RAYMOND – After a decade in operation, the Aubuchon Hardware store on Route 302 in Raymond closed on Monday, June 16.

The 106-year-old company, which is based in Westminster, Mass., and operates 25 hardware stores in Maine, did not renew the lease on the Raymond building, which is owned by Sharon and Richard Dodson of Raymond.

Aubuchon Hardware and the Dodsons declined to comment extensively on the company’s decision to close the store. Daniel Aubuchon, the company’s chief operating officer, said Aubuchon Hardware would offer the store’s nine employees, three of whom worked full time, jobs in other company locations.

“We will try to move them around, absolutely,” Aubuchon said. “They will be offered jobs elsewhere in the company.”

Raymond Aubuchon employees referred questions to company headquarters.

“The lease is up,” said Michael Smith, the store’s assistant manager. “They don’t wish to renew the lease.”

At company headquarters, Aubuchon was similarly circumspect.

“We lost our lease,” Aubuchon said. “Our lease expired.”

The company, which operates 116 stores throughout New England and upstate New York, has locations in North Windham, Naples, Norway and Portland. Aubuchon said the company did not plan to find a new Raymond location in the “near future.”

Aubuchon declined to comment on whether the Raymond location’s profitability had factored into the company’s decision.

The Dodsons owned and operated the True Value Hardware Store for many years, before selling the business to Aubuchon in 2004. They retained ownership of the building, which they constructed in 1992.

Sharon Dodson said she was not surprised that Aubuchon was closing the Raymond location.

“It’s not a great shock to me,” she said. “Nothing bad happened. There is certainly no ill will with either of the parties, and we’ve been very happy to have them there for 10 years.”

Richard Dodson said that a new business could move into the property.

“There are things in the works, but I couldn’t tell you exactly what at this time,” he said.

Wayne Holmquist, a regular Raymond Aubuchon customer who owns residential and commercial properties in three Maine counties, said he was surprised by the news.

“That’s shocking to me, because I thought they were doing quite well,” Holmquist said. “I hadn’t heard any rumors or anything. I shop there, basically every week.”

“I’m just totally dumbfounded,” Holmquist added. “It went so quick and so quietly.”

Holmquist, who is also the co-chairman of the Raymond Revitalization Committee, said that he could imagine several different future scenarios for the vacant hardware store.

“It’s a nice large building, so either someone will fill it up or they will section it, or the Dodsons will go back into business, I guess,” Holmquist said. “I would think the demand in Raymond currently is smaller spaces, so if I owned the building, which I don’t, I would be open to either one person leasing the whole thing, or making it into whatever size fits the market.”

The Aubuchon Hardware store on Route 302 in Raymond closed June 16 after the regional retail chain failed to reach agreement on a lease with the building’s owners.