By Jason Schoonover, Austin Daily Herald

AUSTIN — Kwik Trip is closing in on a deal to buy the Austin Auto Truck Plaza and Watts Cookin’, but the company bought another Austin property first.

Kwik Trip affiliate Convenience Store Investments purchased the former Gymocha building, 1300 Fourth St. NW, last week for $365,000, according to records from the Mower County Auditor-Treasurer’s Office.

The company owns Austin’s Kwik Trip properties at 1401 Fourth St. NW and 1201 W. Oakland Ave.

A no trespassing sign was posted on the Gymocha building’s window.

Kwik Trip real estate officials did not return calls for comment.

The La Crosse, Wis.-based company reached a purchase agreement to buy the Austin Auto Truck Plaza and Watts Cookin’. The restaurant closed March 16, but the truck stop remains open. The deal should be finalized soon. Kwik Trip plans to start construction on a $5-million, 6,000- to 7,000-square-foot truck stop in July.

The current truck stop will remain open during construction, as the new truck stop would be in a different location on the property.

Though Kwik Trip bought Gymocha, that doesn’t necessarily mean the company is planning a fourth location. Kwik Trip has bought properties in Austin before without building a store. In 2012, the old HiMEC Mechanical building was demolished at 1901 Fourth St. NW, another site owned by Convenience Store Investments. It still owns that site, as well as 106 11th St. SW, according to public records. The company previously owned land directly east of Schieck Dental, 607 18th Ave. NW.