David and Taryn Stine have bought the Ace Hardware store at 518 W. San Antonio St. in Lockhart, bringing three generations of hardware and lumber know-how from Louisiana into a fast-growing Central Texas town. The store already operates seven days a week, and the couple has laid out plans for renovations, new product lines and additional hiring in the months ahead.
David Stine is a third-generation part-owner of Stine, a chain of home centers across Louisiana and Mississippi, according to the Lockhart Post Register. The Lockhart location operates as a locally owned store within the Ace cooperative, a structure in which independent owners run their own shops under the Ace banner. Stine's own corporate materials describe the company as a family-owned home improvement retailer and building-material supplier serving homeowners and residential and commercial contractors, according to Stine Home + Yard.
The family's hardware roots trace back to David Stine's grandfather, Jackson William “JW” Stine, who flew B-26 bombers in World War II before returning to Sulphur, Louisiana, where he began building houses for returning veterans, the Post Register reports. Supply runs for those building projects eventually grew into a warehouse, then a hardware store, then a lumber company. JW Stine lived to age 102 and raised seven children, and David Stine has said his grandfather's business approach still guides the family today.
A Family Path That Led to Lockhart
David Stine's own path to the hardware business started early: he earned his first paycheck at age 10 working in the family store. He later finished high school in New Braunfels, where his father was stationed at Kelly Air Force Base, giving him an early tie to Central Texas long before the Lockhart purchase. Outside the family business, Stine has founded and led a church for more than a decade and runs Advance Partners, which the Post Register describes as helping nonprofits, schools and churches grow.
Taryn Stine is a CPA who keeps the books for the family's businesses, and the couple has four children. David Stine told the Post Register that Lockhart's courthouse square, its barbecue culture, its history and its neighborliness were what drew him to the town. He said he hopes residents will eventually just call it “our hardware store,” and that the family hopes to build a lasting business their four children are proud to carry forward.
Longer Hours, Renovations and a Barbecue Focus
Stine Ace Hardware operates Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., longer hours than before, and the Stines are hiring to support that expanded schedule. The plan is to focus the store on hardware, tools and paint, with staff greeting every customer at the door and guiding them to the right aisle.
This fall, the store begins an exterior renovation that will add a new front porch, Austin stone, awnings and an enclosed garden center, the Post Register reports. After the first of the year, the interior will be updated to Ace's newest store design, and in early 2027 the store will add a full line of barbecue accessories. David Stine said the goal is for the store to become Lockhart's headquarters for pit and backyard needs.
Fitting Into a Booming Lockhart
The Stines' arrival lands amid a broader growth wave in Lockhart. The city's population reached an estimated 17,146 in 2026, a 19.2% increase since the 2020 Census, according to bizjournals.com. Employment in the city grew 4.47% from 2023 to 2024, with construction, health care and retail trade leading the way, the outlet reports.
Other recent investment in Lockhart includes Sensei Farms, which acquired a 25-acre, 283,000-square-foot site for controlled-environment agriculture in September 2025, and the Ziegenfelder Company, which chose Lockhart for a $29 million manufacturing facility expected to create 100 jobs. Austin developer Wilson Capital is also launching a $2.15 billion master-planned community on 932 acres along State Highway 130, per the same bizjournals.com report, while a new mixed-use project called 183 Crossing is adding roughly 73,000 square feet of retail and office-warehouse space with suites ranging from 1,820 to 9,282 square feet.
Back at the hardware store, the Stines say their aims are simpler: local jobs, fair prices, honest advice and spending that stays in Lockhart. David Stine has defined success three to five years out as a healthy, growing store with a happy team, steady jobs and satisfied customers, and the plan going forward is to choose a few community efforts and support them well rather than spread the business thin.
