This kind of thing has been around for a long time. The classic method was to build a trailer park or a drive-in theater. You could keep steady cash coming in

This kind of thing has been around for a long time. The classic method was to build a trailer park or a drive-in theater. You could keep steady cash coming in until you were ready to build something more substantial, then simply evict the trailer owners (space rent was typically month-to-month) or tear down the movie screen and grade the parking lot flat, in both cases with very little demo cost. Trailer parks and drive-in theaters were both way bigger than car washes. These guys are pikers.