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Lowe's Gloses In On First Western Sites

Lowe's Cos., the nation's second largest home improvement retailer, has enlisted local real estate brokers to help identify suitable sites for its drive westward.

Over the next three to four years, Lowe's plans to spend over $1.5 billion on 100 stores in the region, including San Diego and Los Angeles counties and Las Vegas, Tucson and Phoenix. Currently, the North Wilkesboro, N.C.-based chain's westernmost store is in Lubbock, Tx.

To evaluate and secure sites, the company will establish a real estate office in Carlsbad, Ca., under the direction of senior v.p. Michael Skiles, now operating from nearby Pacific Beach.

The first sites are expected to be announced within the next month. enabling the first San Diego store to open by late next year.

Local brokers and analysts are being used to review sites and identify who owns or controls them. Lowe's would prefer to buy the properties, but would lease the land, if necessary. The company expects to spend about $20 million building each store, plus $4 million to $6 million apiece on inventory.

Ed LaGuardia, senior v.p. for the Grubb & Ellis Retail Services Group, similarly helped Home Depot 15 years ago in its entry into Southern California. "They went on to complete a network of 13 stores in San Diego and will fill in more," he says. "This ended up being one of the more profitable areas of the country for them."

Panel Production Heats Up

North American structural wood panel production, fueled by one of the strongest housing markets in years, is expected to reach 38.6 billion sq. ft. (3/8" basis) this year, up 4.5Vo from 1997 and more than a billion ft. than APA s preliminary forecast in March.

APA-The

Engineered

Wood Association expects production of plywood, OSB and composite panels to increase by nearly 2.5 billion ft. over 1997, despite declines in exports linked to the Asian financial situation. North American panel exports are pre(Please tum to page 4l)

DOMESTIC SALES: Jerry Long, Michael Parrella. Lynn Bethurum. Janet Pimentel. Pete Ulloa. Bruce Keith. George Parden. Rich Grove.

INTERNATIONAL SALES: Nestor Pimentel. Oscar Portillo.

A Word of Advice About Selection, Quality and Delivery...

At Hampton Affiliates, we're making it easier for customers to get fast delivery of the best quality forest products from the Pacific Northwest. r We've expanded our distribution network with the addition of Califomia Builders Supply in Sacramento, which now offers the full range of Hampton dimension lumber and engineered wood products. o And we continue to up6lrade our six Oregon mills with advanced processing technologies and extra drying kilns to better serve both domestic and international markets. r As one of the country's largest independent forest products companies, Hampton processes and sells over a billion board feet of lumber a year, most of it planted and harvested from our own tree farms. Our growing timber base gives us the flexibility to adapt to changing markets with a product mix tailored to customer needs. r We've been doing this for over 50 years. And whatever the challenges ahead, we're betting that qualig, service and on-time delivery never go out ofstyle,

@H*ProN Anrrumns A

John Reader is the new western industrial sales mgr. for Snavely Intemational, San Francisco, Ca.

Randy Roget is new to sales at Stockton Wholesale Lumber Co., Inc., Stockton, Ca.

Mike Palmer is manning a new Grants Pass, Or., office for Waldron Forest Products, Fair Oaks, Ca.

Clayton Ray has been appointed finance & administrative mgr. and operations & administration mgr. for So. Ca. at Weyerhaeuser Co.'s Fontana, Ca., Customer Service Center.

Chris Westfall is the new plywood sales mgr. for the Washington Veneer Division for Quality Veneer & Lumber, Omak, Wa. Dee Hoppenbrouwers is her assistant.

Scot Stonebraker is the new general mgr. of Idaho Timber Corp.'s recently acquired Sagebrush Sales division, Albuquerque, N.M. Byron Cannon is general mgr. of subsidiary Idaho Cedar Sales, Troy, ld. Randy Brush is new to sales at Idaho Timber's main office in Boise, Id..

Dan Wolter has been appointed mgr. for millwork sales for Sierra Pacific, Redding, Ca.

John Polinsky is managing the new Trimco Millwork branch in Spokane, Wa.

Tom Barfell has been named director of intemational sales for Do it Best Corp. David Haist is v.p.-retail development, replacing John Laird, now Midwest regional mgr.

Leonard Newman is manning a new Laguna Niguel, Ca., sales office for Ridgewood Forest Products, Wilsonville, Or., specializing in cedar and industrial lumber products.

Kris Spickler has been promoted to West Coast heavy timber specialist for Trus Joist MacMillan.

Jim Thompson, ex-TreeSource, has been added to the western species purchasing department at Universal Forest Products, Woodburn, Or.

Kane Calamari, ex-Ace Hardware, has been named Westem regional mgr. of retail distribution for Intermatic Inc.

Ron Walker. So. Ca.-based Southwest regional mgr., American Forest & Paper Association, has retired after 27 years in the industry.

