Elmwood Hardware May Not Reopen after Remodel
From the Contra Costa Times:
Elmwood Hardware, a Berkeley neighborhood icon since 1923, will close Oct. 1 for extensive remodeling, and owner Tad Laird said the chances are only 50-50 that it will ever reopen.Read the full article: Uncertain future: Berkeley store will be remodeled, may stay closed"The store isn't losing money," he said. "But the property absolutely needs to have about $4,000 to $5,000 in upgrades, and I'm not sure I can afford that."
Laird said the building, which was declared a city landmark last year, needs to be seismically retrofitted and brought up to standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
"Plus, we have no running water, our heat comes from a ceiling heater with an asbestos flue, and the electrical wiring is so old, every computer in the store is on a battery backup. So you hear a click every time we turn on the paint shaker."
4 comments:
it will be really sad if they don't reopen. i rarely actually go to the store, but i like knowing there is a real hardware store (in the pre-Lowe's/Home Depot sense) just a few blocks down. the fact that it is such an historic establishment makes this feeling even stronger.
$4,000 to $5,000 to renovate, and they can't afford it? That's got to be off by at least one order of magnitude, if not two. You can't remodel a simple residential kitchen around here for much less than $100K.
I hope they make a go off it, though. They've saved me a ton of aggravation when I've needed a quick fix in a household emergency.
Yeh, I was actually wondering if that was a typo. I think I might spend more than that every month getting coffees a few doors down at the Beanery. ;)
Yeh it was a typo. It really requires $400,000-$500,000 in repairs.
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