Nealey Auto Service's New Location in Edgewater, MD - Work in Progress!

[Aahj]

Hey Folks,

Long time lurker here and this place has been a wealth of information!

My wife and I own and operate an independent automotive repair facility in Maryland. We have done tremendously well the past couple years and we started searching for a new home for our shop last June. I had always kept an eye on a particular piece of property ever since I moved to Edgewater and told myself I'd own it one day. Well, just as we were starting our search for a new home, we found out that it was going on the market. It was way above our budget as they were selling the property and we were in the market to lease a building. But in the span of a month we put together a strong business plan, found multiple private investors that believe in us and found a bank that would offer us the right financing with a conventional loan and we submitted an offer. We were up against cash buyers, but we also wrote a heartfelt letter to the seller stating our plans and dreams of expanding our little business...it must have worked. They accepted our offer last October and we just finally closed on the property two weeks ago after some hard fought negotiating regarding multiple environmental issues on the property...but it's ours! And we're ready for the next chapter of our lives.

So, I thought I'd start this thread to not only share with you all the evolution of the shop, but to also document it for myself as well.

I'll be asking for input and suggestions along the way as well. So here we go!

 

[Bighead38]

Congrats.

The signs are too cool to lose IMO. Change your name to Nealey American auto service and transmission repair. That might be hard and misrepresent but it would be cool lol.

 

[Aahj]

Thanks! I've taken the signs down and have had people approach me as to what I'm doing with them. I've stored them for now but am thinking of a cool future project.

Post 4

Here are some before photos when I looked at the property back in September when the previous tenant was still working there:













This property also comes with a newer steel building in the back that we are working on leasing out:


More photos of the progress to come!

 

[NTCRS]

Cool place you guys got!

Good luck with everything

 

[navin]

AJ Nealy Racing FTW!!!

Wish I lived closer, I'd pass along the prep and maintenance on the Honda Challenge car to you guys!

 

[Aahj]

Thanks guys!

Good to see you on here Navin! Man, we are so busy with general auto repairs, we unfortunately have to turn away the performance prep and installs. We recommend JE Import Performance if that's anywhere close to your location.

Here are some additional photos of the progress:

Photos the day we closed on the property:












Pretty sure someone was squating here and never flushed the toilet...black death hole






Obviously the previous tenant just left the trash left over:




More to come later!

AJ

 

[minytrker]

Cool place BUT that looks like ALOT of work to get it up to par to run a business out of.

 

[Aahj]

No doubt!

Here are some additional shots of the cleanup process.

All that trash in that loft is now on the floor:


Now it's all in a dumpster 2 hours later:


Remember that nasty parts room? All we did was power wash!


Also power washed the walls in the main shop and stripped all unneccessary plumbing/electrical/cables etc. from the walls to clean it up. New electric all run down for our new LED light fixtures:


Pallet of lights:

Before shots of the waiting room:




Current condition of waiting rooms:






New roof installation:


Power washed floors:


More to come! The big dig to remove the UST's and in-ground lift begins Monday.

AJ

 

[Aahj]

Well, I had a little fun over the weekend and decided to remove the terrible bathroom:







And environmental remediation started today and talked them into cutting out the entire floor. Lots of action today!





I'm also having them remove the loft area as well



The old lift that was removed...pretty cool stuff!





Oh yea, and a 2000 gallon UST was found...still over half full of fuel. Gets sucked out tomorrow:



550 gallon heating oil UST also uncovered with contaminated soil which has to be disposed of properly:



More to come! Moving a lot faster than planned...this is awesome!

 

[rooster shooter]

Cha-ching!

 

[Slimls]

Cool thread! Good luck with your business. I look forward to seeing your progress.

 

[ftaffy]

Awesome building, would love a space like that.

Good luck with the build up.

 

[SiGmA_X]

Cool! I'm looking forward to seeing your rebuild of that shop!

 

[55cadillacking]

Wow, you mean business in every sense of the word. I am going to really enjoy this one. All the best with this awesome project. Wow.