Ray Griffith was promoted to v.p.-merchandising for Ace Hardware Corp. Michael Bodzewski is v.p.-sales & mktg.; Wayne Wiggleton, staff v.p.LBM; Ken Nichols, staff v.p.-new business; Bill Bauman, staff v.p.-retail support-West; Dan Prochaska, staff v.p.-retail support-East. David Myer, v.p.-retail support, assumes responsibility for the Ace Hardware Paint div.

Carol Schumacher is the new v.p.-public relations for Home Depot, Atlanta, Ga.

Kent Bond and Ron Tipton, All-Coast Forest Products, Inc., Cloverdale, Ca., have retumed from a week-long mill trip to Washington and Oregon.

Don Belt is now senior v.p.-mktg. & strategic business initiatives at TruServ Corp. New to the co-op are: executive v.p.Jogistics Tim Troy, ex-Sears, and executive v.p.-business development Brian Schnabel, ex-Elmer's Products.

Clint Bower, Braided Accents moulding, Coeur d' Alene, Id., was recently in Denver, Co., on business.

Mike Skoglund has been named senior account executive servicing the Pacific Northwest region for Coastal Atlantic Associates, Edmonds, Wa. George Pfeiffer is sales account executive for Western Washington, Idaho and Montana.

Bill Scott, Simpson Timber Co., Arcata, Ca.. is back from a British Columbia, Canada vacation.

Shawn Hepinstall is now v.p.-merchandising at Payless Cashways.

Tammy Cosseboom, RealWorld Corp., is now E-business sales specialist.

Roger Mikulecky, R. Mikulecky Enterprises, Petaluma, Ca., was named president of the 1999 Western Building Show June 23-26in San Francisco.

Paul Tindall, v.p. of mktg. and sales, Norbord Industries, Toronto, Canada, has retired.

Elizabeth Kraft is the new director of program development for the American Forest Foundation, Washington, D.C.

Bruce Bloker is now Western regional sales mgr. for Clopay Building Products' Storage System Business Unit.

Jim Summerlin, Robinson Lumber Co., Buellton, Ca., celebrated his 60th birthday by climbing 19,400-ft. Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, followed by a safari in the Serengeti region.

Brian Lott is a new account representative at the Astrup Co.'s Santa Fe Springs, Ca., office. Jerry Ray is a new account rep in Seattle, Wa.

Audrey Osborn, Weaber, Inc., Lebanon, Pa.. is back from a three-week round the world business trip.

Don Abel Jr., Don Abel Building Supplies, Juneau, Ak., is running for a State Senate seat.

Pinky Bergstrom, retired, Ponderosa Moulding, Redmond, Or., led the Sturza Forest Products golf team, Redmond, Or., in the successful defense of its summer league title. His teammates included: Ed Sturza, Ted Saunders, Mike Spurgeon, Bret Sturza, and Steve Carillo, Sturza Forest Products; Dennis Lisius, Team Millwork, Redmond, and Gib Hammack, State Farm Insurance.

Ilugh Mungus and Freddy Fungus, Mungus-Fungus Forest Products, Climax, Nv., have opened a new facility in Area 51, Nevada.

C&E Lumber ComPanY

BVC DOWELED

Logging Protester Killed By Falling Tree

An environmental activist was killed by a falling tree while trespassing on a Pacific Lumber Co. logging site.

David Chain, 24, of Austin, Tx., was killed Sept. 17 when the tree struck him in the head near Grizzly Creek, about 280 miles north of San Francisco.

The local sheriff 's department described the incident as an "unfortunate accident."

The logging was being done on private property, about two miles from the nearest public roadway, in accordance with a state-approved harvest plan, and the trees in the area had been marked for cutting.

Palco maintains that the work crews were following established safety procedures, and did not see anyone in the area nor were they aware anyone was hurt. After discovery of the victim was reported to Palco, work crews labored for more than three hours to free the body.

The company said the unidentified, 53-year-old logger was deeply distressed over the death.

Yet fellow demonstrators claim the logger was intentionally cutting trees in their direction and say they videotaped him screaming: "Get outta here! Otherwise I'll (expletive) make sure I got a tree coming this way."

Lawyers for Earth First! contend that this meets the negligence standard for manslaughter.

Pacific Lumber Co. president and ceo John Campbell, though, blamed the dangerous tactics of environmental groups. "Clearly, it is time for these groups to stop putting their members in harm's way," he said.

The day before the accident, pro- i testers from Earth First! had been arrested at the site. The day after, protesters were back, blocking the gates at the site and preventing logging crews from working.

L-P Restructuring Continues

(Continued from page 19) a suitable offer to buy the facility. The company also finalized the sale of media storage products subsidiary, Creative Point, Fremont, Ca., to Mead Corp.

Two weeks earlier, L-P terminated discussions over a proposedjoint venture wood processing complex with Sealaska Corp., Ward Cove, Ak., on the current site of L-P's Ketchikan Pulp Co. (see April, p. 36).