MCKINLEY PARK — Neighborhood folks with a growing list of home improvement needs can let out a sigh of relief: Gordon's Ace Hardware is now open.
Store owners Jeremy and Les Melnick — a father-and-son duo with eight Ace stores in Chicago — unveiled the 6,400-square-foot store at 3145 S. Ashland Ave. with a soft opening on July 31.
But the hardware bosses will host a grand opening this weekend, stretching Friday through Sunday.
Since customers have noticed the “NOW OPEN” sign hanging above the store’s front door, Jeremy Melnick has received many thanks for bringing the beloved handyman’s haven back to McKinley Park.
“We thought we would get a response,” the 43-year-old store owner said. “But I did not expect such a warm response.”
The opening of Gordon’s Ace comes exactly one year after the closing of the Elston Ace Hardware in the same shopping center. It's now the home of a Dollar Tree.
The store abruptly closed July 31, 2014, leaving about a dozen workers without jobs and loyal customers without a place to pick up their much-needed hardware supplies.
The Melnick family had been good friends with Richard Donchin, Elston's late owner, who died June 5, 2014, more than a month before his store closed. Though his family runs other stores in the area, his death prevented any chance of renewing a lease at the McKinley Park store.
The store's closing shook up the neighborhood.
“There was a hole in the market,” said Melnick, who learned soon after Donchin's shop closed that Ace corporate headquarters received numerous calls from concerned customers wanting to know if another hardware store would open in the neighborhood.
“Ace did not want to lose the store,” Melnick said.
The Melnicks soon found themselves in a position to open another Ace in McKinley Park. On June 9, 2015, the owner of Riverside Plaza handed over the property to Melnick.
By July 6, the store had its first shipment of shelves and fixtures to set up.
The process was nothing new to the Melnicks, who come from a long line of hardware store operators.
Art Melnick, Jeremy’s grandfather, opened the family’s first story at State and Oak in 1950. Since then, the family has opened eight stores in the Chicago area.
Jeremy Melnick left a banking job with Bank of America in 1998 to open his first store with his father, Les.
While he admits he’s not too much of a handyman himself, Melnick said he enjoys the challenge of keeping an important neighborhood business
“I came in here the run the business,” he said.
Here’s a look at the grand opening schedule and sales set for Gordon’s ACE Hardware this weekend:
Friday: Doors open at 8 a.m. With a special grand-opening coupon, customers will get $10 off any purchase of $30 or more on regular-priced items.
Saturday: Doors open at 8 a.m. With a coupon, customers get 50 percent off any regular-priced item under $30.
Sunday: Doors open at 10 a.m. For a $5 donation to Lurie Children’s Hospital, customers get a free paint bucket and 20 percent off all regular-priced items that fit inside the bucket.
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