 

[Capt Chrysler]

Hello,

Please fill us in on the environment problems. Looks expensive!!!!!

Capt. Chrysler

 

[code4pay]

Subscribed

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Nice! Once you pour a new slab in there, the space is really going to be transformed. Looking forward to following along!

 

[CNGsaves]

Great transformation on the old shop !!

Want to watch this one for sure . . . good luck with updates.

Since floor is pulled out . . . . . are you improving with:
a) exhaust ports so you can connect running cars & pipe out exhaust ??
b) anchor cans for winching in dead vehicles or "stretching" frames/dents (auto body) ??
c) in-ground electrical or compressed air ??

Did prior owner have to pay all the environmental clean-up ?? Was main reason taking out floor due to in-ground lift . . . was it inoperable ??

Good luck.

 

[Aahj]

Cool stuff guys! Thanks for all the interest! Very excited to get this going and will be more than happy to answer your questions:

Environmental Issues:

Yes, as a condition of our loan, all environmental remediation that is required to gain a "case closed" status on the property and to receive the coveted "all clear letter" will be paid for by the seller. Basically, all funds leftover after capital gains taxes and other closing costs were paid, the remainder of funds are sitting in escrow and we have access to all funds if necessary for the cleanup.

I paid out of pocket for a phase 2 environmental inspection to get a sense of what would be entailed in a cleanup before we continued with the purchase. We used a company called TetraTech to perform the Phase 1, 2 and oversee the remediation work. This current project has hit the 6 figure range at this point, but not a dime out of my pocket. Anything cosmetic occurring on the property is on me. I'm paying for the removal of the entire floor but since the equipment is already on site for the other work involved, it's a steal.

During the Phase 2 study, boring holes were drilled in various areas of the property to test the soil and water for any elevated levels of contaminants. A sonar test was also performed to look for unknown underground storage tanks (UST's). 2 were found and are being removed or filled in place shortly.

Also during the phase 2 study, contaminated soil where an above ground waste oil tank used to be also needed to be disposed of properly and backfilled with new uncontaminated soil. About 20 tons were budgeted for the removal. During the removal, another tank was found! And full of possible waste oil which will need to be properly tested first before removing at a later date.

People ask me "how's the new shop coming along?" and I respond with "have you ever seen the movie The Money Pit? It's kinda like that but there is no bath tub that falls through the second floor...but we do test missiles here!"

Since the floor is out, there are no plans on exhaust ports, winches or in-ground electrical or compressed air. But we are working on flush mounting two lifts in bay 1 and bay 4. It's gonna be epic! Met my plumber today to also add an additional bathroom for waiting customers since the floor is up. We are also plumbing for a drain for each bay and each flush mounted pit. We'll also run conduit for the needed air lines and electrical for the flush mounted scissor lift and alignment rack. With the drains, we will also be plumbing to a 75 gallon oil/water separator to catch any contaminants so we don't have to do all this work again in 50 years haha!

The original scope of work only included removing the original semi-functioning in-ground lift that you could see in the photos. I paid to have the rest of the floor and other decommissioned lifts removed as well.

I'll have some other cool photos posted soon. Thanks again for the support and questions. Living out our dream!

All the best,
AJ

 

[WhiffySpark]

I work in Edgewater now. The chain by the goodwill store

 

[FunBags]

that is a ton of work, keep the updates coming!!!

 

[Aahj]

Here are some photos from yesterday

While removing one of the decommissioned lifts, all sorts of old car parts were found to fill the dead space in the pit when they backfilled it. Thought it was pretty funny:



Current state of shop:


Old lift parts, the pile keeps growing. My scrap guy is gonna love this:



2000 gallon tank has been sucked dry. Maryland Department of the Environment inspector comes today to sign off:



This is a photo of the new tank that they found. The contractor doing the dirty work is Elite Environmental and the one in charge of this project says he has never smelled a tank so bad in his 21 years in this industry. He says he and his co-worker were coughing for about a half hour before they could regain their composure. No joke! They don't know what's in it, but suspect it's solvent based fluid like from a parts washer mixed with grease and grime. They will have to **** this out at a later date once they can identify the material. This was a surprise:





This is another decommissioned lift that they are having trouble removing. They are just going to break it up in place and pull it out in pieces:



More photos to come! Thanks!

