AQUASHINE WINTER HAVEN IS OPEN!
AquaShine Express Opens Its First Ground-Up Location in Winter Haven, Florida, Planting the Platform’s Flag in America’s Fastest-Growing Metro
The August 14 grand opening is the first site QC Capital Group has built from the ground up rather than acquired, and it arrives with a second Winter Haven location already under construction and slated to open in winter 2026
CHARLOTTE, N.C., September 1, 2026 -- QC Capital Group, LLC today announced that AquaShine Express Winter Haven, the express car wash platform’s newest location and the first site in the platform’s history developed from the ground up, is now open. The location, on Eloise Loop Road in Winter Haven, Florida, celebrated its grand opening on August 14, 2026 and now brings the platform to ten locations across Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.
The Winter Haven site is operating with the full AquaShine Express offer, in place from day one: a fast express tunnel, unlimited membership plans starting at $22.00 per month with no contracts, free vacuums at every visit, complimentary towels and glass cleaner, and family plans, fleet programs, and local fundraising partnerships that tie the site to the community around it.
“Every location we operated before this one, we bought and then made better,” said Chris Salerno, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of QC Capital Group. “Winter Haven is the first one that is ours from the dirt up. We picked the corner, poured the concrete, and set every standard before the first car ever entered the tunnel. There is no previous owner’s ceiling to renovate around, and you could feel that on opening day. Our team was not inheriting a car wash. They were unveiling one.”
The fastest-growing metro in America
The choice of market was not incidental. The Lakeland-Winter Haven metropolitan area has been the fastest-growing metro area in the United States over the past decade, expanding more than 34% between 2014 and 2024, and it ranked fourth in the nation in percentage growth in the most recent U.S. Census Bureau estimates, adding more than 23,000 residents in a single year. A University of Florida study projects that Polk County will pass one million residents by 2030, years ahead of earlier forecasts, and Winter Haven itself, the county’s second-largest city, has grown past 60,000 residents.
For an express car wash operator, that growth profile is close to ideal. The economic engine of the model is unlimited membership, and memberships form fastest where household routines are still forming. Tens of thousands of families arriving in a market each year are choosing a grocery store, a commute, and, eventually, a car wash. An operator already open on the right corner when those habits form does not have to win customers away from anyone.
“You cannot underwrite your way into a market after everyone has noticed it,” Salerno said. “Winter Haven sits in a metro that has added people faster than anywhere else in the country for a decade, and most of those people are still deciding what their routines look like. We would rather be the car wash a family joins in their first month in town than the one trying to win them back five years later.”
Built, not bought
The grand opening also marks a capability milestone for QC Capital. AquaShine Express grew through acquisition and conversion, buying existing car wash and express oil and lube assets, rebranding them, and improving them through standardized operating systems and an upgraded customer experience. Winter Haven demonstrates the other half of the firm’s model: ground-up development on corners the firm selects itself, using a shorter-tunnel express format that fits high-traffic, space-efficient sites that operators requiring longer tunnels cannot use.
Development also carries a distinct advantage in the current tax environment. A newly constructed car wash placed in service establishes a fresh depreciable basis, and the permanent restoration of 100% bonus depreciation is particularly valuable for express car washes, which concentrate an unusually high share of project cost in short-life property such as tunnel equipment, site work, and membership technology. QC Car Wash Fund III, launched in January 2026, is development-weighted by design and funds the platform’s active pipeline, which includes a site closed in Alpharetta, Georgia on July 10, 2026, two additional development sites under contract, and a second Winter Haven location already under construction. The fund remains open to accredited investors directly and through investment professionals on major custodial platforms.
A second Winter Haven site already underway
The platform’s momentum in the market will not wait long for a sequel. AquaShine Express Winter Haven II is under construction now, with a grand opening anticipated in the winter of 2026. When it opens, members will hold a single membership honored at both sites, deepening the platform’s coverage of a metro it expects to keep growing.
“The second Winter Haven site was in the plan before the first one opened,” Salerno said. “Density is how a membership becomes more valuable without costing the member another dollar. Two tunnels in one growing market means a member is never far from a wash, and it means every fundraiser, every referral, and every clean car driving around Polk County is working for both locations at once. Winter Haven is not a site for us. It is a market.”
