Ace Hardware planned for southeast Fort Collins

FORT COLLINS – Owners of Windsor Ace Hardware plan to open a new store in Fort Collins in the Harmony Market shopping center on East Harmony Road.

The store would be the third Ace Hardware in Fort Collins, all under different ownership.

Lisa and James Clay, who opened Windsor Ace Hardware in 1998, hope to launch Clay Ace Hardware, 1001 E. Harmony Road, by Nov. 1.

As planned, the store would cover 16,625 square feet, of which 13,500 would be retail floor space. By comparison, the Windsor store has 9,500 square feet of retail space.

Clay Ace Hardware would be located in part of the former Steele’s Market grocery store. Approximately 30,000 square feet will remain vacant after the hardware store opens.

Lisa Clay said she’s expecting the Harmony store to generate approximately the same annual sales as the Windsor store over its first year in business. On that basis, the store will have 20 employees, the same as in Windsor.

Dick Nelson, currently manager of the Windsor store, will serve as general manager for both stores. Noah Nelson will manage the Windsor store and Jesse Southard will manage the Fort Collins store.

Clay Ace Hardware will be located within a few blocks from The Home Depot, 4502 JFK Parkway, in southeast Fort Collins. Still, Lisa Clay isn’t overly concerned about the proximity with so-called “category killer.”

“I’m interested to see what kind of challenge that will bring,” she said. “We understand there’s a niche for both of us. We believe Home Depot has its place and we believe a true hardware store does too. I think people like the convenience of being able to run into our store.”

Clay does not have any immediate plans to add another store.

“Our philosophy, even when we opened the first store … was that we needed to decrease the debt on our Windsor store significantly before we looked at something else,” she said. “If this works well and we start paying off the debt, we could look at a third one down the road.”

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