A De Soto hardware store owned by the same family since the 1880s will close in a couple of months, its owner says, and a new hardware business will take over the building.
Hamel & Rowe Ace Hardware, 210 N. Main St., will shut its doors in the spring after decades of operating in De Soto.
“We will be open through late May,” owner Steve Rowe said. “I’m just selling the building, not the inventory.”
Rowe said he has five employees.
He is selling the building to Cotton’s Ace Hardware, a chain of nine hardware stores in Missouri and Illinois, including locations in Eureka and Ste. Genevieve.
William J. “Joe” Cotton, 54, of St. Louis said the Cotton family owns and operates the chain. His father is also named William Cotton but goes by “Bill.”
“We’re going to take over the property in June,” the younger Cotton said. “It’s a historic hardware store. It will take a few months to get renovated and modernized. We’d like to have it open by Labor Day.”
He said his company plans to hire 12 to 16 people for the De Soto Cotton’s Ace Hardware and would welcome any of Rowe’s current staff to join his staff.
“We’re hoping that everyone there will stay,” Cotton said. “They’ll be offered a job. The people in De Soto already know them.”
He said the manager of the Eureka Cotton’s Ace Hardware, Jeff Solomon of De Soto, has been pegged to manage the De Soto store when it opens.
Cotton said his family is in the process of opening a new Ace Hardware in Cuba, Mo.
“We’ll open the Cuba store in the next few weeks,” he said. “It’s taken three months to get it ready.”
Rowe said “the timing is right” for him to close his store.
He said Hamel & Rowe previously operated out of a different site on Main Street before moving to 210 Main St.