Kituwah, LLC holds ribbon cutting for Big Peach Car Wash

by Feb 2, 2025NEWS ka-no-he-da, Trading Post0 comments

By BROOLKLYN BROWN

One Feather Reporter

 

KENNESAW, Ga. – On the afternoon of Thursday, Jan. 30, members of Kituwah, LLC met with the founders of Big Peach Car Wash to hold a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new location on Cherokee St. in Kennesaw, Ga. Kituwah, LLC has majority ownership of the Big Peach Car Wash in Kennesaw, sharing ownership with Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr.

Members of Kituwah, LLC and founders of Big Peach Car Wash hold a ribbon cutting for the eleventh Big Peach Car Wash on the afternoon of Jan. 30 in Kennesaw, GA. Shown, left to right, are Ronny McClendon; Jon Shepherd; Wesley Cone; Mike Conard; Sam Owl, CEO; Jason Lambert, KEDB; Jason Ainsley, CFO; Chris Greene, COO; Cameron Cooper, VP Special Projects; Chris McCoy VP Operations. (BROOKLYN BROWN/One Feather photos)

The car wash is one of 11 in the growing franchise. Co-Founder Wesley Cone says Big Peach Car Wash is a community-centered business, whose values they believe align with Kituwah LLC. “We’re in business, but we feel community first. Take care of your people, blessings will come at the end. And that’s how we’ve always operated. We take this partnership very seriously. We don’t take it lightly. We want to make Kituwah proud, and the 16,000 members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) proud,” he shared.

“We’re already in the top 100 largest car wash chains in the country, and we have no plans on stopping soon. I think alongside Kituwah, and with what we’ve talked about, it’s going to be a fun journey.”

Sam Owl, chief executive officer of Kituwah, LLC, said Kituwah, LLC began bird-dogging Big Peach Car Wash in late 2023, early 2024. Now in 2025, Kituwah LLC is cutting the ribbon for a three- to five-year partnership that may turn into outside acquisition of their equity.

“The way we look at this opportunity is it’s a community-based company, which we can definitely identify with. They focus on their people, they focus on customer service, and that is what has differentiated them in the markets that they’re operating. This has potential to grow into a much larger franchise, and as we grow, as we develop this relationship with them, we are building equity in two ways. We’re building equity through our investment in sites like this, and we’re building equity in the overall operating company. So, from a long-term diversification of tribal resources, it goes back to our mentality of a slow burn, but you put money into assets that are cash flowing,” Owl said.

“And then ultimately, you look for that exit valuation when it’s the optimal time to sell. So, this is exciting and it’s an interesting concept. Our equity stake in this is small from a broad perspective. In this particular site, it’s a nice majority ownership, but this is another long-term play.”

Owl is looking at short- and long-term goals for the partnership.

“Long term, it’s going to be based on growing this company to the 25 sites in the pipeline, continuing to develop relationships with other master franchisees, develop relationships with other tribes, and continue to look at multiple ways to get economic activity through this entity,”

“Short term, it’ll be cashflow back to Kituwah and then it’ll go through distributions, which we did our first annual distribution last year, and that first annual distribution was roughly 20 percent of our net income.”

Dallas Bennett, a member of the EBCI and constituent services representative in the Office of the Vice Chief, drives a tribal vehicle through the new car wash.

Owl said Big Peach Car Wash is moving dirt for a location in Asheville. When asked about a Cherokee location, Owl said Kituwah, LLC would be interested, but the Big Peach Car Wash founders’ priority is getting the other 25 sites finished first.

Owl also shared about other upcoming projects for Kituwah LLC, starting with developments of the Exit 407 site in Tennessee, “It has a lot of visibility with Buc-ee’s. We’ve got a pad that’s ready to be leased. We have the Courtyard that’s finished. We just finalized the terms of a master planning agreement. We’re getting ready to sign that, but we’ll have a group come in that’s going to help us with the master plan for the 407 site. This entity has experience, and it has professionals that worked with Universal, worked with Disney, they’re based out of Orlando. So, it’s exciting,” he said.

“Over the course of the next year, we’ll be working on that master plan. When the time comes that there are benchmarks or milestones that we can share, we’re certainly going to share that with the public because it’s still an exciting project. We’ve had to adapt to the economic constraints and the environment nationally and locally. And in doing so, I can certainly see where folks will say it looks like things are not progressing, but things are progressing. There’s a new sewer line over there. They’ve finished raising the roadway a little further so they can get the sewer line into that pad by Courtyard. Once we get this master plan agreement rolling, it’s a good momentum, and then eventually we can figure out what to do with the land across the road.”

He said there are some local projects coming up soon as well. “Locally, I think there’s a lot of good things to share. The local projects are small returns, but they’re really for the community. We took over the theater maybe six to eight months after Kituwah was formed.  We just had the best financial year that the theater has ever seen. We continued to focus in and improve operations at the theater,” Owl shared.

“Next week, we’re going to implement seat reservations at the theater. We’ve been working through our internal system and how those reservations are made, and then looking at those third parties like the Fandangos and others that you can use as well. For it to be such a nice theater, probably the nicest west of Asheville, which I think everyone should be proud of, it’s going to add efficiency and a better customer experience.”

In the next few weeks, there will also be construction for deferred maintenance at Cherokee Cinemas, including fixing water damage to the roofing around the entrances.

Owl also addressed upcoming plans for the old Hampton Inn site. “When the tribe purchased that property and the other properties, the change of ownership did not allow for that to carry the Hampton Inn flag any longer. So, we had to find a new flag and that was a process. I’m happy to say that just this past week or two, they started on the second floor, going floor by floor to do the internal improvements. Once those are finalized, it’s going to be a Clarion Pointe,”

“Once it goes back to Choice Hotels and they approve it, then we can take down our temporary sign, and it can be flagged as Clarion Pointe. It’s never going to be like a cash cow, but it is a local project that we were able to rehabilitate an old property, and it could be utilized for some of the shortages that we see in hotel inventory when there are big events in town.”

Acuña Jr. joined the crew later for the grand opening in Kennesaw, but the One Feather was unable to stay for photo opportunities.

Dollar amounts on this venture were not disclosed to the One Feather.