NASHUA – For 16 years, Building 19 separated itself from other stores on the bustling commercial strip of Amherst Street with a self-mocking identity and, as its advertisements proclaim, “Good stuff … cheap.”

But next month, the last customer with a carriage full of discounted merchandise will have to turn out the lights.

Building 19 couldn’t come to an agreement with its lessor and will have to vacate the 420 Amherst St. property, according to the store manager. The store is tentatively scheduled to close Aug. 20.

About 30 employees will lose their jobs, and customers will have travel to another of the discount chain’s 11 stores, said Building 19 Vice President Wendy Linehan.

Staff was told of the Nashua store’s closing Tuesday night. There was no room to shift the employees to any other location, Linehan said.

“We just couldn’t come to an agreement on the lease,” store manager Paul Kane said. “We just couldn’t.”

Building 19 will start a clearance sale on select items, reducing the price from 10 percent to 50 percent, starting Saturday, Linehan said.

Known for its witty advertisements, often featuring sarcastic spoofs of chain founder Jerry Ellis, free coffee with “free fake cream” and amusing in-house signs promoting merchandise, Building 19 opened in Nashua in 1995.

The property had been a grocery store and a building-supply store before Building 19 moved in. Walmart later tried to muscle Building 19 out of the way but was blocked by the city over environmental and traffic concerns.

The chain started in Weymouth, Mass., and subsequent locations have a fraction appearing after the whole number. The store in Nashua is known as Building 19 1/15.

It’s able to sell “Good stuff … cheap” largely because of other stores’ misfortune. Building 19 buys merchandise from liquidations, overstocks, fire sales and bankruptcies.

Building 19 offers everything from discounted mattresses to furniture, books, toys and knickknacks you wouldn’t find most anywhere else.

For instance, on Wednesday, Kane tended to a table displaying large framed photos of the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins for $39.99 each, a price lower than many sporting goods and memorabilia stores.

Francestown residents Betty and John Surprenant shop at Building 19 irregularly, but when they do, they shop with a purpose. On Wednesday, the couple came to find cheap pillowcases.

“In this economy, this is a great store,” Betty Surprenant said. “People no longer go to the high-end stores in this economy.”

Linehan, the chain’s vice president, said ownership didn’t want to close the Nashua location. The store does well, but with the lease expiring and no new deal in place, Building 19 has no choice but to shut down in Nashua, she said.

The owner of the property is AS-VR Realty LLC in Londonderry, according to the city of Nashua assessing department. The Secretary of State Corporation Division says the LLC was founded in 2003 and is in good standing.

Edward Gordon, of the MEG Cos., who is the registered agent of the LLC, didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.

It’s unknown what retail store would replace Building 19. No development proposal has been submitted to the city planning department for the location.

Rumors abounded Wednesday about what would set up shop next in the space, including talk of a Whole Foods store. The chain was mentioned because Whole Foods announced earlier this year it would open a new location in Nashua, without divulging any further details.

Walmart famously lost its bid to open a store at the 420 Amherst St. location in 2006 – while Building 19 still had a lease there.

Residents and environmental groups loudly complained that the footprint of the proposed 140,000-square-foot Walmart store would exceed the boundaries of the property, potentially causing traffic jams and harming the nearby Pennichuck aquifer, part of the city’s drinking water supply.

The city Planning Board agreed, and rejected the Walmart proposal.

The value of the land is $3.9 million and the building’s value is $1.49 million, according to 2010 assessing records. The 2010 tax for the building and land was $110,521.

Workers had already started shrink-wrapping some merchandise Wednesday. But most merchandise will stay at the Amherst Street location, and new goods will be brought in until the store closes, Linehan said.

“It’s not a store we’d like to close,” Linehan said.

Albert McKeon can be reached at 594-5832 or amckeon@nashuatelegraph.com.