Palm Springs Ace Hardware will close its Smoke Tree Village store when its lease runs out on February 28, 2027, ending a run at the East Palm Canyon Drive location that began in 2009. The store, which employs roughly four dozen people, says it will start liquidating its inventory in the coming days as it searches for a new home somewhere else in the city.
According to The Palm Springs Post, the store's owners have not secured a new location and cannot yet offer a timeline for reopening because negotiations are still underway. The Smoke Tree Village space is expected to be occupied by another retailer once Ace moves out, the outlet reports. Store leadership struck a bittersweet but defiant tone in a statement, saying it is saddened to leave Smoke Tree Village but committed to continuing the business.
“We're not saying goodbye to Palm Springs,” the Palm Springs Ace Hardware team said, adding, “We're working toward saying, ‘see you at our new location!’” The team also said it is “actively working to secure a new location where we hope to return bigger and better than ever,” and insisted, “We are not giving up on our future!”
A Business With Roots Back to 2000
The store's history in Palm Springs stretches back further than its Smoke Tree Village address suggests. Palm Springs Hardware was founded in February 2000 at a former shopping mall that is now the site of a College of the Desert campus, before relocating to Smoke Tree Village in 2009. It operated under the True Value name before switching to Ace Hardware in 2020.
The team has thanked the community for more than 25 years of support. Co-owner Erik Graham captured that sentiment in 2023, saying, “We are not just a hardware store, we are a destination, an experience for so many all over the world,” and adding, “But what gives us the most pride is our community.”
Smoke Tree Village's Long Run as a Retail Hub
Smoke Tree Village opened in 1965 and has long served as a retail hub for South Palm Springs, historically anchored by a Ralphs supermarket. The shopping center is owned by Smoke Tree Ranch, whose chief operating officer, Tracy Conrad, has described a separate redevelopment project planned for the property as an opportunity to revitalize the site.
In-N-Out's Long Road Through City Review
That redevelopment project is a planned In-N-Out Burger, which would rise at 1801 E. Palm Canyon Drive in the Smoke Tree Village Shopping Plaza, according to KESQ. The restaurant would replace a Bank of America building that had sat vacant since 2024, per NBC Palm Springs.
The project has moved through an unusually long city review process. The Palm Springs Planning Commission approved the In-N-Out plans in July 2025, and this past October, the city's Architectural Review Committee voted 3-2 to approve revised plans, subject to 18 design requirements imposed during an earlier review, The Palm Springs Post reports. That followed a July review in which planning commissioners voted 5-0 to approve revised design conditions but still wanted another look before signing off on the final architecture, according to the same NBC Palm Springs report, which noted the project was expected to return for a sixth design review.
Plans filed with the city describe a drive-thru lane with room for about 42 vehicles and on-site parking for 82 cars, The Palm Springs Post reported separately. Reports have described the proposed restaurant's size differently — one account put it at 4,000 square feet, while another cited a 2.34-acre site without confirming the same figure — and the project narrative reviewed by that outlet did not specify a construction timeline or an anticipated opening date.
For now, the fate of the Ace Hardware storefront and the long-anticipated In-N-Out remain separate but intertwined chapters in Smoke Tree Village's next act. One longtime tenant is counting down to a February exit with no new address yet in hand, while a incoming fast-food chain is still working through design conditions years after it was first proposed.