About QC Capital Group
QC Capital Group, LLC is a Charlotte, North Carolina based private equity and alternative investment firm founded in 2018. Guided by its slogan, “Investing in the infrastructure of daily life,” the firm acquires, builds, and operates real assets and operating businesses for accredited investors, with active portfolios across car care, flex industrial real estate, business and commercial real estate credit, healthcare, and venture partnerships. QC Capital’s strategies pair real estate ownership with the operating businesses that occupy it, with the objective of producing tax-efficient current income alongside long-term capital appreciation. The firm is led by Founder and Chief Executive Officer Chris Salerno, a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and a Charlotte Business Journal Most Admired CEO. QC Capital Group is an independent firm and is not affiliated with QC Holdings, QC Capital Management, QC Capital Partners, or QC Home Buyers. Learn more at qccapitalgroup.com.
About AquaShine Express
AquaShine Express is a growing express car wash platform owned and operated by QC Capital Group, with ten locations across Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina and additional sites in development. AquaShine Express operates a shorter-tunnel express format built around unlimited membership plans, family plans, and fleet programs. The platform holds customer-voted recognition in all three states where it operates, including the 2026 Best of Florida Awards, the Best of South Carolina Awards in 2025 and 2026, and Best of Georgia recognition in 2025.
Learn more at:
aquashineexpress.com
The August 14 grand opening is the first site QC Capital Group has built from the ground up rather than acquired, and it arrives with a second Winter Haven location already under construction and slated to open in winter 2026
CHARLOTTE, N.C., September 1, 2026 -- QC Capital Group, LLC today announced that AquaShine Express Winter Haven, the express car wash platform’s newest location and the first site in the platform’s history developed from the ground up, is now open. The location, on Eloise Loop Road in Winter Haven, Florida, celebrated its grand opening on August 14, 2026 and now brings the platform to ten locations across Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.
The Winter Haven site is operating with the full AquaShine Express offer, in place from day one: a fast express tunnel, unlimited membership plans starting at $22.00 per month with no contracts, free vacuums at every visit, complimentary towels and glass cleaner, and family plans, fleet programs, and local fundraising partnerships that tie the site to the community around it.
“Every location we operated before this one, we bought and then made better,” said Chris Salerno, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of QC Capital Group. “Winter Haven is the first one that is ours from the dirt up. We picked the corner, poured the concrete, and set every standard before the first car ever entered the tunnel. There is no previous owner’s ceiling to renovate around, and you could feel that on opening day. Our team was not inheriting a car wash. They were unveiling one.”
The fastest-growing metro in America
The choice of market was not incidental. The Lakeland-Winter Haven metropolitan area has been the fastest-growing metro area in the United States over the past decade, expanding more than 34% between 2014 and 2024, and it ranked fourth in the nation in percentage growth in the most recent U.S. Census Bureau estimates, adding more than 23,000 residents in a single year. A University of Florida study projects that Polk County will pass one million residents by 2030, years ahead of earlier forecasts, and Winter Haven itself, the county’s second-largest city, has grown past 60,000 residents.
For an express car wash operator, that growth profile is close to ideal. The economic engine of the model is unlimited membership, and memberships form fastest where household routines are still forming. Tens of thousands of families arriving in a market each year are choosing a grocery store, a commute, and, eventually, a car wash. An operator already open on the right corner when those habits form does not have to win customers away from anyone.
“You cannot underwrite your way into a market after everyone has noticed it,” Salerno said. “Winter Haven sits in a metro that has added people faster than anywhere else in the country for a decade, and most of those people are still deciding what their routines look like. We would rather be the car wash a family joins in their first month in town than the one trying to win them back five years later.”
Built, not bought
The grand opening also marks a capability milestone for QC Capital. AquaShine Express grew through acquisition and conversion, buying existing car wash and express oil and lube assets, rebranding them, and improving them through standardized operating systems and an upgraded customer experience. Winter Haven demonstrates the other half of the firm’s model: ground-up development on corners the firm selects itself, using a shorter-tunnel express format that fits high-traffic, space-efficient sites that operators requiring longer tunnels cannot use.
Development also carries a distinct advantage in the current tax environment. A newly constructed car wash placed in service establishes a fresh depreciable basis, and the permanent restoration of 100% bonus depreciation is particularly valuable for express car washes, which concentrate an unusually high share of project cost in short-life property such as tunnel equipment, site work, and membership technology. QC Car Wash Fund III, launched in January 2026, is development-weighted by design and funds the platform’s active pipeline, which includes a site closed in Alpharetta, Georgia on July 10, 2026, two additional development sites under contract, and a second Winter Haven location already under construction. The fund remains open to accredited investors directly and through investment professionals on major custodial platforms.
