The site of the former Aubuchon Hardware plaza in Saranac Lake is seen on Thursday. The company is preparing to rebuild on this site next month after a fire destroyed the building in 2023. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — Construction on the Aubuchon Hardware plaza on Broadway is expected to start some time in November, and construction crews are currently preparing the site to lay the foundation for a new building after the former one was destroyed in a fire in early 2023.

Michael Sambuceti, a development manager for Aubuchon Realty Company, said construction crews are “mobilized” for the rebuild and that they are excited to finally do it.

He expected the building to start going up within the next month to month-and-a-half. Sambuceti said they plan on not stopping for winter, working through it with the hope of getting the building sealed up before the real cold and snow starts.

The plaza will be a pre-engineered building, which he expects to be assembled in a month to a month-and-a-half.

“Those go up pretty quickly,” Sambuceti said.

The hardware store itself is expected to reopen in the second quarter of 2025, late spring, according to Sambuceti. He said they have heard and felt the void of the store being absent from Saranac Lake.

One of those people feeling the void is Chris Grimone, co-owner of the Woods and Waters outdoors store across the street. He said he went to Aubuchon for a variety of things, personally, and for his shop. The glass countertops in the store and the glass windows on the exterior were all cut by Rick Burngasser, who is now working at the Lake Placid Aubuchon location.

This spring, Aubuchon got all the permits it needed from the village to rebuild at the Saranac Lake location.

The proposed building will be slightly smaller than the previous one — 25,900 square feet in total with Aubuchon taking 14,450 square feet and other tenants taking 10,640 square feet.

Aubuchon owns the plaza, which included its store and a former connected building housing CED Electric, ADK Solar and MC Construction. These other businesses found new locations after being displaced by the fire.

Sambuceti said on Thursday that they are still hashing out a new tenant. None have been settled yet, but they’re in talks with some potential businesses. Earlier this year, he said they expected a dry goods store.

In January 2023, a fire broke out in a furnace at the electrical companies’ building. The fire shot flames into the sky, and 13 fire departments from three counties fought it.

The fire took place in the early morning, before the building was occupied by humans, and the two store cats — Harry and Lloyd — were rescued by firefighters and store manager Rich Hough.

The cause was deemed accidental. The plaza was completely demolished this summer, as the structure was not able to be salvaged.