Seven Corners Hardware, a downtown St. Paul staple that began selling pots, pans and hunting gear 80 years ago, has been sold and will likely close this spring.

Bill Walsh, the store’s third-generation owner, informed employees Tuesday morning that an undisclosed buyer would be taking over the site. The store will likely remain open into April or May.

Citing confidentiality agreements, Walsh declined to name the buyer or discuss a sale price.

Walsh said that over the years, his family had turned down several offers to sell the two-story shop that his grandfather William L. Walsh opened in 1933. A decade ago, however, he and his wife and three children moved to Orange County, Calif., and he has since become focused on real estate and business investments in California, Nevada and Arizona.

Walsh said his eldest child, a freshman at Notre Dame, was unlikely to return to the store as a fourth-generation owner.

“We have always resisted these types of offers,” Walsh said in a statement. “But late last year, we made the difficult decision to sell.”

Prospective new owners have also submitted an offer to buy the adjacent church, which was recently put up for sale, prompting speculation Tuesday that a hotel group, restaurateur or large-scale developer was behind both purchase offers.

City officials could neither confirm nor deny a link between the sales, but they noted that a new block-length development could transform a long-stable corner of West Seventh Street within a short walk from Xcel Energy Center.

Walsh, who has run Seven Corners for 28 years, said the hardest part of the decision was “contemplating the effect” the sale would have on its 28 full-time workers.

Since 1933, the store has made a point to serve every kind of customer — from hobbyists to homeowners and contractors to craftsmen. Roadies working on concert stages at the X often stopped in to pick up sometimes-obscure items, and “we’ve managed to con a bunch of tickets out of road crews over the years,” said manager Pat Schimota.

Walsh’s grandfather began the venture as more of a general store, selling pots, pans and hunting gear alongside tools.

By the 1960s, his son, Robert L. Walsh, shaped the business to take advantage of the postwar boom, providing tools for the growing home-building business.

When Bill Walsh took over in the late 1980s, he focused on expanding mail-order services. Catalog sales surged; Seven Corners added a second floor, and its free 640-page catalog became a sort of handyman’s bible.

The company sells 200 kinds of hammers, 400 different screwdrivers, 170 files and more than 4,200 plumbing products.

Walsh said he considered a range of factors before selling the business. The store’s prime location assured that pressure to sell would only grow, and when a buyer emerged last year, “it seemed like the right time for this decision,” Walsh said. “Timing is everything.”

Schimota called the announcement of the store’s sale a surprise to employees, but understandable given the pace of development in downtown St. Paul and along West Seventh Street.

“But I’m going to miss it,” he said. “I’ve been here half of my life, a quarter century. I’ve worked for two of the three generations (of owners). It’s been a remarkable place to be because of the customers who have come through here.”

Among the changes he has seen, Cossetta Alimentari recently expanded across the street, adding a rooftop bar and restaurant and a traditional Italian bakery and grocer, among other upgrades. And a number of restaurants and taverns have created an entertainment district surrounding the hardware store.

Immediately next door to the hardware store, the Free at Last Church of God in Christ went on the market not long ago for $3 million. Real estate agent Randy Crooms said a prospective buyer had submitted a purchase offer, though a sale has not been finalized.

Crooms, who would not identify the buyer, said he did not know whether the group buying the hardware store was connected, but he said he wouldn’t be surprised if they were.

“I think folks are just simply interested in that site because it’s adjacent to the Xcel. You’ve got a huge entertainment venue. … I think that’s the main selling point,” Crooms said.

“You have other restaurants, and then you’re adjacent to downtown. I think it’s definitely an up-and-coming area. The expansion at Cossetta’s kind of put the writing on the wall.”

On Tuesday, David Cossetta said he would miss being able to cross the street to shop at the hardware store, but he was not surprised by the sale.

“It’s progress,” he said, recalling how the emergence of supermarkets forced his family-run street corner grocery to rip up its business plans in the 1960s. “We had to change, and it’s probably the same with a hardware store.”

Cossetta said he hoped the city would play a minimal role in defining whatever development moves into the Seven Corners location, and let the “free market” run its course.

City council member Dave Thune, who represents the area, said he has been shopping at Seven Corners for 25 years. He has mixed feelings about its departure.

“Obviously, it’s a sign that our little part of town has come into its own,” Thune said. “But it’s like losing an old friend.”

On Tuesday, electrician Michael Zidel of Minneapolis walked the floor-to-ceiling aisles with employee Lyle Kuehn, looking for an item for a job in St. Paul. It wasn’t the first time the two had searched through the red bins at the store — Zidel has been shopping Seven Corners for 20 years, almost as long as Kuehn has worked there — but it would be one of the last.

“This is an institution, it really is,” Zidel said. “It’s a sad day for hardware. But it’s more than hardware. These guys know what they’re doing.”

Staff writer John Brewer contributed to this report. Joseph Lindberg can be reached at 651-228-5513. Follow him at twitter.com/JosephLindberg. Frederick Melo can be reached at 651-228-2172. Follow him at twitter.com/FrederickMelo.