A neighborhood hardware store in Ankeny that closed after its owner died was reopened and has moved into a bigger space previously occupied by Mistress Brewing Co.

The Denny Elwell Co. purchased the Ankeny Hardware store from the Rich DeReus family after DeReus died in 2022. Chris Murray, president and CEO of the Denny Elwell Co., said the store eventually closed and remained shuttered until the Elwell Group reopened it in December of 2023 in its original location at 700 N. Ankeny Blvd. In March, it moved into the former brewing company space owned by the Denny Elwell Co. Mistress Brewing Co. closed in late 2022.

In the move, the hardware store, which is affiliated with the Hardware Hank brand, grew from about 6,800 square feet to the 10,000 square feet it now occupies at 1802 N. Ankeny Blvd.

Murray said the driving factor in buying the business was to return a neighborhood hardware store to the north side of Ankeny.

“You have the big-box stores on Delaware and an Ace Hardware opened on the southwest side of town, but the north side was really lacking and missed that store,” he said. “The talk around the community of not having that store on the north side any longer propelled our inquiry. I had gone to that store myself, so I was missing it, too.”

Murray said the Denny Elwell Co. reached out and was able to bring back the manager, assistant manager and many of the employees who had worked at the store before it closed.

The hardware store takes up 10,000 square feet of the former Mistress Brewing Co. space. The brewery was larger, so the space was subdivided with the company’s brewing production area now occupied by Hy-Vee, which is operating a private label bottling operation in that area, Murray said.

Moving to the larger space has allowed the store to grow from a “nuts and bolts” hardware store to more of a “general store that sells hardware,” Murray said.

“We sell so many more items today than we did in the old footprint,” he said.

The hardware had been located at 700 N. Ankeny Blvd. for almost 50 years before it moved, and Murray said it had only three owners before the Denny Elwell Co. purchased it. The space remains vacant.

Murray said despite Ankeny’s fast growth, it is considered a “big small town” where neighborhood convenience is appreciated.

“This was a void that could be filled,” he said. “A neighborhood hardware store has an ambiance with people who understand how to complete projects.”