Pullman's New Ace Hardware Moved Into the Building Where the Lumber Started

Pullman Building Supply's last day of business was set for November 30, 2024. For the 22 months after that, paint, fasteners and lumber meant a drive to Moscow. A new Ace Hardware was scheduled to soft-open Tuesday, September 29, 2026, on North Grand Avenue. It is in the old Lumberyard building, the same steel hut where Pullman Building Supply once sold lumber.

How the store came back matters as much as where. A national chain didn't pick Pullman off a map. The town's hardware store came back because a local contractor was paying for its absence every day, one Moscow round trip at a time.

One building, four tenants

The Lumberyard sits at 305 N. Grand Ave., near downtown. The Spokesman-Review described it as a 1950s steel, semicircular hut that was first used as a lumberyard and building supply facility. Here is its history in order:

The food hall years left their mark. An early Inlander profile listed six of the first vendors: Jenny's Chicken Shack, Grand Ave. Gourmet Burgers, La Isla Cuban Cuisine, Whole Pizza and Whole Yard salads, (509) Coffee, and Scoops ice cream. When it closed, the Lumberyard had four food businesses and two bars. Its Facebook page also listed indoor and outdoor children's areas, two patios, a dance floor, karaoke and bingo. The owners announced the closure in January and did not give a reason. Two of the vendors, Mang's Sushi and Mi Rinconcito Colombiano, said they planned to keep serving Pullman from new locations.

Once the food hall moved out, the building went back to its first job. Store manager Rodrigo Bevin told the Daily Evergreen in August that the team spent six weeks designing the store, demolishing and rebuilding. "We had to take all the containers and the kitchen supplies out," Bevin said. "We've restored the building to its original shape."

The person who felt the gap most

The new owner is Jason Dyke. He has run Revival Home Performance, a Pullman home construction and remodeling company, for 15 years. The Daily Evergreen says his businesses also cover general contracting, excavation, concrete, hardwood flooring, gutters and snowplowing. Every one of those needs a steady supply of materials.

For a homeowner, the Moscow drive was an annoyance a few times a season. For Dyke's crews, it happened all day, every day:

"I'm sending two to three employees who are making two to three trips every single day to Moscow and back. It's really expensive for us as a company as well as a loss of time to send people back and forth."

That math explains why the store came back. A contractor sending a few employees on a few round trips a day was effectively running a supply line to Idaho. He had a clearer view than anyone of what a store on North Grand would save. Dyke described the store as filling a hole in the town's working economy. "It's not a niche, it's a need," he said. "I think that a town of our size without a hardware store, it's pretty tough considering we have WSU, we have SEL, we have a lot of businesses getting by without a functioning hardware store."

He picked Ace for the service model. "We looked into different hardware offerings and we really felt like we aligned with Ace hardware the most because they're very service and customer oriented," he said.

Why Pullman lost its hardware store in the first place

Pullman has lost a hardware store twice in recent years. An Ace on the south side of town closed in 2018. Pullman Building Supply left North Grand for the south end of town and closed its store at 400 SE Fairmount Drive in November 2024. In 2024, owner Tyler Garrett told the Daily Evergreen the decision came down to Washington taxes and regulation and to lower operating costs in Moscow. The Moscow store and the company's online shop stayed open.

That makes the Pullman Ace a bet on the other side of the same math. Garrett's figures favored running one store across the state line. Dyke's figures counted what it cost a Pullman business to send crews across that line every day. Both were looking at the same 10-mile stretch of road, which is the distance customers mentioned in 2024 when they talked about driving to Moscow.

The other old hardware building is filling up too

The Fairmount Drive property sat empty after November 2024. Pullman Radio reported on July 31, 2026, that Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories plans to buy it, the same SEL that Dyke named as one of the businesses getting by without a local hardware store. The building has 135,810 square feet. SEL's property team will turn it into a manufacturing facility, with operations expected to start in early 2027 and about 300 people eventually working there.

So both buildings that Pullman Building Supply used are being put back to work within a few months of each other. The North Grand hut goes back to selling hardware to the trades. The Fairmount store becomes a production floor for SEL. Each one changed hands because someone in Pullman needed space to do work.

What's confirmed for the store's first weeks

As of September 30, the information below comes from advance reporting. No report from September 29 or later confirming that the soft opening happened as planned had turned up yet.

• Location: the former Lumberyard building at 305 N. Grand Ave.
• Planned hours: 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sunday
• Staff: about a dozen employees, managed by Rodrigo Bevin
• Stock mentioned so far: Benjamin Moore paint and some building supplies
• Grand opening: planned for later, with no date announced yet

The store came in ahead of its original timeline. In July, Pullman Radio reported an early October opening, and the date later moved up to September 29. A full list of services hasn't been published. If you're hoping for something specific, like keys cut, a screen repaired or paint matched to an old chip, call before you make the trip.

The timing works out for fall jobs. Idaho's studded snow tire season starts Thursday, October 1, which is a reminder that the window for outdoor projects is closing. Gutter cleaning, weatherstripping and a can of paint for the porch railing no longer mean a trip to Moscow. They mean a stop on North Grand at 7:30 on a Saturday morning.

If your fall project list doubles as getting ready to sell, Krista Gross can help you decide which repairs are worth a trip to the new store on North Grand and which ones buyers won't notice. Start with a personalized home valuation, then plan the work around what your home is worth today.