Auburn 76 station closes, owner moves to Highway 49

No, an economic depression has not hit the Foresthill exit area of businesses, but outward appearances might look that way.First the Bakers Square restaurant on Lincoln Way closed down earlier this summer and then the Auburn 76 Auto Center across the street shut down, boarded up its pumps and put up a chain-link fence around the property.David Brown worked at the Union 76 gas station site for 26 years. The station became Conoco Phillips several years ago, but it was Union 76 gas when Brown leased the station in 2002. Brown attributed the closing to poor fuel managing. "There was an incident with management of fuel with my fuel manager, and I handed over the lease to Conoco Phillips," Brown said. "Conoco Phillips owns the property so it's hard to tell what they'll do with the property."Brown is not leaving town or going out of business. He has moved his repair shop to 1070 Grass Valley Highway, just past Edgewood Road, going north. At his new location next to Auburn Tire, Brown will not be pumping any gas, just repairing domestic, foreign and classic cars.The business will keep the same name, Auburn 76 Auto Center, but many residents have known it simply as Auburn 76, Brown said. He plans to take most of his seven employees with him to the new location, where hours will be from 8 to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Brown and Brian Hargraves are both Automotive Service Excellence certified master technicians. Sandee Bell, a service writer, will continue to take the calls and will be a familiar voice, Brown said.When it comes to classic cars made in the '60s, Brown worked on some of them when they were new."I've been working on most of the classic cars since they were brand new," Brown said. "I was working on 1965 vehicles when they were brand new in a shop in Houston."When asked about the business outlook near his former location, Brown said he was surprised when the Bakers Square restaurant closed. He said he bought a couple of pies there just 24 hours before it closed on June 24, after serving customers and local organizations for the past 15 years. The Bakers Square chain had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April and corporate offices in Denver would not comment on the closing.All is not lost for Bowman-area business, however. On a knoll-top property off Bowman Road, there is a proposal to build the Hill Top Center, a 142-room Marriott Inn. The building proposal is in the early stages of the county approval process. The inn was mentioned by CEO Jan Decker of the Placer County Visitor's Bureau and executive director of the California Welcome Center at 13411 Lincoln Way. Decker is not aware of any more businesses planning to leave the Foresthill exit area."I hope it's not a trend," Decker said when asked about the Auburn 76 and Bakers Square closings. "I was really amazed when I found out that Bakers Square closed."With the recent smoke from fires and the increased price of gasoline, fewer people have been visiting the area."We've noticed at the center that our traffic is less because of the smoke. People just don't want to drive up to it," Decker said. "I think the gas has something to do with it. All we can do is keep doing what we've been doing. We're not shutting down up here."The Journal's Bruce Warren can be reached at brucew@goldcountrymedia.com, or comment at AuburnJournal.com.