By Scott Elpers

New changes are happening at the old building that once housed White’s Foodliner in Goddard.

The Dondlinger family, who owns Dondlinger and Sons Construction, purchased the building at the corner of 199th and U.S. Highway 54 at auction, which has been empty since the longtime grocery store went out of business in March.

The building will be the future home of Williams Ace Hardware, which is set for a grand opening on March 30, said Raymond Dondlinger, who is in operations and business development for the construction and hardware companies.

“We saw an opportunity in Goddard,” Dondlinger said. “It’s a great community.”

The Goddard location isn’t the Dondlingers only endeavor into the hardware store business. They are also revamping a second Ace Hardware in Andover, which is set to open shortly after the one in Goddard. The Dondlingers also purchased another Williams Ace Hardware in Wichita last May.

The 22,000 square-foot location in Goddard will have all of the staples familiar with most hardware stores, as well as more products geared toward agriculture, said Mike Lanois, area general manager of the three Ace Hardware locations.

The hardware store will carry a variety of feed for livestock and pet food. It will also stock fertilizer, stock tanks and have a repair shop for power tools and an indoor lumber yard. It will also have one of the largest collections of nuts and bolts in the area.

Lanois has contacted the Goddard School District about selling Goddard High School and Eisenhower High School apparel. The Goddard location will also house a coffee shop connected to hardware store, Lanois said.

Construction crews have been busy renovating the building for its March opening, but Dondlinger said most of the revamping was cosmetic.

“The building was is in pretty good shape,” Dondlinger said.

Crews are currently working on the front façade of the building. Lanois said they also replaced the building’s roof, and put in a new parking lot. The inside of the building was stripped down, but should be ready to start placing product in the store in the upcoming weeks.

This is not the first Ace Hardware to settle in Goddard. A smaller Ace Hardware went out of business in Goddard within the last year, but Lanios said it was built too early and the size of the store was too small for the area. With the recent boom in construction in the area, Lanois expects the new Ace Hardware to be successful.

Work is progressing inside and out on the new Williams Ace Hardware store in Goddard. The new store is going into the former White’s Foodliner grocery store at Kellogg and 199th Street.