Palatine Mutual Ace Opening Is New Chapter In Sheahen Story

PALATINE, IL — Three years after Highland Park businessman Dane Sheahen passed away, his son Kyle Sheahen is carrying on his legacy. As co-owner of Highland Park-based Mutual Ace Hardware — along with his father's first cousin, Chris Sheahen — Kyle is now guiding the family business into its 102nd year, having just opened a second location at 50 Northwest Highway in Palatine.

According to Kyle, who is CEO and sole owner of the second location, the Palatine store's soft opening was June 7, just months after Mutual Ace took over the old Ace Hardware that was going out of business under different ownership. Just one week in, Kyle is already well on his way to building Palatine's store into what he describes as the ultimate hardware store experience. That includes the largest grill department in the area — even bigger than the Highland Park store's.

"We're platinum-level dealers for Weber [and] Big Green Egg, among several others," Kyle told Patch.

Kyle also said they brought in top power equipment manufacturer Stihl Chainsaws and a full workwear line, including more than 50 different styles of work boots customers can come and check out in the store.

"We have the best hardware and fastener supply in Illinois," Kyle said, adding that people are so thrilled when they find out Mutual Ace has what they're looking for.

Because the new store is in the same plaza as a pet resort, Kyle said they have a large expansion of all natural, high-end specialty dog food and dog treat brands in "Buddy's Natural Pet Shop" — what Kyle calls a store within the store. The shop is named after his dad’s English Bulldog, whom Kyle adopted after his dad passed away.

Kyle said they bring several popular pup products into the store and sell them at a lower price, including Taste of the Wild, Barkworthies, Earth Animal, Acana and more.

"We aren’t your cookie cutter hardware store that has just the basics," Kyle said. "We go above and beyond to have everything in store.”

While Kyle said he wants the Palatine location to have the same notoriety the Highland Park spot does when it comes to having what the customers want and need, there's one thing that stands out when Kyle talks about Mutual Ace.

"We are problem solvers for home restoration and preservation," Kyle said. "Whether it's pest control, getting lawns in order or something else, customers come to us, and we solve their problems for them and send them home with the correct items so they can go back to playing golf and enjoying their day.”

According to Kyle, problem solving and excellent customer service have always been the top priorities for the family business, spanning five generations.

"My great-great-grandfather started Mutual Coal in 1917, originally delivering coal by horse and buggy in Highland Park, but very quickly switched to trucks for delivery," Kyle told Patch. "Highland Park High School sits on the property where the original coal delivery business location was."

According to Kyle, the business also started carrying gravel, mulch and other bulk material, leading to where the business is today.

Kyle told Patch his grandfather built the family's original hardware store, Mutual Hardware, in the late the 1950s in Highland Park. Then in the 1980s, Kyle's dad and Chris rebuilt the store at the same location, the current Mutual Ace store.

"In the early 2000s, we got out of the bulk material business and went into the rental equipment division," Kyle told Patch. Known as Mutual Rentals, Kyle said he worked in this division after leaving college in 2012, tripling the size of the business in just four years by changing the marketing campaign and investing over $2 million.

Kyle said he was an economics major and business minor in college, but dropped out to help his dad and sister take care of his mom, who lost her battle with ALS in 2013. Kyle helped his dad with the business after she died.

"You only have one mom, but you can go back to school whenever," Kyle said.

Kyle said he was able get experience in the business before his dad, who he calls his mentor, died in 2016.

"When I took over the hardware store when he passed away, the first thing I ventured into for the store was the garden center," Kyle said. "We ended up renting space right next to our property and ended up with a full-service nursery."

According to Kyle, the store's garden center makes up 20 percent of their business, with lawn and garden sales at their highest in May. "We now have trees and everything you need," Kyle said.

As for the new Palatine store, Kyle said they're looking to bring in the same garden center concept and rental division as in Highland Park. Kyle told Patch the rental division is coming within the year, followed by Palatine store's garden center.

The parking lot will be turned into a garden center," Kyle said. "Next spring, we'll be offering the same plants that are offered in Highland Park."

Kyle told Patch the new store's grand opening sale will take place Friday, June 28, through Sunday, June 30, and there will be several grill demos, a chainsaw carver on site carving a statue of Buddy out of a log, and more happenings.

Can't make it to Mutual Ace? You can purchase items you need on acehardware.com, and have them delivered by a knowledgeable Mutual Ace associate within the same day, Kyle said.

"I have customers here in Palatine coming in, saying 'I know your dad,' 'I worked for your dad,'" Kyle told Patch. "I hope to see that the community knows that we have their backs when they’re having problems with their homes. When they have a leaky faucet and they don't know how to fix it, we want to be a partner with them."

It's all part of Kyle's hope to carry on his dad's legacy by seeing Palatine's store become — just like Highland Park's — a store the community can rely on.

"Part of keeping him alive in spirit is me building this company, bigger and better," he said.