Deer Park-based Costello's Ace Hardware to open more NJ, Pa. stores

The Deer Park-based hardware chain Costello’s Ace Hardware will open two new locations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania this summer.

The planned openings come as Costello’s Ace Hardware looks to grow from 63 stores to 100 locations by 2030, through new outposts in the Northeast, said Joey Costello, the company’s director of strategic partnerships and philanthropy.

The company plans to open its 23,000-square-foot New Jersey flagship at 235 Ridgedale Ave. in Cedar Knolls in mid-May, followed by a roughly 12,000-square-foot outpost at 1333 Easton Rd. in Abington, Pennsylvania, Costello said, adding that both stores are currently under construction.

Costello said the company decided to open its New Jersey flagship in Cedar Knolls because of the community's proximity to the affluent area of Morristown and its other New Jersey stores.

In Pennsylvania, the former Rite Aid building at Easton Road was a strong fit for the retailer because it needed only minor construction work before it was ready to open, said Peter Tiburzio, owner of Tiburzio Properties, which co-owns the building with Roslyn Bainbridge Trust.

Costello’s Ace Hardware’s new stores follow its purchase of Rommel’s Ace Home Centers last year, which added 11 locations across Delaware, Maryland and Virginia to the company's portfolio. It was the company’s largest single acquisition to date, Costello said.

The expansion also comes after last year’s closure of Costello’s Ace Hardware’s Melville store at 720 Walt Whitman Rd. That store lacked enough do-it-yourself customers to support the business, CEO Michael Costello told Newsday at the time.

The company plans to expand in the Northeast. It's looking for locations outside of Long Island in part because of the Island's high rents and taxes and the number of competing retailers, Joey Costello said.

"It’s all about the opportunity: the opportunities for expansion, to get into new and emerging markets. There really aren’t any new and emerging markets here on Long Island," Costello said.

Long Island is home to 35 Ace Hardware locations, according to CoStar data. Costello's Ace Hardware stores compete with the 51 True Value, nine Harbor Freight and eight Do it Best Corp. outposts on Long Island, plus home centers such as Home Depot, with its 36 locations, and 11 Lowe’s stores, according to CoStar data.

"The Long Island market has competition," said Steve Kent, chief economist for the Long Island Association. "The advantage of Long Island is you have a very strong customer base, with strong income."

Joey Costello said his company is committed to keeping existing stores and its headquarters on the Island, where he and his five siblings who run the company all live. Costello’s Ace Hardware has operated from its Deer Park headquarters, at 770 Grand Blvd., since the mid-1980s, Costello added.

Vincent "Vinnie" John Costello, who died in 2016, started Costello’s Ace Hardware with just one store in Deer Park in 1973, Newsday reported. He came to hardware after running a heating and air-conditioning business, which closed during the recession in the 1970s, and a career in the Navy from 1957 to 1960, where he served on the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt aircraft carrier.

He and his children grew Costello’s Ace Hardware to a company with 63 stores in the United States to date, Joey Costello said.

Costello’s stores are part of the Oak Brook, Illinois-based Ace Hardware cooperative. Ace has more than 5,000 stores nationwide, most of which are owned and operated by local business owners, according to Ace’s website.