Brian Higgins and Sylvia Blenkin have sold their Bay West Rona store to the owners of Cook Street Castle Building Centre.
The all-local deal will see Frank and Vicki Hagel take possession of the hardware store and lumber yard in Vic West on Saturday. The business will be closed over the weekend for inventory and rebranded as a Castle Building Centre for re-opening on Tuesday.
More than 20 staff will remain as part of the deal.
No financial details were disclosed. Higgins, who owns the building and 2.6 acres of land at 220 Bay St., said the Hagels are leasing the property.
“It’s a great opportunity,” Vicki Hagel said Tuesday. “Brian approached us, so when an opportunity like this presents itself, we did everything we could to make it happen.”
Higgins, 70, said his franchise agreement with Rona is expiring this year, which played a role in his decision to retire.
“It’s bittersweet,” Higgins said. “But it was time. The people who worked for us over the years and all the customers are such wonderful people. And we’ll miss them all.”
Higgins spent nearly 30 years in the hardware and lumber business, the first 15 running a Beaver Lumber franchise at Hillside Centre (now home to Thrifty Foods) and the last 15 years in Vic West, where he operated as a Home Hardware and then Rona.
He acquired the property from the provincial government after a Revy lumber and hardware store burned to the ground on a neighbouring property.
The Hagels have been around for just as long. Frank Hagel was an assistant manager at the Cook Street store when it was a Cubbon Home-All store in 1983.
He and Vicki took ownership in 1986 with partner Ken Gibbs and have operated the store since under Home Hardware and Do It Centre brands. They rebranded to Castle in 2009. The Cook Street store employs 22.
Vicki Hagel will manage the Bay Street store along with Brent Cowling.
Nicole Cuzner and Bob Akrigg, both long-time managers at the Rona store, are leaving.
Both locally owned stores have successfully weathered the tide of big-box competition over the decades, said Higgins.
“They are strategically located to serve the needs of the oldest part of the Victoria and Esquimalt communities, as well as the burgeoning assortment of new condos and townhouse developments in the inner part of the city,” he said.
“They also meet the needs of the many property managers, small businesses and hotels in the downtown core, as well as the city operations of Victoria and Esquimalt. This purchase will consolidate the presence of the Castle Building Centre brand in Greater Victoria. It strengthens the operation of the Hagels.”
Higgins said he’s been proud to play a role in the local economy and is pleased the Hagels will continue doing the same.
“The resilience of the privately run business is a refreshing reality in our municipality,” he said in a statement about the sale. “Entrepreneurs who invest their personal capital and risk their own nest eggs to offer needed services and solid employment opportunities are the backbone of a flourishing community.”
He said they employ local professionals such as lawyers, accountants and contractors. They advertise in local media, and spend and reinvest to build their businesses. They respond directly to the needs of the marketplace, both buying locally where possible, and tailoring product lines to residents’ needs.
They pay municipal taxes and purchase supplies from local vendors.
“When you support community businesses, you encourage the growth of the whole infrastructure that, in turn, strengthens and supports more homegrown success,” he said.
