hriefs

Rrrltrrns

Crown Ace Hardware opened a new unit in lrvine, Ca. (Chad Spragg, mgr.) and is giving the exterior of its Corona del Mar, Ca., store a facelift ...

DeBritz Lumber Co., Wilmington, Ca., has voluntarily closed ...

Ace Har&,vare Corp. opened its second Neighborhood Home Solutions store in Highlands Ranch (Denver), Co.; Al Lewis manages the 24,78I-sq. ft. store with 4,183-sq. ft. garden center

Kirkland Hardware, Kirkland, Wa., has closed after 87 years, as owner Randy Ekins' lease expired and he was unable to find a suitable replacement location

Ziegler Lumber Co. has acquired 7.5 acres in Moses Lake, Wa., to build a 54,000-sq. ft. Ziggy's Building Materials ...

Ace Hardware of Marina (Monterey), Ca., is set to open Nov. I by Tony Fernandez and Manuel and Carlos Rodriguez; the two brothers also operate an Ace unis in Gilroy and two in Watsonville. Ca.

Sears plans to open Great Indoors units next summer in Chino and lrvine. Ca.

HomeBase unveiled its first House2Home locations last month in Henderson and Las Vegas, Nv., and Foothill Ranch, Murrieta and Palm Desert. Ca.

Home Depot opens new stores this month in Longmont and Glendale, Co.; and Washington City (St. George), Ut., and Troutdale, Or. ... other planned Oregon openings include Sherwood and east Portland next summer, Oregon City in early 2002, southern Beaverton in summer 2002. and northeast Portland in late 2002

Home Depot hopes to open a 2nd Anchorage, Ak., store by the end of 2001; submitted plans for east Mesa, Az.; got permission to begin work on a 123,280-sq. ft. store in Tucson, Az.; received preliminary approval to build on 14.3 acres in Lake Havasu City, Az.; signed a Z}-year lease to build a store with rooftop parking on 4 acres in Hollywood, Ca.; is considering sites in Agoura Hills, Ca., and on the Burbank-Glendale, Ca., border, and got the okay to add a 2,094-sq. ft. tool rental center to its Mission Viejo, Ca., store

Home Depot's multifamily maintenance subsidiarv. Maintenance Warehouse, San -Diego, Ca., agreed to buy competitor N--E Thing, Houston, Tx., operator of 6 warehouses in Texas, Phoenix, Az.. and Atlanta. Ga. ...

Lowe's Cos. opened stores Sept. 23 in E. Mesa, Az. (Michele Jacobson, store mgr.), and Victorville, Ca. (Lennie Hill, store mgr.), and plans openings this month in Central Long Beach (Perry Walker, store mgr.), Irvine (Brian Crawford, store mgr.), and Rancho Cucamonga, Ca. (Clifford Alfson, store mgr.), and Northeast Albuquerque (Rodney Kerns, store mgr.), its first in New Mexico ...

Lowe's plans a late 2000/early 2001 opening in Tigard, Or., and a March unveiling in Wood Village (Gresham), Or.; will open a 115,000-sq. ft. store plus 28,000sq. ft. garden center early next year on 12 acres in Auburn, Wa.; got the go-ahead to begin con-

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struction in San Dimas. Ca.: is scouting for a site in Logan, Ut., and hosted a neighborhood "open house" in southeast Hillsboro, Or., to familiarize residents with its plans for a l3-acre site

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Berdex International, San Francisco, Ca., has closed its Marysville, Ca.-based forest products division ...

Timber Mountain Hardwoods Inc.bas inked a five-year, $2 million lease for 80,101 sq. ft. of industrial space in Garden Grove, Ca....

Mayr Bros., Hoquiam, Wa., has closed its sawmill and planer mill until a buyer can be found ...

Building Material Distributors, Inc., Galt, Ca., has formed an Import Brokerage Group, staffed by its Commodity Sales Group, to procure commodity metal products for BMD's other divisions

Braided Accents, Coeur

d'Alene, Id., has begun production at a new manufacturing facility in Santa Ana, Ca.

President Clinton is requesting $1.6 billion from Congress to implement a forest thinning plan to remove 16 million acres of brush and small trees from federal forests over the next five years; he said the measure was needed "to reverse the dangerous fire-prone conditions caused by a century of fire suppressiono'

Housing starts in Aug. (latest figs.) remained flat at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.531 million ... single family starts rose 57o to a 1.261 million rate; multifamily was at a rate of 230,000 for 5+ units, 40,000 for 2-4 units permits slipped 37o to an annual rate of 1.511 million

(Please turn to p. 38)