briefs

Lnllurs

Imperial Valley Lumber Co., San Dimas, Ca., has renamed its locations Valley Ace Lumber & Hardware Co.

Copeland ltmber Yards sold its Florence, Or., yard to local contractor John LaRocco, who will use the Copeland name until renaming the business later this year; Copeland planned to announce additional sales March I and March l0

Crown Hardware is building a store in lrvine, Ca.

Ace Hardware will open its second Storc 2l by mid-summer on 3.2 acres in Highlands Ranch, Co.; the first opened late last year in Longview, Wa. (see Jan., p. 3l )

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Pacific Home Improvement Center has remodeled its 45,000sq. ft. Atascadero, Ca., unit into Pacitic Home Do it Center

White Cap Industries Inc. shareholders approved a buyout of the Costa Mesa, Ca., chain by management and private merchant bank Leonard Green & Partners lP, Los Angeles, Ca. -..

Home Depot opens a new store this month in West Las Vegas, Nv., and opened a lumber and panel products storage facility on a 5-car railroad spur in Rancho Cucamonga, Ca, ...

Home Depot is seeking approval to build in Ventura, Crenshaw and Redlands, Ca., and plans to expand into Pocatello, Id. ... the San Juan Capistrano, Ca., city council rejected Depot's request to build next to a mobile home park ...

Lowe's Cos. opened its first stores in the West (see story, p. 23); is nearing completion of a store in southwest Boise, Id.; broke ground on 12 acres in Rancho Santa Margarita, Ca.; acquired a site in Auburn, Wa., to build a 164,000-sq. ft. unit by Nov., and paid $5.2 million for 15 acres in Colorado Springs, Co., where it will build a store bv late fall ...

Lowe's will anchor the 95-acre Dunia Plaza in Victorville, Ca., for a Sept. opening; submitted revised, larger scale plans for San Clemente, Ca.; wantq. tg build on I I acres in Antioch, Ca., and is eyeing sites thoughout the Sacramento area ...

Lowe's reportedly will convert the 35 remaining Eagle Hardware & Carden stores to Lowe's units by the end of the year and replace Eagle's Renton, Wa., hq. with a smaller regional office in Tukwila, Wa.

Do it Best Corp.'s first Vision 2000 store will open in May as McCord's Do it Best Hardware in the co-op's corporate hometown, Fort Wayne, In. ... Do it Best's InCom Distributor Supply recently enlisted its 400th member ...

Wnouslrrrs/illrutrsur:rs

WCM Holdings, Pleasant Hill, Ca., has purchased the assets of Diublo Timberi former owner Ben Cassinerio and the entire staff will continue to operate Diablo's Redding and Napa, Ca., facilities ...

Regency Affiliates, .lnc., Stuart, Fl., signed letters of intent to acquire North Hollywood, C&., moulding manufacturers Southwest Mill & Lumber Co. and Valley Wholesale Supply Corp. ...

Atessco Fine Wood Speciahies has moved to new warehouse facilities in Santa Rosa, Ca.

Weyerhaeuser Co. agreed to pay CSR ttd. $55 million for two Australian sawmills plus a majority stake in Australia's largest softwood timber distributor, Pine Solutions ... Weyerhaeuser plans to repurchase up to S%o-about 12 million shares-of its outstanding common stock

Champion Inte rnational agreed to be acquired by Finnish paper giant UPM-Kymmene Corp. for $5.81 billion in stock...

Loui s iana- P ac ific C o rp., P ortland, Or., will open its first wood fiber composite decking plant in Selma, Al., in mid-May and hopes to add a 2nd location by 3rd quarter 2000

Black & Decker is closing its 54-year-old Kwikset plant in Anaheim, Ca., and its Price Pfi.ster plant in Pacoima, Ca.; manufacturing will be relocated to a new facility in Fort Mill, S.C., with administration moved to new offices in Lake Forest, Ca. ...

Housing starts in Jan. (latest figs.) rose 27o to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.775 million ... single family starts slipped 27o io 1.396 million, multifamily was at a rate of 350.000 with 5+ units and 29,000 for 2-4 units ... permits jumped 9Vo to a 1,763,000 rate ...

(Please tunt to p. 39)