Kwik Trip plans for new store in Austin this year
Published 7:54 am Friday, January 5, 2018
- Crews went about the work of demolishing the Gymocha building in late December to make way for a possible new Kwik Trip. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
Gymocha is gone but Kwik Trip is coming in, right next to the Ankeny’s Mini Mart, according to Mike Ankeny.
The La Crosse, Wisconsin-based company has plans for a new store in Austin in 2018, but did not confirm the location.
“Kwik Trip is going to build on it,” the owner of Ankeny’s, said of the lot next to his convenience store on 14th Street Northwest, next to a ramp leading onto Interstate 90.
“People are thinking that I got bought out by Kwik Trip, but I did not,” he said Tuesday.
“As far as I know, they are going to build there this summer,” Ankeny said.
“I called and talked to them,” he said. “They even sent me a site plan.”
The owner of the 1.46-acre property, according to Mower County records is Convenience Store Investments of La Crosse. the estimated market value is $324,200.
He has no plans for changes, but hopes comments he’s seen in social media translate to support of his hometown business in the long run.
There are three Ankeny’s Mini Marts in town run by family members. The stores’ roots reach back to 1946 when his father, Stan Ankeny, started selling butter and cottage cheese while also working at Hormel Foods, Mike Ankeny said.
His father would sleep in the shop for a few hours between work, he added.
Kwik Trip has three locations in Austin. It owns and operates more than 600 stores in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. According to a report in the Wisconsin State Journal, the company plans to open 40 to 50 new stores annually.
Kwik Trip in November announced a $300 million project in La Crosse that will support its growing convenience store operations. That includes a new 200,000-square-foot bread and bun production facility, to be completed by this fall, and expansions and improvements to its dairy facility, kitchen operations and transportation fleet.
The lot next to Ankeny’s was cleared in December of the former the Hardee’s Restaurant building that was then converted into Gymocha, a coffee, sandwich and baked goods shop. Gymocha owners Russell and Cindy Pihlstrom closed the shop at the end of 2013.
