PORT GAMBLE — Port Gamble General Store co-owners Pat and Susan Wright got quite a fright on Halloween and as a result will be closing their three-year-old business before New Year’s Day.

Olympic Resource Management, which owns the historic building, decided not to renew the Wright’s lease, opting instead to close the space temporarily for repairs before opening with new tenants.

“We found out on Halloween,” Susan Wright said. “It was a big, scary deal. The decision was still being made if we belong in the space, and that was the deadline we asked to know by.”

ORM president Jon Rose said the decision was not an easy one to make. The Wrights, he said, started with a one-year lease, and an understanding that their rental of the property was temporary.

“We both saw eye-to-eye on things we were interested in,” Rose said, adding that they got along well, and still do. “It was not necessarily going to be a long-term relationship, however. We started with a one-year lease, which turned into three years.”

Now, Rose said, it’s time to close the building for renovations, and for new tenants to run the store. However, the Port Gamble Store’s famous sea shell museum will remain in the building, he said.

As for the business, the store will finish selling its consignments by the end of November, Susan Wright said.

The cafe will close Dec. 15. Until then, it will continue serving breakfast and lunch, she said. The business will also still participate in Port Gamble Country Christmas.

But with the holidays at hand, the news of closure was particularly unwelcome.

Many of the employees at the general store were given jobs after their former workplaces, the Kingston Inn and Mitzel’s, burned down, Susan Wright said.

“It’s so sad,” said one employee, who declined to be named. “It’s too bad that this is happening.”

“I am looking for places to refer (the employees),” Susan Wright said, adding that she was already referring some of her workers to Kingston Lumber, because they have hardware store backgrounds. “I don’t know what the ladies who are career waitresses will do.”

The Wrights are liquidating everything they bought for the store to help pay off debts they incurred when starting the business. Even then, they’ll come up short and also must sell their Bremerton home to help pay the remaining debt. After that, they plan to retire and move to a house they’ve been building in Jefferson County.

Another business venture, she added, isn’t in the cards.

“My feelings are hurt right now,” Wright said.

“As far as I’m concerned, I have great respect for (the Wrights) and the work they did at the store,” Rose said. “They took it to another level.”

The store will officially close Jan. 1, 2007.