Flagship Express car wash opens in Rockville

Flagship Express has opened at 785 Hungerford Drive (MD 355) in Rockville. The original Flagship Car Wash here temporarily closed so that the company could convert the site into its new Flagship Express concept. Express locations offer exterior automatic washes on flat-belt conveyors, 3 unlimited levels of membership packages, and free vacuums, towels and compressed air. The old self-service bays here have been demolished to make way for the Express facilities. Flagship has two other locations in operation in Montgomery County: North Bethesda, and Germantown.

Signage installed at Flagship Express car wash in Rockville

Signage has been installed at the future Flagship Express car wash at 785 Hungerford Drive in Rockville. The existing car wash there has been closed while Flagship Carwash constructs its new business concept. Their new Express locations offer exterior automatic washes on flat-belt conveyors, 3 unlimited levels of membership packages, and free vacuums, towels and compressed air. The old self-service bays at this Rockville location have been demolished to make way for the Express facilities.

Flagship Express car wash "coming soon" to Rockville

Flagship Express, a new service concept from Flagship Carwash, is "coming soon" to the company's currently-shuttered car wash site at 785 Hungerford Drive in Rockville. Express locations offer exterior automatic washes on flat-belt conveyors, 3 unlimited levels of membership packages, and free vacuums, towels and compressed air. The old self-service bays at this Rockville location have been demolished to make way for the Express facilities. Flagship has two locations in operation in Montgomery County at this time: North Bethesda, and Germantown.

Flagship proposes demolition of self-service carwash bays at Rollins Avenue location in Rockville

Flagship Car Wash is proposing to demolish the self-service carwash bays at its 975 Rollins Avenue location in Rockville. The proposal is part of a plan to update the existing mechanical carwash, and improve vehicular circulation through the property. Under the latest Rockville zoning, a carwash is a non-conforming use now at this location. Flagship can continue operations here, as its last approvals from the late 1990s are grandfathered in, as the property was under a different zoning then.

Existing site configuration with the
self-service carwash bays

If approved by the City of Rockville, Flagship will demolish the self-service bays, and replace them with 25 vacuum spaces and an unspecified number of full-service carwash finishing spaces. The vacuum space area will also contain seating for Flagship customers. 

Proposed configuration with new
vacuum lanes and updated traffic pattern

A new traffic circulation pattern would also be established for the property. Customers would continue to enter with their vehicles from the Rollins Avenue driveway. They would initially be in a single line, but then be funneled into one of three stacking lanes. At the direction of an employee, the customer would exit their stacking lane, and enter a roundabout. From the roundabout, the customer would drive into one of the lanes for the mechanical car wash tunnel. After exiting the wash tunnel, the customer would have the choice of turning into the new full-service finishing lanes and vacuum space area, or exiting the property altogether onto Rollins Avenue.

Close-up of proposed queue and roundabout
for vehicles entering mechanical car wash tunnel

No changes are planned for the mechanical car wash, which will continue to operate. Flagship says it will coordinate the demolition process with its contractor, so that the disconnection of water and electrical utilities from the self-service bays will not affect service to other utilty customers in the area. If approved, the changes are expected to reduce traffic to the site, as Flagship will lose all self-service customers who do not switch to the mechanical carwash.

Close-up of proposed vacuum lanes area
and full-service finishing lanes

Maryland State Police shut down Flagship Car Wash in Rockville

Longtime car cleaning business

asks for customers' help

WJLA ABC7 reporter Kevin Lewis witnessed Maryland State Police drive up and blockade the Flagship Car Wash on Chapman Avenue near the Rockville Target store early Sunday afternoon. The company confirmed to Lewis that MSP officers had shut down four Flagship locations across Montgomery County Sunday. Flagship also has locations in the District and Virginia.

Flagship's owner told Lewis that the services her business was providing were compliant with a written directive from the state regarding which "essential" auto maintenance services could be offered during the statewide coronavirus shutdown. I can confirm this is true, because Flagship had announced way back on March 25 that they were limiting services in Rockville to exterior cleaning only,  with machine-operated automatics, self-service and vacuums to be open 24 hours. Exterior cleaning by employees was not even listed for the other two upcounty, just the automatic and self-serve options.

Later Sunday, Flagship asked its customers on Facebook to share the ABC7 story to support their business. MSP told Lewis that car washes are not an essential service, and that the Flagship location in MoCo should remain closed.

POLICE SEARCHING FOR INDECENT EXPOSURE SUSPECTS IN ROCKVILLE, DERWOOD (PHOTOS)

Montgomery County Police are asking for the public's help in locating two suspects wanted in indecent exposure incidents in Rockville and Derwood recently.

The first took place at Flagship car wash, at 2100 Chapman Avenue in Rockville, on September 4 at approximately 1:40 AM (what are people doing at a car wash at 1:40 AM, anyway?). A man exposed himself to 41-year-old woman, police allege, and fled the scene.

The suspect is described as a medium-skinned black male, between the ages of 50-60 years old, approximately 5’07″, 165 pounds, with short black hair and a mustache.  He was last seen wearing dark blue basketball shorts and a purple shirt with unknown writing on it.

A second indecent exposure was reported on August 28, at 3:18 PM, on a Ride On bus in the 8100 block of Needwood Road. The suspect fled southbound on Redland Road, seemingly heading toward the Shady Grove Metro station, police say.

The suspect is described as a light-skinned black male, approximately 6’00″ tall, 245 pounds, with brown eyes, very short black hair, a black mustache and goatee with facial stubble.  He was last seen wearing black cargo shorts, black and white shoes, a gray shirt, black baseball cap, and was carrying a red and white backpack.

Anyone who recognizes either suspect, or who has further information, is asked to contact the 1st District Investigative Section at 240-773-6084.