Ace Hardware store transforms former Jubilee in Medina

Photos by Tom Rivers – The former Jubilee in Medina has been gutted and turned into a hardware and lumber business at 342 East Center St. Ace Hardware opened the site last month following more than a year of renovations.

MEDINA – When Roger Andrews was at the closing to buy the former Hahn Hardware in Medina, local attorney Andrew Meier asked Andrews his long-term goal for the store.

Andrews said he would likely need more space. He wanted to offer more lumber and other choices for customers. That was on April 11, 2011.

Meier, who also serves as Medina’s mayor, suggested Andrews take a look at the former Jubilee store on East Center Street. That building had been empty since 2006, closing soon after Walmart opened a Supercenter in Albion.

Andrews, 42, went to see the former Jubilee and immediately saw possibilities in the vacant and run-down property. He acquired the site from the county by paying $100,000 in back taxes.

For 13 months he worked at transforming the 26,000-square-foot building. The store was gutted, with walls taken out to accommodate an Ace Hardware. Andrews opened the Ace on April 22 to praise from the community. He held the grand-opening celebration on May 18-19.

“It’s really cleaned up that end of the business district,” Meier said.

Roger Andrews, owner of the Ace Hardware in Medina, talks with customer Gloria Short at the former Jubilee site, which was renovated in a 13-month project.

The former Jubilee is a large building at the gateway to the downtown business district, coming on Route 31 from Albion. Meier said other building owners have also invested in that part of the village. He noted improvements by Lyon’s Collision and Tom Snyder, owner of Medina Lumber and Hardware.

“It’s great to see that continued investment at the end of the village,” Meier said.

Andrews said the former Jubilee site has tripled the space for hardware supplies. The other side of the building includes room for lumber. Andrews said the site has 36,000 different products and he will add more if there is a demand for them.

“With this style and layout it is so much easier for the customers,” Andrews said. “It’s bigger and brighter. You have aisles you can walk up and down.”

Andrews also owns an Ace Hardware in Derby, south of Hamburg. He has 26 years in the business, starting as a teen-ager.

Mark Watts of Medina shops in the plumbing section at the Ace Hardware in Medina.

He praised the Medina community for the renaissance in downtown Medina, with several new businesses opening in recent years and building owners tackling big renovation projects.

“The community has done such a great job on Main Street,” he said. “It’s definitely on an upswing.”

He changed the façade of the former Jubilee to make it look like a store from the early 1900s. He said the building provides a nice transition to the historic district.

“It would have been a shame to let this building sit,” he said. “This is the right project for this spot.”

He is working with tenants to use the former Hahn site on West Avenue across from the library. And Andrews is looking at other spots in Medina for other projects. But he’s going to hold off for now after working so hard to change the former Jubilee site.

“I want to do other rehab projects in Medina,” he said. “But I promised my wife I’d take a break.”