A second Winter Haven site already underway
The platform’s momentum in the market will not wait long for a sequel. AquaShine Express Winter Haven II is under construction now, with a grand opening anticipated in the winter of 2026. When it opens, members will hold a single membership honored at both sites, deepening the platform’s coverage of a metro it expects to keep growing.
“The second Winter Haven site was in the plan before the first one opened,” Salerno said. “Density is how a membership becomes more valuable without costing the member another dollar. Two tunnels in one growing market means a member is never far from a wash, and it means every fundraiser, every referral, and every clean car driving around Polk County is working for both locations at once. Winter Haven is not a site for us. It is a market.”
About QC Capital Group
QC Capital Group, LLC is a Charlotte, North Carolina based private equity and alternative investment firm founded in 2018. Guided by its slogan, “Investing in the infrastructure of daily life,” the firm acquires, builds, and operates real assets and operating businesses for accredited investors, with active portfolios across car care, flex industrial real estate, business and commercial real estate credit, healthcare, and venture partnerships. QC Capital’s strategies pair real estate ownership with the operating businesses that occupy it, with the objective of producing tax-efficient current income alongside long-term capital appreciation. The firm is led by Founder and Chief Executive Officer Chris Salerno, a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and a Charlotte Business Journal Most Admired CEO. QC Capital Group is an independent firm and is not affiliated with QC Holdings, QC Capital Management, QC Capital Partners, or QC Home Buyers. Learn more at qccapitalgroup.com.
About AquaShine Express
AquaShine Express is a growing express car wash platform owned and operated by QC Capital Group, with ten locations across Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina and additional sites in development. AquaShine Express operates a shorter-tunnel express format built around unlimited membership plans, family plans, and fleet programs. The platform holds customer-voted recognition in all three states where it operates, including the 2026 Best of Florida Awards, the Best of South Carolina Awards in 2025 and 2026, and Best of Georgia recognition in 2025.
Learn more at:
aquashineexpress.com
Media Contact
Amy Tuck
Vice President of Marketing
QC Capital Group
(704) 281.8580
amy@qccapitalgroup.com
qccapitalgroup.com
Important Disclosures
This announcement is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Any such offer is made only to accredited investors, as defined under Rule 501 of Regulation D, and only by means of a confidential private placement memorandum and related offering documents, which should be read in their entirety. Private investments are speculative, illiquid, and involve substantial risk, including the possible loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results, and the performance of any individual location or platform is not indicative of fund-level results.
Population and growth statistics cited in this release are drawn from U.S. Census Bureau estimates, University of Florida research, and other public sources; they are presented as general market context and are not representative of the performance of any QC Capital Group fund or property. Statements regarding bonus depreciation are general in nature and do not constitute tax advice; the availability, amount, and usability of any depreciation deduction depend on a property-specific cost segregation study and each investor’s individual circumstances, and prospective investors should consult their own tax advisors. Statements regarding development timelines, sites under contract or under construction, and anticipated openings, including the anticipated winter 2026 opening of a second Winter Haven location, are forward-looking and subject to construction, permitting, financing, and market risks that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially.
Amy Tuck
Vice President of Marketing
QC Capital Group
(704) 281.8580
amy@qccapitalgroup.com
qccapitalgroup.com
Important Disclosures
This announcement is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Any such offer is made only to accredited investors, as defined under Rule 501 of Regulation D, and only by means of a confidential private placement memorandum and related offering documents, which should be read in their entirety. Private investments are speculative, illiquid, and involve substantial risk, including the possible loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results, and the performance of any individual location or platform is not indicative of fund-level results.
Population and growth statistics cited in this release are drawn from U.S. Census Bureau estimates, University of Florida research, and other public sources; they are presented as general market context and are not representative of the performance of any QC Capital Group fund or property. Statements regarding bonus depreciation are general in nature and do not constitute tax advice; the availability, amount, and usability of any depreciation deduction depend on a property-specific cost segregation study and each investor’s individual circumstances, and prospective investors should consult their own tax advisors. Statements regarding development timelines, sites under contract or under construction, and anticipated openings, including the anticipated winter 2026 opening of a second Winter Haven location, are forward-looking and subject to construction, permitting, financing, and market risks that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially.
