Hanneke Hardware’s Affton location on Gravois has lost its lease and will close by the end of the month, according to the owners.

“We were a subtenant of Walgreens, and unfortunately Walgreens’ lease expires at the end of the month with the landlord, and the landlord and I could not come to economic terms in order to stay there,” said Michael Grewe, Vice President of Sales and Land Acquisition at GJ Grewe Commercial Real Estate, whose wife Christine Kantis-Grewe bought the store last year.

According to Ian Gunn, manager of Hanneke’s store on Southwest Avenue, the owner of the space at 10042 Gravois Rd. wanted to double the business’s rent to continue the lease.

“They were not being very kind about that,” Gunn said. “There wasn’t anything we could really do.”

The St. Louis County website lists the building’s owner as Community Bank Of Raymore, with John T. Archer as trustee.

Hanneke’s lease expires on April 1. The store will be having a liquidation sale on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday of this week, and again on the same days next week: March 22 through 25. The store will be closed through this Wednesday.

The news was announced Monday on Hanneke’s Facebook page in a message from Kantis-Grewe. The post also said Hanneke would be searching for a new spot to set down.

“We are feverishly looking for alternative sites and hope to be announcing our new retail location within the next 60 days,” Kantis-Grewe wrote.

But according to Affton Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Joan Edleson, finding a suitable space large enough in Affton may be impossible.

“That building is already half empty,” Edleson said. “It’s really a bummer.”

Patch readers on Facebook reacted with similar dismay.

“Yes, they will be missed, not only were they a good hardware store, now Affton has another empty store,” wrote Don Holstein.

“We have shopped there for years,” wrote Linda Bigogno. “Jill helped us design our new kitchen last year.”

“Very sad, and once again another small business loses to this horrible economy,” lamented

Hanneke was founded in 1927 as a neighborhood hardware store. They moved into this latest Affton location five years ago. They also had a previous location in Affton on Gravois near Bob’s Liquor.