By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Main Street Ace Hardware, a cornerstone of downtown Bowling Green business, changed hands earlier today (Jan. 13).
Local business operators Dave and Kati Thompson finalized the purchase the hardware store from Floyd Craft, who opened the business in 1987. The deal has been in the works since last summer and had been pending approval by the Ace Hardware corporation.
“We’re blessed. We’re thrilled,” Dave Thompson said of the purchase. “I can’t express in words how grateful I am to him for this opportunity.
“I’m just tickled to death,” Craft said. “They’re perfect.” He wanted to sell to local owners.
Craft said he decided to sell because he was getting older. The 86-year-old came to town to open a Ben Franklin store, now Downtown Ben’s, in 1976. His daughter Amy Craft Ahrens opened the gift shop For Keeps in 1997, and, he said, he expects she may eventually take over Ben’s.
But he’s been looking to sell the hardware store for a while.
Craft said that when he told attorney Mike Marsh and Realtor Dick Newlove over coffee that he was putting the store on the market, they both suggested the Thompsons might be interested.
Craft approached Kati Thompson, who is the city’s economic development director and owns Eden Fashion Boutique on South Main Street, and asked her if she and her husband would be interested. She contacted her husband right away.
Dave Thompson said adding the store is a natural extension of his business Thompson & Thompson Construction, and the TDK Property Group, which the couple jointly own.
Dave Thompson said they will retain the 11 hardware store employees including long-time store manager Carol Tolles.
Dave Thompson said he does plan some renovations to the store.
He said for the past few weeks, he’s been in the hardware every day working to make the transition as seamless as possible. Among his discoveries was the original oak floor underneath the tile. He plans to pull up the tile and restore the wood flooring. He’ll also paint the walls and he will renovate the store’s mezzanine.
Aside from this and some reorganization, the store will remain the same.
“Only better,” Craft said. All the changes had to be approved by Ace. “They’re all for the good,” Craft said
Dave Thompson said the name will remain the same, in part out out of respect for what Craft has achieved.
Thompson said he came into the construction business working with old buildings. A 1995 graduate of Bowling Green High School, he said: “I was going to be an architect. I enjoyed architecture and drafting, but I couldn’t sit still, so I became a builder and a remodeler.”
He started in the construction business right after graduating from high school. “I got into all these home jobs, these old houses that none of these contactors wanted to mess with because a lot of them were rental properties. … I fell in love with the architecture of these old places.”
And as he’s discovered the hardware stores has plenty of quirks. “These buildings were not built square.”
He renovated the space that Eden is in, and in 2020, the Thompsons purchased the building from Craft.
Thompson said he’ll be able to purchase most of what he needs for the construction business through Ace, which operates as a cooperative. That will benefit both Thompson & Thompson and Ace Hardware.
Craft said this is not retirement for him. “My people at the hardware ran the store,” he said. “I’m not going to be working any less than I did before.”
