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Barr Lunber Co.,Los Alamitos, Ca., agreed to sell its four Orange County yards to Ganhal Lumber Ca., Anaheim, Ca., and other locations to an existing management group (see story p. 22)

I-owe's Cos. plans to spend $1.5 billion over the next three to four years building more than 100 new stores in the West (see p. 22)

White Cap Industries ftrc., Costa Mesa, Ca., agreed to buy heavy construction sapplier Charles R. Watts Co., Seattle, Wa. ...

Orehard Supply Hardware opened in Santa Ana, Ca.

Sunbelt Nursery, San Juan Capistrano, C&., after filing for Chapter 1l bankruptcy protection, will sell or liquidate its 60 srores; while the court decides the fate of its TipTop Nurseries in Arizona and Wolfu Nurseries in Texas, it approved the $3.05 million sale of i* 15lVurseryland Garden Centers i* Califsrnia aad a 35-acre production nureery in San Juan Clpistrano to Armstrong Garden Centers, Glendora, Ca.; Armstrong will close four of the locations

HomeBase plans to add 22 new stores by the end of 2000 and celebrated the grand reopenings of 10 remodeled locations, with seven yet to be completed

Home Depot, which plans to increale its store count 72% by opening 137 new stores in fiscal 1998, opens stores May 21 in Fairmount, Ca.; North Mesa and North Scottsdale, Az.; June 4 in North Spokane, Wa., and June 25 in Lindon, Ut. ...

Home Depot expects a Sept. opering of a 130,000-sq. ft. store in Vancouver, S/a.; has begun construction of a new itore in Billings, Mt.; is seeking a compromise in a land-use fight with adjacent property owners so it can build a 121,000-sq. ft. unit in Bend, Or., and is seeking approval to build in Merced, Ca., for a spring 1999 opening a con$actor has filsd suit against Depot claiming he was mistreated at the Emeryville, Ca., store because he is Eay :..

Eagle Hardware & Garden, which plans seven new stores this year and eight to l0 in 1999, leceived city council approval to build in southwest Reno. Nv. ...

Jeld-Wen, Klamath Falls, Or., acquired Walker Lumber Co., Lubbock, Tx., and merged the dealer into its Lubbock Wenco Distribution office ...

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Pacffic Forest Products, Fresno, Ca., has filed Chapter 7 involuntary bankruptcy; the 5O-year-old firm is now being liquidated ...

Nortek subsidiary PIy-Gem Industries is expected to close the sale soon of its Sagebrush Sales, Inc. unit in Albuquerque, N.M.

T.M. Cobb Co. is building a 200,0@-sq. ft. building adjacent to its Riverside, Ca., door plant

Indian Hill Milling, Fontana, Ca., has closed, auctioning off its mill equipment

Georgia-Pacific wlll keep open Fremont, Riverside, Sacramento, San Diego, Ca., and Portland, Or., DCs and convert Boise, Id.; Phoenix, Az.; Salt Lake City, Ut., and Tacoma, Wa., DCs into reload centers

Mallco Lumber & Building Materials, Phoenix, Az., hal changed its name to Huttig Building Products ...

Iouisiana*Pacfic 3 Olathe, Co., OSB plant had its suspension lifted by the EPA and can once again directly purchase timber from federal forests

PIum Creek Timber Co. LP, Seattle, Wa., agreed to purchase Canfor USA's Meridian, Id., remanufacturing plant

California Forest Products Commission has relocated to new offices in Auburn, Ca. ...

Simpson l-umber separated two businesses from its Northwes* Operations into new business units: McCIeery Door, McCleary, Wa., and Oregon Overlay, Ntrih Portland, Or.

North Pacific Group, Portlan4 Or., completed a spih-off of its contractor sales business into a new compnny, Portland-basad : Shelter Prcducts

Terranova Forest PtoduCg,', Bellevue, Wa., opened a Salem, Or., sales office, Jim Hawkins, sales mgr., and br,oke ground on a reload facility in Charleston, S.C. ... Terranova sister co. Fibramold plans to start up in July a Cabrero, Chile, molded door skin factory

O re gon-Canadian Forest P rodr.rcts subsid iary O re gon-Canadian Europe Ltd. added a Manchester, England saleVdistribution facility ...

Powers Fastening Inc. opned a branch warehouse in Bell Gardens (Los Angeles), Ca., headed by Robert and Stephen Stark, to serve So. Ca. and Las Vegas, Nv.

Rayonier exercised its option to purchase 12,600 acres of timberland from Pacific Lumber & Shipping Co., Seattle, Wa.; the Douglas fir and hemlock forests in western Washington are essentially all of PLS's tim6erlands

US Forest Service okayed recent public-private land swaps between itself and both Crown Pacific and Weyerhaeuser Co. ... Weyerhaeuser expected to piant l3 million seedlings in its Washington forestlands during first quarter 1998

APA-The Engineered Wood Associationb specially developed tongue-and-groove plywood and OSB floor and roof panels were officially recognized by ttre Japanese Gavernment Home Loan Corp., which finances more than half of the new residential construction in Japan...

Housing starls in March (latest figs.) slipped 2.8Vo from Feb.'s 10year high to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.59 million single-family construction was down Z.l%o, permits down 3Vo ... starts in the West jumped l4.3vo starts for the first three months were 9.9Vo above lst quarter 1997 ...

(Please urn to p.2I)