, says Jepsen: “We feel like you kind of have to make a statement.”

Not only that, an attractive appearance outside reinforces the very mission of your laundry business inside.

“If your curb appeal is really good, it automatically denotes cleanliness,” Jepsen says. “It automatically tells a customer your place is clean. We find cleanliness is No. 1 among people, especially now with COVID. It’s just really important to be known as a clean laundromat.”

If you missed earlier parts of this article, you can read them here: Part 1 - Part 2

Curb Appeal in Today’s Laundromats

Joe Jepsen owns six O-Town Laundry stores in Utah, including this 5,000-square-foot flagship in Salt Lake City. He says curb appeal is enormously important, especially if a laundromat is brand-new: “We feel like you kind of have to make a statement.” And an attractive appearance outside serves to reinforce the “clean” mission of the laundry business inside. (Photos: O-Town Laundry)

Curb Appeal in Today’s Laundromat

Jensen’s crew completely altered the former strip-center look of the property, changing out old windows for large panes that “let in tons of sunlight.”

Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Bruce Beggs at [email protected].