 

[fatkidracer]

very cool to see the rebuilding of this property!

glad you are not on the hook for the environmental cleanup bill! what a racket that is. i am all for saving the environment but the way they have these rules now it makes it damn near impossible to run a business, and the worst part is that the "special" disposal is really just taking it to the landfill and paying extra. that **** gets dumped with the rest of the garbage right along side the special disposal bags of asbestos!

 

[HCNDM]

Subbed!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[crerus75]

I would subscribe twice if I could. This is awesome.

 

[Aahj]

More progress made today!

Dumpsters everywhere! The MDE inspector arrived today and that large 2000 gallon fuel tank was removed and backfilled...she gone!



All of the hazardous steel materials all piled up waiting to be properly disposed of:



And those two decommissioned lifts were also finally removed and backfilled:



And the upper loft was also removed as well:



I've also decided to not go with the flush mount lift idea for the scissor lifts. We don't work on race cars and we are not going to run into a vehicle height issue at this shop. I also don't want an unusable bay while we wait for an alignment lift which could be a year from now. Overall, it would add to the cool factor, but completely unnecessary. We will still be installing plumbing for the additional bathroom as well as two drains on the shop floor that will lead to a 75 gallon oil/water separator.

Concrete guy is itching to get in this weekend to pour. We'll see how it goes. The environmental crew is looking good to complete work by Friday.

Chuggin' along!

AJ

 

[Bob Heine]

What a great start to a new phase of your life. The environmental mediation means you won't have nightmare issues down the road. Best of luck!

 

[WhiffySpark]

You hiring? Lol

 

[Firebrand]

Great start for your next life chapter! Subscribed!

 

[Aahj]

Thanks y'all! And yes, we are hiring! Looking for great techs that meet our high standards, attitude and pursuit of excellence!

 

[mtnkrake]

Can't wait to see how this goes.

 

[Aahj]

More progress today!

I forgot to mention yesterday that they were actually able to remove the 550 gallon tank in front of the office. They were initially very afraid to attempt to remove the tank as they were worried that it might disrupt the foundation of the building. But they were able to backfill the hole as they were slowly creeping the tank out. Here's a picture after the fact:







And they removed the concrete below the old loft:



Plumber comes in tomorrow to run water lines and floor drains. Concrete pour is set for Tuesday due to the holiday weekend.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend everybody!

AJ

 

[55cadillacking]

Steady progress. I thought those unearthed auto parts were bones. Very relieved they weren't!

 

[NTCRS]

I really like old buildings with some history in it, keep up the good work

 

[Aahj]

Thanks for the comments guys!

Lots of great progress over the weekend and into today!

New plumbing on Saturday with floor drains and additional future bathroom:







And then the floor went down today!












The score lines get installed tomorrow and the machine trowel will also be completed. Very happy with the results! It's really taking shape now!

Just reached out to Armor Poxy to get some suggestions on coatings.

Thanks for the support y'all!

Talk soon,
AJ

 

[Terrick down Under]

Looks good, lots of work still to go! If it keeps going like this, then it will look real nice. Got me watching and waiting. Its only 2am your time, why aren't you out working?LOL

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Lots of great progress, the floor looks awesome! How thick did you pour it?

 

[Sunbimmer]

Wow very impressive this

Thanks for sharing and please keep us up to date !!

 

[tab2]

This. Is. Awesome!

Congratulations on buying a building and expanding your business that way. I am sure your cash flow is hurting a little right now, but long term this should really work out for you. I hope you get a tenant in that back building soon so you can buy more stuff for all of us to drool over.

I will continue to watch this eagerly.

 

[dubber]

One of the coolest threads i've seen on here. The amount of work you have ahead of you and have ALREADY tackled blows my mind. Way to go and i'll most definitely be keeping tabs on your project.