Ace Hardware franchise owner Darek Barnes is opening a store at the Marketplace at Austin Bluffs, home to King Soopers, 24 Hour Fitness  and Hancock Fabrics.

Remodeling on the 21,940-square-foot space began Monday. The store’s grand opening is slated for Oct. 30, although the doors will open earlier in the month. Austin Bluffs Ace will be in a building formerly occupied by Hancock Fabrics, which built a new store at the center.

Austin Bluffs Ace general manager Harold Meteer said the location was chosen to target do-it-yourself homeowners who may, say, need to paint or replace a mailbox.

Unlike the big-box competition, Ace offers more variety and hard-to-find items such as single screws and fasteners, Meteer said.

Austin Bluffs Ace is a family-run business, said Kevin Kelley, vice president of United Properties, the center’s owner. Started by father David Barnes, the family operates three other Ace outlets in the Springs and one in Crosslake, Minn.

Kelley says the hardware store is good fit with the shopping center.Summit Cleaners and a nail salon recently signed leases for retail space, he said. The Marketplace at Austin Bluffs sits where the former Shops at the Bluffs, also known as Mall of the Bluffs, was built in the 1970s.

This photo taken June 11, 2009 shows the guest bedroom of designers John Loecke and Jason Oliver Nixon who used two bold, contrasting patterns on the walls and ceiling of the guest bedroom in their Brooklyn townhouse. Photo by (AP Photo/ Ray Kugler)

Ray Kugler