Plans for a new 4,000 square foot Superwash are progressing well, with the new laundromat expected to take one year to complete.

This news comes less than two weeks after an early morning fire at Superwash's Gibbs Corner and West Avenue destroyed the building's roof.

Dionisio D'Aguilar, Superwash's president, revealed to Guardian Business that the new location will be built directly behind the existing location.

"It's in full motion now, although they haven't broken ground yet. But all of the planning and the architectural drawings are in motion," D'Aguilar said.

The new location is expected to be completed within the next 12 months and will cost the local laundromat giant $1 million to construct. He added that the outlet will feature all new equipment.

The present location will be demolished and used as customer parking for the new store.

In the meantime, D'Aguilar said it is still too early to tell the impact the recent fire will have on the company's overall bottom line.

"There are other laundromats in the area, so there are options; they can either go to another Superwash location or wash at home. The extent to which they are going to travel to a nearby location is unknown as of yet. I am sure it will have an effect," D'Aguilar explained.

He continued: "I am expecting a fall off in revenue but I'm not sure what it's going to be. It's a little disheartening because we were so significantly affected by the roadworks.

"That looks like it is coming to an end, and from that, we were beginning to see a slight turn around in our revenue and now we've experienced this fire, so it's been a bit of a setback."

However, he revealed how this recent setback will not interfere with any of that location's eight employees, as they will be rotated through the other outlets.

"It doesn't affect any employees because our organization is large enough. There will always be employees that are sick, on vacation or they just don't feel like coming to work."

"You can generally relocate people. It's approximately eight people that worked at that location and so right now we are splitting them between the other locations."

D'Aguilar is projecting that the existing location should be operational within the next 12 months. However, before that happens, the Superwash chief told Guardian Business he is rushing to make the current locations operational as quickly as possible. The company is rebuilding the roof with the intention of opening in another 30 days.

He said Superwash has spent more than $100,000 on the repairs.

Earlier this month, an early morning fire sparked around 2:45 a.m. and continued until around 4 a.m. While the roof was destroyed, the building itself sustained minimal damage and the equipment inside suffered water damage.

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