Ace in the hole

Muskego — When it comes to Elliott's Ace Hardware stores, Muskego's gain could mean New Berlin's loss.

With the planned April opening of a new Elliott's Ace Hardware store in the Muskego Commerce Center East, the existing store at 12805 W. Janesville Road will close, said Elliott's president Stewart Elliott Jr.

Elliott's recently bought 3.25 acres near the Super Walmart now under construction on Moorland Road just south of College Avenue. As planned, the new store would have more than 20,000 square feet compared to the New Berlin store's 11,000 square feet.

A need to expand

"We needed to expand that (existing) store," Elliott said. "We are not able to do what we do at other locations."

If plans hold, the new location will be able to offer things the current one just does not have room for, Elliott said.

The housewares and lawn and garden sections will expand considerably, and the selection of merchandise in the other departments will be broader, he said. Most departments will increase 50 percent with deeper offerings.

The new store will be about the size of the Elliott's Ace Hardware in Pewaukee, he said, but not as big as stores in Elm Grove and West Allis.

Employees new and old

All the employees will move over to the new store and an undetermined number of new people will be hired, he said.

"We really are fortunate to have an outstanding staff," Elliott said.

The Janesville Road location has been a hardware store since about the late 1980s. Before that it was a Piggly Wiggly, Elliott said, then a Bangs Ace Hardware.

Elliott's Ace Hardware took over the site in the early 1990s, Elliott said.

Elliott's opened its first store in the 1960s in downtown Elm Grove. It relocated that store to Watertown Plank Road near Brookfield Square.

- Jane Ford-Stewart