Carol Stream Ace Hardware closing after 25 years

Ziegler's Ace Hardware in Carol Stream is shutting its doors after operating for 25 years in a strip mall near County Farm and Army Trail roads.

Owner Dave Ziegler, whose family has been in the hardware business for more than 80 years, said he and his landlord couldn't come to an agreement on extending his lease that expires in March.

Sunday was Ace's last “normal” day of operation, he said. It will open again Wednesday for a liquidation sale expected to take six to eight weeks. Doors will close for good by mid-March.

“It's unfortunate that we're having to go through this in Carol Stream,” Ziegler said, “but it's part of the reality of the economic system that we live in. We've heard from a number of customers who are very disappointed that we are leaving.”

Based in Elgin, the Zieglers own nine area Ace stores, including two in Elgin and others in South Elgin, Carpentersville and Crystal Lake. None of the other stores are affected.

Lyle Ziegler, Dave's grandfather, started in the hardware business in 1930 and joined Ace Hardware in 1934. The Carol Stream location opened in 1989.

Since the economic downturn in 2009, Dave Ziegler said the Carol Stream store has struggled with its rent.

“We're not going to continue to operate at a loss,” Ziegler said. “It's a matter of supply and demand and judgment. We told them what we could pay and they said what they wanted. It wasn't in alignment.”

Ziegler said the company is trying to find another location.

He could not confirm any locations or specific towns but is looking within a certain radius of Elgin.

In the meantime, Ziegler said the 15 employees at the Carol Stream store were offered jobs at the family's other Ace stores and roughly a dozen accepted the posts.

“I think that's pretty cool in this day and age,” Ziegler said.