WICHITA — The Dondlinger family may best be known for its construction company, but now it’s expanding its hardware store business, too.
Dondlinger and Sons Construction is opening two Williams Ace Hardware stores in coming months.
The first will have a March 30 grand opening, with a soft opening about a week before, in the former White’s Foodliner building in Goddard.
The family bought the former grocery at 199th and U.S. 54 in November. At the time, Raymond Dondlinger, who is in operations and business development for the construction and hardware companies, told Have You Heard? he wasn’t ready to share plans.
The Dondlingers also are working on a second store in the former Ace Hardware in Andover at 642 N. Andover Road. That store should open about a month after the one in Goddard.
This is in addition to the Williams Ace Hardware the Dondlingers bought at Central and Woodlawn in May.
The business was started by the family’s maternal grandfather, Jim Williams, in 1958 and most recently was owned by his namesake son.
“It’s still a family-owned business,” Raymond Dondlinger says. It’s one he says the family would like to grow.
“We saw … a need out in Goddard,” he says. “Being in Goddard, it will probably be … more agricultural based.”
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