Lake Parts, which for decades has been at home at 120 N. Main St., is moving on down the road to 1015 S. Main, the location of Napa Auto Parts.
Lake Parts owner Deanne Padel said that, as of Tuesday, her store will be open for business in the new location.
She said the two locations are merging, but will retain the Lake Parts name.
“It's very exciting,” she said.
The move will give her the chance to expand product lines in a 6,000-square-foot space, as opposed to the 4,400-square-foot area at 120 N. Main, where the business has been for 30 years, she said. Unlike the old location, the Napa store at the corner of Main Street and Lakeport Boulevard also has its own parking lot.
She said they'll offer more performance race car items and will sell go cart parts, both drawing on the local racing community.
Padel said she's going to try to utilize all of the current employees – the five at her former store and the six at the new location.
The Napa store was offered to Padel in a deal that she said began earlier this year, when Genuine Parts Co. – which owns the Napa auto parts group – approached her.
An inventory of both stores was under way on Monday in preparation for the ownership to be turned over to Padel, which Charlie Nelson of Genuine Parts Co.'s corporate office in Sacramento said became effective at midnight.
Nelson, who was in Lakeport on Monday to take part in the inventory, said the deal evolved since late in May.
“There was a change of ownership on the store here in Lakeport from the original owner,” he said.
That original owner was RJ Hoskins, said Nelson. Hoskins reportedly had owned Napa stores around Lake County and in Willits and Ukiah before selling the stores earlier this year.
Nelson said Genuine Auto Parts purchased the store – which he estimated has been in the market since the 1950s – at the end of May and began talking with Padel about a “merger-type situation.”
He said Padel will be the Lakeport Napa affiliate.
Padel began working for Lake Parts under its former owner, Dick Sylar, in 1989. In 2004, she purchased the business.
Growing up with brothers who were into racing, working with cars “was just kind of in my blood,” said Padel, who was born and raised in Lake County.
Lake Parts has been locally owned and operated since its beginnings in 1945, Padel said.
Today, she and her son, Chris Mansell, work together in the business, and she said they strive to support the local economy.
The parts business has been slow for a time, said Padel, but the new business arrangement comes at a time when business is starting to pick back up.
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