Art Classes at Ace Hardware in Costa Mesa Ca

For nigh l years, a group of artists has gathered in an unlikely studio — a loft above a humming hardware store in Costa Mesa.

Merely the Creative person Loft Studio will accept to notice a new home every bit Crown Ace Hardware, from which the studio rents space, prepares to fold its location at 2666 Harbor Blvd., ending a long history of a hardware store in that spot.

Crown Ace President Marking Schulein said the building volition exist closing considering the owners of the footing where the store sits are selling. The fine art studio and hardware store are expected to be gone by the end of April, and with them, a mix of loyal customers from Costa Mesa and the surrounding area.

"We're a long-term Orange County company, family-run," Schulein said. "We so appreciate the back up that we've had at this store and all these stores for many years."

In that location accept been more than 20 offers for the property, which also includes used-automobile dealer EU Motorsports, said Nib Pedersen, a Realtor from Matthews Real Estate Investment Services. The future of the dealership is unknown.

Once a deal closes in the side by side couple of months, the new owner will decide on the extent of the lease, so Crown Ace could stick effectually by April.

"When we acquired [the edifice] near 20 years ago, we knew that this could potentially happen at the end of the charter," Schulein said. "We're not getting kicked out. The [country] owner has every correct to do whatever they want with information technology."

Neither he nor Pedersen identified who owns the state.

The Artist Loft Studio has been to a higher place Crown Ace Hardware in Costa Mesa for more than than 50 years, according to recent possessor Joyce Casey.

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Joyce Casey, who ran the art studio until recently, said, "It'due south just been a huge, supportive environment for all these years."

According to signatures and dates etched into its easels, the art studio has been in that location since the 1960s, Casey said.

"Everything was just e'er on a handshake," she said. "They just let usa use the space, and it was but amazing. You don't find that anywhere, especially something that would exist handed down from person to person for over 50 years."

For decades, small groups of artists take gathered in the loft space for weekly lessons in painting, mosaics, drawing and other media. Form payments would comprehend the costs of rent and supplies, Casey said — merely plenty to break even. When artists needed an odd tool — a yardstick peradventure, or a paintbrush — they could merely skip downstairs to buy one.

"We're spoiled," said Alice Leggett, an Artist Loft Studio painting teacher.

When asked where the fine art studio will go afterward Apr, electric current owner Bob Bucci laughed.

"I haven't got a inkling," said the 75-yr-old acrylic painting teacher.

On a recent afternoon, several empty easels lined a wall of the darkened studio space, just above the hardware shop flooring where shoppers brushed past yellowish discount signs promoting "30% off electrical" and "forty% off hardware."

The closure of Crown Ace will end well-nigh 60 years of hardware stores at the site. Earlier the Schulein family unit took over in 2002, the spot was occupied by a True Value hardware store, which replaced Kerm Rima'south hardware and nursery.

Though a Domicile Depot sits but a mile down Harbor Boulevard, many locals said they prefer the Crown Ace location.

Sam Orellana, 24, said he visits well-nigh once a week for items such equally screws, a trash can or glass cleaner.

"If I demand a cut lath, I tin can go that while I get my screws," Orellana said. "That helped a lot."

Existent manor broker James Harvey, 52, said he holds a business account with Abode Depot but prefers to purchase personal items at Crown Ace. Though he couldn't detect a special plumbing equipment for his automobile that he was hunting for recently, Harvey said Crown Ace is typically his "get-to store."

"I'd rather back up the local, small shop vs. the conglomerate," Harvey said. "I've always supported my local store."

James Harvey stops at Crown Ace Hardware on Harbor Boulevard in Costa Mesa well-nigh once a week to buy personal odds and ends. "I've always supported my local store," he said.

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Employees are busy stocking the shelves with the terminal few shipments.

"Information technology's a little bloodshot," said banana manager Dan Hawley, who has worked for the Crown Ace store for 15 years.

Later the closure of the Costa Mesa store — and some other in Carlsbad — Crown Ace volition accept 18 stores in the western United states of america. The chain will go on all employees from the Harbor Boulevard location and spread them around neighboring businesses, Schulein said.

Hawley said moving to a nearby store wouldn't inconvenience him too much.

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Source: https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/story/2020-02-05/crown-ace-hardware-and-upstairs-art-studio-nearing-closure-in-costa-mesa

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